Jürg Frey: Psychological art

Good musicians know that fast runs or massive chord leaps are not difficult. What is difficult is being discreet and unobtrusive. Jürg Frey from Aargau cultivates both. His carefully selected sounds seem to take on a life of their own without any major intervention by the composer. It sounds highly abstract, perhaps even sterile to some ears. But once you have listened to it, once you have sat down with good headphones and a glass of whiskey, as the booklet author William Robin recommends, you will be rewarded with the highest and most sympathetic art.

The two pieces fill just over an hour. It has been known since Henri Bergson at the latest that time is relative. When Frey in his Piano piece 2 fills the time with the repetition of a fourth in the form of 468 beats, then it sounds as little like avant-garde as it does like special events. But what is special happens in the mind. Karlheinz Stockhausen or Bernd Alois Zimmermann have dealt with questions of time in a very theoretical way. Frey does this in his own way. Undogmatic, straightforward, highly concentrated, time comes to a standstill. The constant coming and going, sounding and fading away is ultimately compositional and psychological art.

Jürg Frey found a congenial partner in the pianist R. Andrew Lee. He combines the highest sensitivity of sound with the necessary balance between freedom and control. This CD, with an excellent (English) booklet and a cover that wonderfully matches the music, is recommended to anyone with good headphones. Because there is one thing this delicate music cannot tolerate: interference from an excessively loud environment.

Jürg Frey: Piano music (Piano piece 2, Les tréfonds inexplorés des signes pour piano 24-35). R. Andrew Lee, piano. Irritable Hedgehog Music IHM 006