bad alchemy, rigobert dittmann:

Seit sich das Orchester 2010 zusammenfand, sind von dieser Berliner Post-Echtzeit-Internationalen Kollaboration mit Felix Kubin ("Shine On You Crazy Diagram") und mit George Lewis ("Creative Construction Set™") aufgezeichnet worden. Drei der Splitter, Boris Baltschun (hier an electric pump organ), den Perkussionisten Morten J. Olsen und den Klarinettisten Michael Thieke, findet man zusammen mit dem Kontrabassisten, einstigen N-Collectivisten & Office-R Koen Nutters auch als The Pitch. Wenn also 22 Splitter-Händepaare mit den 4 von The Pitch zusammenwirken, ergibt das doch nur 23 Köpfe. The Pitch hat 2012 zu zehnt als "Frozen Orchestra (Amsterdam)" und 2013 zu neunt als "Frozen Orchestra (Berlin)" bereits Vorstufen verwirklicht mit schon Splitter-Kräften wie Chris Heenan - bass clarinet, Matthias Müller - trombone, Biliana Voutchkova - violin, Johnny Chang - viola oder Robin Hayward - tuba. Aber alle Namen, auch wieder so vertraute wie Burkhard Beins - percussion, Axel Dörner - trumpet, Magda Mayas - clavinet, Ignaz Schick - turntables und Sabine Vogel - flutes, sie werden zu Schall & Wahn, anonym eingefroren für ein kollektives Dröhnen und gleitendes Changieren, immer als Schwarm, aber eben auch mit der dafür unverzichtbaren Schwarmintelligenz. So wie man seit Campbell vom Heros in tausend Gestalten spricht, trägt einen hier eine Welle aus Tausenden von Tönen, die zusammen so etwas wie einen Akkordeonklang erzeugen. Alles Individuelle und selbst die Charakteristika der Instrumente, auch noch von Cello, Gitarre oder Tapes, ordnen sich dem grosen Ganzen unter. Bis doch ein Piano eine eigene Spur plinkt und die große Welle kleine Steigungen oder Biegungen nimmt. Mit einem aufscheinenden Schimmern, einem verstärkten Grollen, zeigt sie, dass sie nie ein Singular war. Jetzt klingt sie windumpfiffen, nächtlich gedämpft und von atmo­sphärischen Störungen, von Funk- oder Radioschleim beunruhigt. Die akustische Gitarre flirrt, die Bläser summieren sich, das Piano macht sich wieder bemerkbar, klingelnd und mit verstreuten Einzelnoten, und das Ganze summt erneut wie mit Akkordeonzungen und in brummiger 'Monotonie'. Mit Steve Heather sind es sogar drei Perkussionisten, doch Beats sind bis auf vereinzelte Tupfer der Vibes oder eines Kontrabasses bis hin zum finalen Diminuendo so selten wie Schmetterlinge in Glyphosatien.

we need no swords, paul margree:

Massed reductionism anyone? There are, all told, 23 musicians involved in ‘Frozen (Splitter)’. Several are quiet improv veterans – Burkhard Beins and Axel Dörner, for example. Others, such as Mike Majkowski and Julia Reidy, have emerged more recently but are already establishing themselves as distinct voices. Nevertheless, this hour-long piece requires all personnel to subsume individuality into the larger group to deliver a work that is both stunning in its technical achievement as it is crushing in its intensity.

Composed by the four-piece The Pitch ensemble, who then join Splitter Orchestra for the performance, ‘Frozen Orchestra (Splitter)’ bakes down what could have been an expansive dissection of tone and timbre into a diamond-hard, super-dense block. Early sections offer wedges of sound that recall the sculptural bravado of Richard Serra or Charlotte Posenenske, their suspension (freezing?) of time so effective that when waves of shimmering piano and guitar emerge around halfway-through the resultant disorientation is almost psychedelic.

