ROEDULIUS/CZJZEK

Weites Land BUREAU B

When two worlds become one.

Although the pair first worked together on Rodelius’s Wasser Im Wind, released in 1982, it wasn’t until 1987’s Weites Land that saxophonist Alexander Czjzek and the man behind the keyboards in Cluster and Harmonia were able to really explore their full potential. With the original album long since out of print and entering into the twilight world of being a sought-after rarity, this reissue is a reminder of the seemingly unlikely chemistry that emerged from their sessions.

There’s very much a relaxed ‘at home’ aspect prevalent with the piano hunkered deep in room ambience and resonant reverb. Anyone concerned that the addition of sax would lead to any brow-knitting atonal jazz blowing need not worry. The resulting improvisations between the two of them are as cool, calm and collected as you’d expect from a Roedelius album, who, in the notes proudly and wryly remarks, “Migraines have even been forever banished when confronted with my music.”

Czjzek’s playing is like a series of smooth clean lines that skilfully articulate and emphasise the lean melodies that float and glisten throughout all eight songs. The cascading piano arpeggios of the Nyman-esque Ballade and Weisst Du Noch? provide Czjzek room to move and sway through a series of plangent choruses, with the title track, in particular, allowing him to tease freewheeling eastern-leaning scales from the drifting piano motif.

There can be a fine line between being gently pastoral and slipping into a new age stupor. For the most part, the pair avoid this fate via a finely judged fade out, perhaps recognising the dangers that too much sweetness can bring. Nähe has Czjzek on a breathy lower register that works well but it’s on Berühung where they seem to make contact the most, working in a delicate interplay between a piece that artfully moves between major and minor modes, casting a subtle light and dark shading that wouldn’t be out of place on an ECM Records album.