dietmar bonnen: fries

Dietmar Bonnen (b. 1958) is a German composer, pianist and singer whose music moves between the cornerstones of art rock, chamber music, blues, and new music. He has extensively collaborated with a large numbers of musicians in his hometown Cologne as well as internationally. Fries (German for frieze) was previously released on CD on Bonnen's own label Obst Music and is presented here on vinyl for the first time. Bonnen states that the piece's structure is "visually inspired by the wall frieze in its various forms from antiquity to art nouveau, musically by the chants of the Middle Ages moving around a central tone". It is performed by 11 musicians who play permanently during its 80-minute duration and so create a meditative atmosphere similar to drone or installation music. Twice during the course of the piece, each musician may break out of the soundscape by improvising around the repercussion note. Fries was composed in 2009 and recorded in 2010. The musicians are: Alexei Aigui (violin), Andreas Schilling (double bass), Bassem Hawar (djoze), Dietmar Bonnen (Rhodes), Erdal Aslan (bağlama), Gagga Deistler (electric guitar), Hans Martin Müller (flute), Lucia Mense (flute), Marei Seuthe (violoncello), Norbert Rodenkirchen (flute), and Phil Reptil (electric guitar).