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The music of Andreas Stahel oscillates between repetitive trance and multicoloured tapestries of sound.

The debut CD of the classically-trained flautist Andreas Stahel is at once compact and fascinatingly multi-layered, a work which defies categorisation.    Inspired by minimal music and evidently also by folkloric music, Stahel (born 1967) has found a musical language which draws its drive from repetitive patterns and captivates through multicoloured tonality: sometimes it's difficult to believe that this sound-cosmos emanates from a single person. Stahel… doesn't resort to electronic tricks, but has accumulated a number of special techniques by trial and error. These include rhythmical circular breathing, multiple overblows, the intentional use of key noise and the combination of singing with flute playing.

Flautist Andreas Stahel releases his second solo work: "Circular Hocket" is a fascinating sound journey with hypnotic patterns and unusual ambient sounds.

Four years ago, flautist Andreas Stahel (born 1967) created a stir with his debut CD "Helix Felix". Completely alone and without any electronic assistance, he achieved the feat of warping the sound of his instruments so rudimentally through use of voice, that you can't trust your own ears for long passages. In Stahel's hands, a flute becomes a small orchestra - or you could say, a magic flute.

Now follows "Circular Hocket", Stahel's second escapade, released once more on Tonus Music Records, the label of the Bernese new-minimal pioneer Don Li. Stahel shares Li's vehement passion for the hypnotic potential of repetitive patterns and for reduction to the essential. Thus he employs one single scale on the new CD - and concentrates entirely on the sonic possibilities of bass and contrabass flutes, augmented by the use of his voice. Stahel has further developed special playing techniques or discovered his own, which allow him to create an unbelievably broad palette of sounds. Sometimes on the new CD, you have the feeling that a percussionist from the Brazilian rainforest is joining in, or are reminded of bizarre electronic ambient loops. What Albert Mangeldorff did for the trombone and Evan Parker did for the soprano saxophone, Andreas Stahel has done for the flute: an astounding expansion of the polyphonic. In contrast to Mangelsdorff and Parker, on the other hand, he has no obligation to jazz or freely improvised music; his points of reference are rather American minimal music on the one hand and folklore on the other (most evidently to be heard in the opener "Steaming Shapes") The overtone singing, which is widespread in Buddhism, and the scenic performance elements lend Stahel's performances the form of a ritual ceremony. He himself is also interested in the deep meditative effect of music, and accords himself a flair for the spiritual, only to add in the same breath: "But that's not so important" Actually, Stahel doesn't come over as an airy mystic either on or off stage, rather as an artist with a clear vision, driven by curiousity and sincerity, imperturbable, with great creative staying power.

A solo flute CD? Can you do that? Yes, you can. You should even, especially if you happen to be called Andreas Stahel. A music of the highest intensity is woven by various flutes, voice, blowing, clapping and breath sounds, overtone singing and even dance steps. Broad soundscapes stand in contrast to ostinati grooves, with styles including minimal music, ambient, ethno and contemporary music. The combination of stupendous technique, many years of experience in compostion and good taste enable Stahel to create an unusually beautiful soundscape. The avoidance of any type of overdubs and electronic effects only makes the listening experience even more organic. Highly impressive!

To be alone is to be in good company - that's something that might come to mind when you hear "Circular Hocket", the second solo CD from flautist Andreas Stahel. He plays his bass and contrabass flutes so masterfully through just short of 60 minutes that you don't wish for a minute that another musician would accompany him in the ten pieces. These are sounds that really have to be played solo, and it's precisely because the virtuosity isn't an end in itself that makes it so astonishing. As with his first solo CD "Helix Felix", Stahel immerses you in minimalistic sounds, patterns and grooves, into a realm of almost unmoving soundscapes. In Circular Hocket I", the flautist reveals a motif, changes its microstructure, densifies it and creates additional sounds with his vocals, thus builds rotating minimalisms from flute and voice. In the intoxicating "Wheel Trance I", he runs through a 12/8 motiv and alters the nuances, just like the old minimal master Steve Reich in the famous "Piano Phase". He simulates drum rhythms with breath noises and accentuates tones. This is all constructed very strictly, dominated by accuracy and the greatest control. These are studies by a precision mechanic... The ultra-low, almost bottomless contrabass flute has something elementary. The sound of Stahel drawing a deep breath is to be heard frequently, which is surely intentional. Breath belongs to this music like the sound of rushing air belongs to the wind. This is music from before the dominance of machine and technology - breath and sound are the same.