These cats probably won’t thank me when I say that I get a flavour of Aussie trio The Necks from these trippy modulations. Here, though, the combined squad mould luminous bliss into uneasy radiance, finally circling back to their initial chunky heave while carving tentative piano and brass figures into those tough surfaces. As cold as ice, but twice as nice.

adverse effect magazine, sp:

If you’re not particularly au fait with the world of Splitter, they’re a huge, amorphous conglomeration of (largely) European composer/performers of an electroacoustic inclination, who, on past releases, have collaborated with guest composers such as Felix Kubin and A.A.C.M.’s George Lewis. Compared to their debut, Creative Construction (also on Mikroton), the rank and file have dwindled from twenty-five (!) to a slightly more manageable nineteen. And in the driving seat this time, guest composer-wise, is The Pitch; a quartet comprising of double bass, organ, vibes and clarinet players, who, by and large,, have had previous history as members of the Splitter Orchester. Small world. So, as they already know each other, things should really get on like a house on fire. And they do, but it’s more of a slow burn event really, with an organic sense of dynamics that ebb and flow without a strict adherence to the stopwatch and clipboard. And from the get go, Frozen… reveals itself to be a dronework of (obviously) large-to-massive proportions, that leans heavily towards the deep, dark bass registers. A malevolent and slowly swelling backdrop emerges propelled by the full-throated wheeze of Boris Baltschun’s electric pump organ, which eventually yields to an expansive mid-section that makes a bid for freedom with what seems to be a morning chorus of stray birdsong that’s blotted out by the general hubbub of a roadwork crew (?). But really, most of the individual voices are immediately absorbed into the gaping maw of the eternal note, all escape routes barricaded. Perversely, over time, the most prominent figure; head bobbing above the soupy waves, is Simon James Phillips, his poignant piano lines, romantic in essence, working as a strange counterpoint to his dronist colleagues. As you can guess by now, the feel and substance here is far too quintessentially continental to be corralled in with those big city note-stretchers like La Monte Young, Tony Conrad and Charlemagne Palestine, but to these ears perhaps, we may have located a modern successor to Urban Sax, that weird, masked gallic flash mob of the seventies and eighties.

ambient blog, peter van cooten:

Drones are often performed by single or just a few instruments, electronic or acoustic. It’s not often a drone piece is performed by a full orchestra (unless, perhaps in the moments before a performance starts, when the orchestra tunes their instruments).
The Pitch quartet teams up with the 19-person Splitter Orchestra to perform the 60 minute Frozen Orchestra (Splitter) on a variety of acoustic instruments combined with electronics, turntables, oscillators and reel to reel tape machines.

The title for this piece could hardly have been chosen better. The frozen piece feels like the musical equivalent of a movie still. But this does nót mean that nothing changes for 60 minutes, it changes in the same way the the ice caps on the earth’s North and Sound pole change: slowly. Very slowly.
” ‘Frozen’ indicates a very slowly moving field of harmonic relationships consisting of so-called pitch sets, which are augmented by noise sets, that is, nonperiodic sounds organized in equivalent relationships. The score guides the group through various defined states of frozen surfaces where each player makes individual choices from a set of intervals or noises and thus constantly shifts harmonic weight and textural quality.”

Around 25 minutes into the piece, the orchestra retreats and environmental recordings and electronic sounds take the stage. The sound spectrum is somehow turned inside out – without realising it the listener has been transferred to a different universe. When the orchestra returns, it is hard to tell the difference between the acoustic and the electronic sounds.

A performance like this may not be to everyone’s liking. But once you’re in the right – frozen – state of mind the effect is incredible. When the music stops, it’s hard to tell if it lasted 60 seconds, 60 minutes or maybe even 60 years.

badd press, kevin press:

The 24-piece Splitter Orchester has teamed up with The Pitch for its third disc. Frozen Orchestra is one single work that runs exactly 60 minutes.

Described in its notes as “a very slowly moving field of harmonic relationships consisting of so-called pitch sets, which are augmented by noise sets,” it features a titanic, haunting performance.

Perhaps better suited for a midwinter launch, Frozen Orchestra is nonetheless one of this spring’s most dramatic releases.

The musicians were each tasked with choosing from a collection of intervals (a music theory term that describes the space between two pitches) or noises over the course of the hour. The result is constantly shifting harmonics and textures.

Put more simply, imagine what Phil Spector’s famous “wall of sound” would’ve sounded like in the hands of Genesis P-Orridge.

The Frozen Orchestra has developed an international following, having been welcomed at the Sonic Acts Festival in Amsterdam, Moscow’s Platform Project, Roter Salon/Volksbühne in Berlin and the GAS Festival in Gothenburg.

chain d.l.k., stuart bruce:

Splitter Orchester’s latest ‘collaboration’ is a slight over-statement since three of the four members of The Pitch are Splitter Orchester members already so it wouldn’t be a stretch to call this a Splitter Orchester release.

