Album Notes

It’s hard to imagine how good the combination of bass clarinet, trombone and accordion sound until you’ve heard the pieces on this CD. Spielzeug, the latest incarnation of new music specialist Fie Schouten, shows these instruments at their best. The music is seriously playful and playfully serious and new works by Moro and Mukarno challenge the recordings of classic Hosokowa, Grisey and Wolff.

Performers:
Fie Schouten - (bass) clarinet
Marko Kassl - accordion
Koen Kaptijn - trombone

Tracks:
1. Lichtzwang, ein wutendes Spielzeug (2002) bcl/acc/trb – Hector Moro 10’50’’
2. Solo pour deux (1981) cl/trb – Gerard Grisey 15’29’’
3. Farah (2008) bcl/acc/trb – Philemon Mukarno 8’38’’
4. In die Tiefe der Zeit (2001) cl-bcl/acc – Toshio Hosokawa 17’29’’
5. Exercise no. 3 (1973-’75) bcl/acc/trb – Christian Wolff 7’08’’


Fie Schouten, born in Amsterdam and still living there, performs in
various formations at many different podia and festivals. She has
performed all over Europe and is playing on all the clarinets with a
warm preferation for the low ones.

As a specialist in performing new music, she can be heard extensively
with her own ensembles To be Sung (trio), in duo with accordeonist
Marko Kassl, reed-trio Kassandra, Kaida (duo). In 2008 she was a
soloist with musikFabrik in a Stockhausen production. Many new pieces
are written for and premiered by her groups by composers with very
diverse styles and of very different backgrounds and nationalities.
Free improvisation appears in many of the pieces.

Numerous of these performances have been broadcast by the
Dutch radio station 'Concertzender'. Her CD's Of Villages and Spaces (KAIDA 2005),
Amsterdam, de wereld (To be Sung 2007) en Spielzeug (bklar,acc,trb
2009) came out at Karnatic Lab Records.