Perhaps the most personal album released on Tonus to date is Andreas Stahel's Helix Felix. Classically trained flutist Stahel offers a purely acoustic, overdub-free tour de force that shatters all conventional notions of flute music \[...]

If you take "Wheel Trance II" as a representative track of "Circular Hocket", Andreas Stahel's second Tonus Music album, play it to a test audience, and pose the apparently banal question how many musicians are creating the sound, most of them will probably say three. Wrong! What is emerging from the loudspeakers is a solo performance which, and this is true for almost all the tracks on the CD, is acoustic and recorded without the aid of electronics or overdubs. The man who achieves this tour de force is Andreas Stahel, born in 1967 in St. Gallen, resident in Winterthur, who is almost unparalleled in the way he incorporates the maxim of a wind instrument as an amplification of breath, with body and soul.

Stahel’s music functions at exactly this fundamental level, where the art lies in the spectacular densification of breath. Making use of bass and contrabass flutes and his own vocal chords, the flautist conjures up different soundscapes, the complexity of which seems to belie that they stem from Stahel alone.

Whether with hallucinogenic loop patterns, archaic-seeming incantations (as perceived by the author) or delicate, gravity-defying celestial sounds, this new album demonstrates the full potency and potential breadth of expression which is inherent in human breath.

It was towards the end of 2002 when flutist and sound artist Andreas Stahel took center stage at the Theater am Gleis in Winterthur as a guest of the musica aperta concert series. The audience listened spellbound to the various possibilities of playing the transverse flute, alto flute, bass flute, and contrabass flute.

Born in 1967, the musician had created his own style after years of ensemble playing and in-depth exploration of recent musical trends, making him unmistakable to this day. Minimalism is an integral part of his sound concept. The rapidly repeating tone sequences develop a groove that places this music in the no man's land between advanced electronic and sophisticated popular music. Even if it sometimes seems as if electronics are involved, this music is created without any connection to a power outlet. Nevertheless, Andreas Stahel delivers powerful bursts of energy. Thanks to his sophisticated circular breathing technique, he produces sounds for minutes on end whose origin one would expect to be somewhere other than a flute. But the unnatural flute sounds alone are far from satisfying the tireless musician. He embellishes his self-composed flute pieces with overtone singing and rhythmic foot movements, expanding them into a fireworks display of polyphony.

It is indeed difficult to put into words the musical treasures that sound seeker Andreas Stahel has to offer. His work consists of sounds, movement, and ambience. A tam-tam shone like a full moon disc against the bluish illuminated background. The flute instruments, from the transverse flute to the alto and bass flutes to the contrabass flute, hung and stood sparkling in the room.

The tension that Stahel built up with his soundscapes, these webs of sound that appeared from nowhere and disappeared into nowhere, was enormous. His most important asset is circular breathing. At most, it is the audience that is left breathless. To unfold a polyphony with an almost psychedelic effect for ten minutes without putting down the instrument even once is a remarkable feat in terms of physical condition alone. And even more often that evening, when vocal and instrumental elements came together as a whole, or when the tapping feet seemed to take on a life of their own as percussionists, one wondered how all this was even humanly possible. Andreas Stahel is not only a musician, but also an artist who has mastered his craft.

Dizzy heights in Winterthur – unthinkable for mountaineers, to be experienced nevertheless on Friday in the church of St. Arbogast.  "Höhenrausch" (dizzy heights) was the name of the concert, in which not the performers but the audience were breathless. A bizarre, floating sonic landscape, which repeatedly revealed itself anew over more than an hour.

Within the concept of Andreas Stahel, which comprises the composition and accordingly the exact notation of the musical sequence, four musicians were gathered in an unusual ensemble: alongside the soprano Franziska Welti, who as a concert singer has at her command all the nuances of a well-trained voice, and the yodler Arnold Alder from Appenzell, whose raw and earthy voice is rooted throughout the whole register in the folk music tradition of the country, stands Andreas Stahel, renowned for a vocal articulation beyond the previously imaginable. His treasury of overtone and undertone singing allows journeying into special soundscapes. He manages to dissect the sound into its various tonal qualities. Unfathomably deep undertones, the beauty of which is debatable, definitely make you sit up and take notice and the effect is peerless. Andreas Stahel also likes to move along the borderline with his flutes, his favourite instrument being a bass transverse flute. The extraordinary quartet is completed by Remo Signer on the lithophone, a marimba with stone keys.

