(Jazz, Avant-Garde, Contemporary Jazz, Accordion, Chamber Music) Guy Klucevsek and Alan Bern - Notefalls {Winter & Winter 910 131-2, Germany} - 2007, MP3 (tracks), 320 kbps

Review by Stephen Eddins
The number of classical accordion virtuosos is small, but Guy Klucevsek and Alan Bern are among its brightest lights. Both have strong classical credentials. Klucevsek has worked with groups and individuals as diverse as John Zorn, the Kronos Quartet, Anthony Braxton, Relâche, Pauline Oliveros, and Jubilant Sykes, and is also a composer. Bern holds a doctorate in composition from the Cincinnati Conservatory and directs the outstanding klezmer ensemble Brave Old World. Notefalls is their second joint CD, and it's obvious they are having a blast playing together. Their compositions have a loose-limbed, infectious charm and lack of pretense that's completely disarming. This is not trivial music; on close inspection it's often quite sophisticated, but it demonstrates the composers' willingness to drop all the filters usually attached to the "new music" label, and to write music that is unabashedly melodic and falls into easily recognizable patterns, and that's sometimes silly. Both composers' music is fearlessly eclectic, incorporating and transcending standard conventions such as marches, tangos, and blues. Both play keyboards as well as accordion, and the ensembles on the album range from two accordions to piano and accordion to piano, four-hands. The sound is full, warm, and intimate. The album should appeal to a variety of listeners, including fans of new music that's not afraid to be tonal, blues that aren't afraid of dissonance, klezmer that syncretistically blends with classical, and to plain old lovers of the accordion.

Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Good luck trying to classify this album by the accordion duo of Guy Klucevsek and Alan Bern, who, also employing acoustic piano, MIDI programming and melodica, draw on everything from Bach to barnyard reels and Balkan music to blues. The spirit of minimalism master Philip Glass also hovers over their alternately playful and pious collaboration, which includes an extended suite by each of the artists: Bern's pensive "Sideways," which was commissioned by a dance company, and Klucevsek's more songful "Notefalls: A Musical Day Book," which includes an elegant tango and an affecting piano piece for four hands. As strong as their range is, their ability to pull all of these styles into a seamless whole is even more impressive. --Lloyd Sachs--
Product Description:
"Absolutely beautiful and soul-stirring." -- CMJ New Music Report
The most attention-getting instrument on Dave Douglas's superb Charms of the Night Sky was Guy Klucevsek's accordion. In 2000, Klucevsek recorded Accordance featuring his partner Alan Bern, widely known through the Jewish group Brave Old World. In 2006, the two met again to play original compositions written for dance companies and found common ground in such genres as tone poems, songs with folk and jazz elements, and sound sculptures that play with reverb and special room reflections.