And what it is, is an exactly 60-minute single piece of slow arhythmic ambience, tone, drone performed by 23 performers predominantly on traditional instruments (multiple clarinets, cello, tuba, piano, guitar and more) but with the prominent use of oscillators, electronics and live tape-to-tape manipulation that gives us a genuine hybrid of modern experimental orchestral work. Performers play supremely long sustained notes and chords that meander in and out in randomised waves and the evolution is formed from the changes in layer combination.

Around a third of the way through some of the guitar plucking borders on the percussive, as do a handful of piano notes in the final third, but these are subtle exceptions to an otherwise very consistently enveloped and ebbing performance where chance, of which there is plenty, is so gradual and morphic that you aren’t even conscious that it is happening. The planning feels exemplary, from the opening slow builds to the warmer more resolution-laden quiet ending.

It’s bold and striking and I wish I were able to see it performed live, where I’m sure the mesmeric power of it would increase. It’s not in itself afforded of many new ideas, but that’s not a criticism- an object doesn’t have to have originality to be beautiful, and that’s what this piece really is, albeit in that dark and unsettling way that adds the extra layer of intrigue that can sometimes be the icing on the cake.

dark entries, paul van de gehuchte:

Het Splitter Orchester is met dit album toe aan zijn derde release. Net als bij zijn twee voorgaande langspelers gaat het 24-koppig orkest een samenwerking aan, deze keer met het kwartet The Pitch. Drie muzikanten van The Pitch zijn trouwens ook leden van het orkest. De precies één uur durende compositie is geschreven door het viertal van The Pitch. Door middel van het uitgebreide, zowel elektronisch als akoestisch samengesteld instrumentarium van het Splitter orkest, probeert het kwartet een ruimer opgevat muzikaal landschap te creëren die hun compositie helemaal tot zijn recht moet laten komen. Men vertrekt van bepaalde toonhoogtes aangevuld met drones van ruis en zoekt tegelijk naar een harmonisch evenwicht. Aan de oppervlakte lijkt het muzikale landschap bevroren. Het zijn de individuele keuzes die de muzikanten maken die de textuur veranderen. Er is een constante stroom van geluiden, de veranderingen zijn subtiel en gebeuren bijna onopgemerkt. De monotone drones nestelen zich diep en hebben een hypnotiserend effect. Na ruim twintig minuten komt er een eerste echt hoorbare verschuiving waarbij krakende, gruizige drones en geluidsfragmenten de overige instrumenten verdringen. Na verloop van tijd, ongeveer halfweg de compositie komen die met mondjesmaat terug hun plaats opeisen in het spectrum. De muziek krijgt nu een minimalistisch karakter met klaterende, maar repetitieve pianoklanken. In het vierde kwartier zoekt men opnieuw aansluiting bij het eerste luik. Naar het einde toe is de muziek net als vertraagde beelden, delicaat en met heel kleine nuances. Muziek voor melancholische zielen en liefhebbers van ambient en minimal music.

freistil, felix:

4+19=23. Dreiundzwanzig internationale, in Berlin lebende Musiker*innen treffen hier aufeinander, vier davon vom Quartett The Pitch, neunzehn vom Splitter Orchester. Ergibt so eine Anhäufung glänzender Individualist*innen mehr als die Summe der Einzelteile? Oder gleich viel? Oder gar weniger? Zieht man Vergleiche zu regelmäßig eingeübten Improvisationsorchestern, liegt eher der letzte der drei Schlüsse nahe. Was auf einem einzigen Track mit polyphoner Monotonie beginnt, in ebensolches Rauschen und klavierdominiertes Fast nichts überleitet, bevor es wieder in polyphoner Monotonie ausklingt, mag gut und gern von sozialem, gegenseitigen Respekt bezeugendem und kollektivästhetischem Interesse sein. Für ein imaginäres wie ein reales Publikum schaut am Ende wenig dabei heraus. Aber vielleicht geht’s dem Groß ensemble ja auch gar nicht in erster Linie darum, was Zuhörende dabei empfinden, as soziieren und fantasieren. Was zählt, ist wo möglich der gemeinsame Nenner ...

