Koch/Loriot/Kocher, Stranger Becoming (n/n 020) 
The Swiss-based trio Koch/Loriot/Kocher formed in the summer of 2020 and has kept developing a distinct musical identity ever since. The band makes use of insistently repeated motifs, broken melodic lines and occasional tonal harmonies cohabiting with pure sound production. The three musicians develop their respective materials in tension with each other: they are able to merge their sounds at any moment, but just as well might evolve their individual voices for a long time in parallel, without a priori seeking unity. The band's cohesion is achieved through the intense quality of listening and deep interaction that the three have honed, as well as by the blend of timbres that is reminiscent of European folk music.
Personnel:
Hans Koch - clarinet
Frantz Loriot - viola
Jonas Kocher - accordion
Recorded on February 25, 2021, at Kirche St. Maria in Ins, Switzerland, by Bojan Ugrinovsky. Mixed by Bojan Ugrinovsky. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. All music by Hans Koch, Frantz Loriot and Jonas Kocher. Album and track title poem by Eliot Cardinaux. Artwork by Rudolf Steiner. Many thanks to Eberhard Jost, Eliot Cardinaux, Rudolf Steiner and Carlo Costa. Released in collaboration with the Swiss label Bruit.
Release date: December 15, 2022.
Jonas Kocher interviewed by Henry Fraser in November 2022 for the release of Stranger Becoming
Press
“Their music is centered around a group chamber music sound with listening at its center. Cooperation is emphasized over soloing here to build differing textures of filtered colors and hues. The pacific approach of "All Told" involves a layering of steady unperturbed tones one over another. The effect is one of luxurious ease. Same for "A Fleeting Purchase" with its eerie and ethereal application of sustained notes. "Relinquished Rifles" inverts the mood with pecking clarinet and plucked viola chased by Kocher's accordion. The trio's playful aggression is resolved into the eventual group silence. "Found Bodies" takes its inspiration from the sounds of electronics artists. The trio makes the sound appear manipulated by way of their techniques. With no electronics in the studio, the playing is quite amazing. Finally, "Stranger Becoming" is a woven tapestry of breathy clarinet, eerie viola notes, and accordion keys pressed one after another interwoven into a kind of beautiful musical prayer.” (February 2023)
“When not sparring with a range of extended techniques, Koch and Loriot tend to play in a broadly similar register while the rather more handmade, folkish timbres of Kocher’s accordion provide a reassuringly human counterbalance. It’s a highly effective juxtaposition, heard to good effect on the opening The Weight Of Magic where seemingly disconnected bows, scrapes and columns of air slowly cohere into recognisable phrases as Kocher gradually imposes a tonal centre. (...) Stranger Becoming is unapologetically demanding, but if you approach it with open ears and a clear head its charms will prove innumerable.” (February 2023)
“Heraus-kommt dabei ein Konzentrat, das phasenweise verblüffend
an Elaborate elektronischer Musik erinnert und doch zu hundert Prozent handgemacht verwirklicht wird. Schlichtes Fazit: Aufmerksames Musizie-
ren erfordert aufmerksames Hören. Nur dann erschließen sich das Konzept, die Ästhetik und viele schöne Töne.” (March 2023)
“Un expertise artistico ed essenziale, che intride la texture di queste improvvisazioni animate da laguori popolari quasi folk (il timbro della fisarmonica, come una madeleine in The Weight of Magic), dove i pentagrammi scomposti ed espressionisti riportano ad un umano più profondo. Ad emozioni primarie, svincolate da esplicite rappresentazioni naturalistiche e che pure, ad esempio in ‘Fleeting Purchase’, quasi cantano.” (February 2023)
“Wobei die Korrespondenz in der Desorientierung und Verwunderung besteht – grüne Streifen? Oranges Gras? Nebulös und dürr, aber eben doch natürlich – kakophon und diskant, aber doch welthaltig. In seinem Krähen, Gurren und Tirili, seinem Quarren und Schillern, Fiepen und Kritzeln. Den unscharfen Zwischentönen in kurioser Erregung, piepwellig und fitzelig, zart wie Dunst, wie Spinnweb, 'tonlos' gepustet, leise murrend, wehmütig und fragil wie von Mund-, von Glasharmonika. Geblasene und gestrichene Spitzen Ton in Ton, melancholisch verschattet, mit wie gesummtem Phantomklang, der wohl doch von der Klarinette herrührt, und zuletzt doch nochmal rippeliger Wallung, die aber gegen die zage Melancholie nicht ankommt.” (December 2022)
“Ainsi plongés dans une atmosphère située à l’extrême inverse du rendu hypersec d’un studio d’enregistrement professionnel, où justement toute la dimension sensitive du son est réduite à proche du néant, les trois musiciens se mettent en demeure de composer, au sens le plus archaïque du terme. C’est-à-dire échafauder ensemble une structure de chorus issus de leur propre boîte muette (avatar de la fameuse boîte noire, chère aux cybernéticiens). Si on entend ce qui entre et sort en matière d’information auditive, on en ignore le truchement interne.” (December 2022)
Neither/Nor Records