Wrapped Islands marks a important step in Polwechsel's life, even though it makes little difference in the individual careers of its members (Werner Dafeldecker, John Butcher, Michael Moser, and Burkhard Stangl). Since its inception, the Austrian quartet has been working on a repertoire of minimally moving but still choreographed compositions. This session is a double first: The quartet improvised freely and it did so with Fennesz as a guest. This collaboration doesn't fall from the sky. There had been a Charhizma CD in 1999 featuring Dafeldecker and Fennesz in a quartet exploring similar musical grounds. The two are again on the early 2002 Durian 3" CD EP Phonographics 1-5 with Stangl and Martin Siewert. So this meeting is not much of a surprise. The fact that it is billed to Polwechsel instead of individual names has its importance: After this session, the group began to perform free improvisations on stage instead of its usual repertoire. The music is simply beautiful, and everything you'd expect from a Polwechsel record. It means fans of Fennesz's Endless Summer CD will need to make an effort, especially since this is the kind of improv where individualities melt to form a homogenous group sound. The music is slow, extremely minimal, stretched to the point of disappearing. In the first and seventh of these nine pieces, the tension created by Moser's cello, Stangl's acoustic guitar, and the sparse electronics reaches a level of artistic beauty difficult to understand, but real nonetheless. The attentive listener will be completely absorbed, holding his or her breath in expectation of the next move -- yes, Wrapped Islands has something to do with watching a game of chess. Highly recommended. ~ François Couture, Rovi

1		Framing 1
2		Framing 2
3		Framing 3
4		Framing 4
5		Framing 5
6		Framing 6
7		Framing 7
8		Framing 8

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