It was a journey to the core of sounds, beginning with the repetition of a single tone on the lithophone and ending like a choir-like polyphony. Ever new acoustic patterns are formed like a kaleidoscope from variations in the motif. Some mediaeval styles of composition may have been an inspiration: the soprano lies like a cantus firmus over the whole, or the voices alternate with each other, in the style of the old hocket technique. Whether dizzy heights or uncharted depths, here one definitely encounters a sonic experience to challenge the senses.

With ears full of sound and a head full of bubbling ideas, Stahel can rely upon his technical virtuousity and musical flexibility.

Inspired by minimal music, he bases the nine compositions almost\ exclusively on patterns in which music is an experience in sound;\ acoustic ambient which transcends any specific style. There are\ nevertheless several pieces on “Helix Felix” which concentrate on\ individual effects or techniques from Stahel’s repertoire – one is\ repeatedly amazed by the circular breathing, the rhythmic drive of the\ clapping noises of the flute keys – or how masterfully he combines\ overtone singing and flute playing (without overdubbing or other\ electronic aids)… The consummate ease with which Stahel expands the sound of the flute as a composer while maintaining an impressive element of suspense is on the one hand demonstrated in the rather dark closing number “Pax Multiplex”, but most aptly in the opener “Continuum”. Fascinating how the atmosphere colours: from airy tones, softened by breath, to biting metallic whirring. Convincing too the compositorial verve which lends an almost baroque architecture to the phased structure.

Andreas Stahel opened the evening concert with his very personal, unique style of flute playing. He played Continuum I on the bass flute, a work that sounds very archaic, multi-layered, and absolutely otherworldly. Continuous circular breathing challenges both the player and the audience, leaving them breathless but also mesmerized. The result is an enchanting transcendence. We experience different levels of multiple sounds with undertones and overtones, accompanied by vocals, rhythmic and captivating. Continuum I effortlessly filled the entire church interior and made it resonate. In the following piece, Pax Multiplex, Andreas Stahel's signature style and inimitable expression were immediately recognizable, this time with the contrabass flute. It shimmered and sparkled and fluttered around our ears. The whole room began to vibrate. The last work, Continuum II, tied in with the first and amazed everyone with the sophisticated playing, tone, breath, sound, and world of this exceptional flutist.

The virtuoso flutist Andreas Stahel has made a name for himself as a solo performer. Now he is presenting himself at the head of a quartet.

Born in St. Gallen in 1967 and now living in Winterthur, Andreas Stahel is an exceptional musical talent. When the classically trained flutist picks up his instruments, listeners may find themselves rubbing their eyes in amazement: their ears hear densely woven sound textures that must come from several protagonists. In reality, however, it is Stahel alone at work, without any electronic aids. Stahel's virtuosity is documented on two solo albums, his debut Helix Felix from 2003, followed by Circular Hocket in 2008. Both CDs were released on Tonus Music Records, the label of Bern-based saxophonist and music organizer Don Li, whose aesthetic preferences Stahel shares with his penchant for hallucinogenic loop patterns. The flutist's third album, Schilf, has now been released on the same label. On the one hand, it shows a noticeable stylistic continuity with its predecessors, but on the other hand, it also marks a fundamental break: Schilf is not a solo project, but a group effort... At the piano is Stahel's old musical acquaintance Roger Girod, whom the leader describes as a magnificent improviser. Girod's son Jean-Daniel, whom Stahel attests to have incredible rhythmic talent, plays the percussion instruments, while Tobias Hunziker, who combines power and sensitivity, acts as drummer... The individual pieces, which are based on simple sketches by Stahel, grow into their actual form within the group...

The music created collectively evokes ... manifold visual associations, which has to do with the fact that it presents itself in the form of carefully structured sequences ... The flute deliberately blends into the web of patterns, sounds, and rhythms ... This also makes it clear that the flutist in his quartet formation does not simply allow himself to be accompanied, but strives for a genuinely collective experience ...

Singing is audible breath, and playing a wind instrument like singing in another medium. Singing and flute sounds are like relatives, and with the Swiss Andreas Stahel, they become one. When Stahel puts one of his oversized bass flutes to his lips and breathes, blows, intersperses song and makes sounds when breathing in, everything combines into an endless chain of sounds. The title Circular Hocket refers to the hocket, a mediaeval device of alternating between parts or groups of notes in polyphonic music. With Andreas Stahel, it seems to be a sort of musical hyperventilation. He sings and blows himself into a trance. One almost has the feeling that he’s pushing inhalation and expiration to the limits of the humanly possible. Stahel himself says on the contrary, afterwards he’s completely relaxed and wide awake.

Flautist Andreas Stahel has already attracted attention with breathtaking solo projects. Now, with the Helix Quartet, he is breathing improvisational freedom into minimal music.

