Tracks:

1 - Denis Schuler: Laa (2014) for solo flute and seven 
     instruments (WP)

2 - Christophe Schiess: hors-jeu (2014) for solo
     clarinet and ensemble (WP)

3 - Demetre Gamsachurdia: Pandora’s Fuse Box (2014)
     for ensemble (WP) 

Three Swiss composers, three world premieres for Ensemble Phoenix Basel can be found  on this release «Schweizer IV».

After the first contact with the three composers during their training at Musikakademie Basel Ensemble Phoenix Basel followed their career and then commissoned three new works in 2014. This live recording was made in Januar 2015 at Musikakademie Basel

Denis Schuler: Laa (2014) for Flute and seven instruments

This composition is divided into three movements and is built around the solo flute. Although central, the flute is not really soloistic in a vituoso way. It is rather an odyssey through meditation.

Laa means "no" in Arabic: a voluntary and accepted protest, which becomes concrete in music. As an expression of life, the tingling blends with cries - coming and going like blood circulation. If a word is the vehicle for every protest, silence can also have the meaning of rejection. This piece is also about silence, whispering and breathing; about everything hidden and existing at the edges, in the twilight; about what you you have seek and is not obvious.

Denis Schuler

Christophe Schiess: hors-jeu (2014) for Clarinet and Ensemble

The expressiond „hors-jeu“ can be translated with „offside“ and is used in soccer for a forbidden position  Literally translated, hors-jeu means "outside the game". The clarinet soloist takes various positions in hors-jeu, behaves differently to the collective in various ways. The first movement (das Eine) revolves around one tone. This tone, first a point, develloppes into a line, then a spot. It is constantly re-illuminated by a changing acoustic environment. The second movement (autre jeu) is a rhythmic game over the so called "Syracuse Sequence". The soloist is less bound to the rules of the „game“ than the members of the ensemble. The piece could also be called «epiphers» or «fatal cases». In the last movement (traces) the soloist leaves behind her traces, «with the love of a comet». Over time these traces begin to gain their own life and autonomy.

Christophe Schiess

Demetre Gamsachurdia: Pandora's Fuse Box (2015)

Existing since time immemorial, created 2015, performed by 8 musician (all of them drinking alcohol and eating meat).

Once the contents of the Pandora's box are released to mankind, all sorts of misfortunes occur. The image of the mythical box as a ticking bomb (Pandora's Fuse Box), which fuse slowly but surely, was essential for the creationof this work. Although all sorts of escapades and escalations appear on the acoustic journey through this confused thicket, this path is wrapped in an indestructible silence at the beginning and  the end, a silence that even the most destructive noise of the world will never break.

Demetre Gamsachurdia