gonzo circus, rvp:

Eindeloze verge­zichten over een landschap dat trilt van ingehou­den energie. Steeds weer verschijnen heldere tonen boven die zinderende vlakte. Meestal zijn ze zo weer weg, maar andere houden even aan voor ze terugzinken in de massa. Een uur Jang houdt deze vrijwel onverander­lijke muziek je aandacht gevangen. Het is 'Frozen Orchestra', een gedach­tenspinsel van het Berlijnse kwartet The Pitch, bestaande uit organist Boris Baltschun, bassist Koen Nutters, vibrafonist Morten j. Olsen en klarinettist Michael Thieke. Met hun instrumenten en eenvoudige elektronica legt het viertal zich toe op muzikale structuren waarin alle beweging stilgezet lijkt, zodat kleine veranderingen onmiddellijk waar­neembaar zijn. Ze steken als witte pieken boven de mist uit. Op 'Frozen Orchestra' hebben ze beroep gedaan op Splitter Orchester, een flinke groep stadgenoten ( onder wie microtonale tubaspeler Robin Hayward en toet­seniste Magda Mayas), om deze klankdroom een wat grootschaligere gestalte te geven. Het concept heeft weg van het werk van Phill Niblock, met lange stukken waarin tonen dicht rondom een bepaald centrum zweven en zwermen. Maar bij het bevroren orkest treden de individuele instru­menten uit de schaduw van het collectief. De indruk van stilstand is dan ook schijn. Je kunt niet echt spreken van melodieen die ergens heen gaan, maar wat je hoort, is onafgebroken in beweging. Tot alles zich uitdunt tot wat strijkers, spaar­zaam geplukte snaren, een enkele piano en licht slagwerk. Aanzienlijk spannender en mooier dan het pianogedreutel dat in een mierzoete lawine over de markt uitgestort wordt.

jazzword, ken waxman:

Performing nearly ego-less group music is an indomitable task as combos like AMM and other reductionist ensembles have found. Imagine trying to do the same for a 23-person aggregation. That’s the challenge realized on this fine CD. Played by a combination of two Berlin-based bands, the Pitch quartet and the 19-member Splitter Orchestra this exactly-one-hour piece moves in a chiaroscuro-like fashion as reeds, brass, strings and electronics intermix for a program that is both languorous and fluid. The upshot is persuasive despite an interface that makes instrumental identification only briefly possible.
Pointillist in execution “Frozen Orchestra” begins with tonal undulations stretching out in a chromatic fashion, with the odd, usually piano or sometime vibraphone, patterns appearing like buoys in undulating, ever-flowing waves. Meanwhile the undulating drones produced by architecturally massing contributions from all the participants thickens and as slowly move upwards in pitch, so that mid-way through the track the addition of crackling static and buzzing electronic pulses to harmonized reeds makes the sound even more ferocious and violent. Although at points notes from one or more of the three keyboard-like players cut a short path through the crunching electronic curtain, the effect is presented in microtonal traces rather than as a full sequence. Eventually keyboard cadences signal that an early crescendo of unexpected pan-tonal loudness has been reached and is further strengthened by granular synthesis from the electronics. Having attained the solid mass of a Sun Ra Arkestra-like space chord, guitar and vibes timbres calm the program. Backing into a postlude with a low-pitched burr from the reeds and percussion thumps, the massed drone is succeeded by near-thematic clear piano lines which oscillations finally dissolving rather than ending conclusively..
In spite of the near low-energy twists and turns, listener absorption has been maintained throughout the 60 minutes, even if only to monitor what comes next within the muted performance. The conclusion and demarcation conclusively proves that speed and noise is not necessary to create high quality music.

musicmap, samuele conficoni:

Il nuovo album della Splitter Orchestra, ensemble fondato nel 2010, con base a Berlino e formato da 24 elementi, è, come i precedenti, una collaborazione: a spalleggiare l’orchestra in questo disco sono i Pitch, gruppo formato per 3/4 proprio da elementi già appartenenti all’orchestra; ciò che risulta da questa comunione di intenti è una ricerca sonora sperimentale e imprevedibile. ''Frozen Orchestra'' (appena uscito per Mikroton Records) è composto di un’unica, lunghissima traccia, 60 minuti di puro trasporto e di esperimenti musicali strepitosi, con i primissimi minuti a concepire la creazione e a far concepire nell’ascoltatore l’idea di qualcosa che si sta lentamente formando, un universo lontano e indescrivibile a parole, un work in progress che si snoda attorno a fiati sinistri e a rumori inquietanti, il tutto bilanciato da arpeggi appena accennati che aumentano l’instabilità dell’opera. Venti minuti dopo siamo già in un altro universo: il minimalismo onirico e psichedelico di Terry Riley si unisce a quello geometrico e cerebrale di Steve Reich; altri venti minuti passano e le onde sonore emesse riconducono ora a LaMonte Young ora a Philip Glass, i cui influssi sono evidenti in più di un passaggio. Gli ultimi venti minuti sono più amari e dissonanti, le note pungono maggiormente e l’inquietudine non cessa: come un turbine lento e inesorabile il mistero e il terrore si ampliano grazie a sibili leggeri e a intervalli inattesi, fino al congiungimento del cerchio, con l’opera che lentamente sfuma, i suoni che si allontanano e la tregua che viene ristabilita dopo una tempesta tremenda. La calma è tornata, certo; ma ciò che è avvenuto in quell’ora di esperimenti e fughe in mondi paralleli non può essere dimenticata. La Splitter Orchestra, con l’aiuto dei Pitch, ha composto un altro ottimo lavoro, non dimenticando il proprio passato ma proiettandosi a testa alta in un futuro ancora più interessante.

nitestylez, baze djunkiii:

Released only recently via Mikroton Recordings is "Frozen Orchestra (Splitter)" the first ever album fusion by the 24-piece Splitter Orchester teaming up with The Pitch, a quartet consisting of three quarters Splitter Orchester members as well. Together, both groups create an exactly 60 minutes spanning one track album focusing on slowly shifting harmonic relationships between musicians, amalgamating electroacoustics and real instruments within a preassigned field of conceptual parameters. Under the regime of these parameters an intense, touching yet also well calming droning structure or flow unfolds which easily dissolves the listeners spacetime perception whilst single, minor scale piano chords alongside sweet vintage surface crackles on top of this ever changing Drone field add up a deep, beautiful melancholia only tender souls might feel on a lazy, rainy late October afternoon, staring out of steamy windows into a diffuse, all ensheathing cloud of mist that supposedly is about to stay... forever. Great stuff. Highly recommended not only for die-hard Ambient lovers.

improvizorijum, Milenko Mićanović:

Nedavno se u izdanju moskovske produkcije Mikroton Recordings pojavio treći kompakt-disk „Smrznuti orkestar (Splitter)" dvadesetčetvoročlanog orkestra Splitter i uz učešće pridruženog kvarteta The Pitch. Ujedinjeni u ideji o konstrukciji novih soničnih struktura propuštenih kroz prizmu lucidnog improvizatorskog iskustva, ovi umetnici primenjuju brojne proširene izvođačke tehnike, svirajući tradicionalne, elektronske i posebno konstruisane instrumente, sa akcentom na bogatoj teksturaloj arhitektonici i dinamici, u procesu produkcije zvuka i njegovom fenomenu prostiranja i transparentnosti u vremenu i prostoru. Veoma sporo pokretno polje harmonskih veza, dopunjeno setovima buke, usmerava grupu kroz različito definisana stanja zamrznutih površina, gde svaki učesnik pravi individualne izbore iz seta intervala ili šumova i time stalno pomera harmoničnu težinu i kvalitet tekstura.

rockerilla, massimo padalino:

Butch Morris, compianto compositore nonché geniale direttore d’orchestra, ha fatto scuola. Le sue “conduction” (un termine derivato dalla fisica), a base di calcolata improvvisazione e creativa gestualità, hanno trasformato l’orchestra sinfonica classica in una macchinageneratrice- di-suoni. The Pitch & Splitter Orchester è un’orchestra tradizionale che ha fatto tesoro di questi insegnamenti e li ha fatti fruttare in questo Frozen Orchestra. Risultato: una (non-)musica che da un lato si fa scudo dell’alea cageana e dall’altro invade il territorio che fu della Scratch Orchestra di Cornelius Cardew. SPERIMENTAL-MENTE.

blow up, giuseppe aiello:

Con dichiarazione d'intenti insita net minutaggio buffamente esatto, l'estesa formazione che va sotto ii nome di Splitter Orchester mette in chiaro sin dalle prime note che la virtu di Frozen Orchestra non va ricercata in impetuosi sussulti bensi in microvariazioni rare­fatte che rispettano pienamente la denominazione dell'etichetta grazie a in­sistiti bordoni collettivi che passano a liquidi sciabordii di criptonoise compo­sto e delicatamente elegante. Uno pez­zo - una ora. Se dopo ii primo minute pensate che sarebbe bello se durasse a lungo e album per voi. La tenui sorpre­se che si aggiungono con lo scorrere delta traccia - un tocco di tastiera, un pizzicar di corda - impediscono che l'ipnotico divenga cataplasmico. Se poi fate pa rte degli appassionati di docu­mentari che amano le immagini e odia­no ii commento parascientifico che so­litamente Ii accompagna, filmati su eruzioni hawaiane a lava fluid a o gli amori dei cetacei artici ne gioveranno grandemente.

toneshift, tj norris:

This hour long work presented by The Pitch (http://thepitch.tk/) & Splitter Orchester (http://www.splitter.berlin/) is now out on Vienna’s Mikroton Recordings (http://mikroton.net/) (https://toneditions.bandcamp.com/). This full orchestra made up in two dozen players in two parts forming an atonal harmony in union. The album is available on CD (https://toneditions.bandcamp.com/) (edition of 500) and Digital (https://toneditions.bandcamp.com/album/frozen-orchestra-splitter) formats. The long form sustained drone is heady, hive-like — the players’ synergy sculpted as one unit. It’s feel is central, growing from the core playing like a work of endurance as the variances are limited for the first quarter of the recording. The cohesion here is remarkable, the individual players add their full instrumentation into the piece without stemming out save for some minimal strumming and minor chord inflections. At about sixteen minutes in the effect is mildly trance-inducing. Then there is a soft gong which subtly breaks the fourth wall, and so it goes. When they call this ‘frozen’ they are not kidding, I’d call it arctic in terms of its pace, everything is super slowed down with a blurred drone background. The piece crescendos in a built-up noise like collected chaos, shifts chord structures, in metered time, and slowly erodes its din for an ending stoked with airy silences and muffled hiss. This work, due to its subtleties and din, most certainly takes an expectant listener. The last three or four minutes are worth the playtime, so stick around if you can.

the sound projector, ed pinsent:

The Splitter Orchester are this very impressive avant-garde orchestra of top players based in Berlin. We heard them doing a great record with Felix Kubin called Shine On You Crazy Diagram in 2017, and that year also saw the release of Creative Construction Set with George Lewis, which Steve Pescott found to be a “three-part monolith” praising the Orchester for being “completely au fait with that blurred, gauzy space between improv and scored works”. Here on Frozen Orchestra (Splitter) (MIKROTON CD 61) we see them play with The Pitch, a quartet of which three members also play with the Orchester, and the result is one hour of intense orchestral droning, scaled on a monumental level.

The Pitch are also committed to this single-minded form of free improvisation, but what has always impressed me – last noted on their cassette for Granny Records – is how they deliver an understated and quiet power with just four players, and with a semi-acoustic approach. Well, Frozen Orchestra has that same force behind it, just somehow multiplied and operating on a grander scale; there is evidently no need for any player to stand out, there is no need to vary the volume or erupt into noise, and the work proceeds in an unhurried manner with deadly calm. One can only imagine the collective discipline that’s required to pull off a feat of this nature; and while the composition of this piece is credited to The Pitch, the end result is that 23 musicians are moving almost as one. For me personally, the 1968 Columbia recording of In C was for a long time the benchmark of how a large ensemble could successfully operate a benign form of “group-think” to realise beautiful music; but that landmark recording now seems ragged and sloppy compared with the eerie, icy precision which these German technicians deliver.

Many of the great names in the roster – Axel Dörner, Robin Hayward, Kai Fagaschinski, Burkhard Beins, Andrea Neumann, Ignaz Schick, Michael Thieke – have put years of effort into building their craft in various forms of “reduced playing” and associated music; a record like this can be seen as the payoff, or rather just one of many milestones in their collective achievements. Recorded in two days in December in the studio, this is an astonishing, near-monumental work of art. From 30th October 2018.