A butterfly does not fly like a flock of birds. A musician who is completely on his own obeys different rules than when he is part of a collective. The 46-year-old flutist Andreas Stahel, whose creativity seems to unfold in slow pendulum movements, has experienced this firsthand: At first, I wanted to continue my solo work with a band, but that didn't work out.

Stahel's solo music, documented on the albums Helix Felix and Circular Hocket, is characterized by astonishing polyphony and rhythmically accentuated, repetitive sound bands: thanks to circular breathing, there are no pauses for breath. Stahel has put himself under pressure with ever-increasing technical demands. With the Helix Quartet, he is now venturing into the reeds. This is the name of the CD with which the magic flutist makes the leap from solo entertainer to primus inter pares (it is also being released on Don Li's Tonus-Music Records).

Bridge builders

The Quartet Helix came about through simple addition. First, Stahel played in a duo with pianist Roger Girod, then Girod's son Jean-Daniel (percussion, vocals) joined them. After the trio's concert, they wanted to strengthen their groove base, and drummer Tobias Hunziker was a safe bet for the job. Although neither the CD title nor the song titles (Dreiblatt-Binse, Rohrglanzgras, Späte Goldrute) are to be understood programmatically—they were created after a photo session in a floodplain of the Thur River—Stahel occasionally draws on associations with nature when talking about his music. For example, when he compares the development and unfolding of patterns in long processes to the growth of plants, or when he uses the word “undergrowth” to describe freely improvised parts. In fact, the music of this quartet is characterized by an organic-seeming interplay between repetition and wild growth, between hypnosis and mystery.

Precision and imagination

Anyone who has assumed that there is an unbridgeable gap between strictly structured minimal music and free improvisation can learn better from Helix. Improvisation, which takes up more space in concert than on CD, brings both more calm and more wild convulsions into play, Stahel points out. The fact that the band succeeds in creating an extremely coherent synthesis of these very different forms of expression certainly has to do with their working method. Instead of dictating everything from above, Stahel allows for collective learning processes after a false start with overly complicated specifications: “For example, I bring sketches to a rehearsal, which we then develop together.”

Stahel & Co. are well prepared for the balancing act between precision work and spontaneous imagination. Roger Girod, born in 1945 and clearly the veteran of the band, took classical piano lessons with Werner Bärtschi before approaching various forms of improvisation as an autodidact. Stahel studied classical music, was profoundly influenced by free workshops with pianoforte fantasist Art Lande, and learned what it means to rhythmically egg each other on while playing with Spanish flamenco musicians. Before his astonishing solo exercises, the flutist was also involved in multimedia events as an improvisational musician, for example with the demolition expert Roman Signer.

\[…] This music is crammed with associations: one visualises clouds floating past, hears waves breaking on the beach, watches the gradual erosion of stones…  as the natural theatre of wind and waves unfolds the diversity of the unchanging, so sound the pieces on his new CD “Circular Hocket” \[…]

The premiere of Andreas Stahel's composition “Tiefe Himmel, weite Welt” became a unique sound and spatial experience in the spiritual grandeur of Schaffhausen Cathedral. Inspired by Klaus Merz's text: "Deep skies, wide world—rock gently, walk courageously"... the composer created musical perspectives on the final things of human existence in a unique the composer created musical perspectives on the ultimate questions of human existence in a unique style. He found congenial partners for his music in Franziska Welti and her three women's choirs, the Winterthur Singfrauen, the Singfrauen Berlin, and the vocal ensemble vox feminae. ... After two successful performances in the Predigerkirche Zurich and the Stadtkirche Winterthur, the local church interior was predestined for this music, both because of its long reverberation and its style, and also because the pews were filled with a delightfully younger audience. Medieval Gregorian chants, heartfelt Marian hymns, and archaic minstrel tunes flowed seamlessly into colorful soundscapes, repetitive, intoxicating ostinato patterns in postmodern style, topped off with folkloric yodeling motifs, jazzy grooves, and overtone singing. They formed a perfect unity with the space: clouds of sound consisting of pure octave and fifth tones floated up to the heights of the nave and drew the listeners into a meditative vortex. It was probably no coincidence that the instruments were reminiscent of Renaissance viol and trombone choirs. Bordun fifths, as if from medieval hurdy-gurdies, were used as soundscapes, or the trombone played the foundationof the cantus firmus in sacred motets from the 15th century. The last soundscape, “Mutig gehen” (Walk Courageously), was impressively symbolic, interwoven with singing as a calm, confident stride forward, away from the listener, like a transition to another world of eternity.