Ian Antonio discovered Jürg Frey via algorithm. About 15 years ago, SoundCloud kept leading him to the same piece, maybe Circular Music No. 2. "I wouldn't notice the piece starting but then realize I was in fact listening to it closely," he recalls. "The stillness and closeness and warmth were somewhat new to me." At the time, Antonio played "a lot of very loud and often very fast music" with groups like Wet Ink, Talujon, Zs, and Yarn/Wire. Frey's music was "very much the opposite."

This double album, spanning works from 1994 to 2022, documents Antonio's deeply personal engagement with Frey's percussion music. Six pieces are solos; one (Toucher l'air) features Talujon Percussion Ensemble. The 155 minutes trace what Antonio calls "a sort of chronological and stylistic continuum," from operational systems set in motion to increasingly expressive, evocative works. The earliest pieces, Jemandem bei einer Tätigkeit zuhören (Listening to someone at an activity, 1997) and Die meisten Sachen macht man selten (Most things you do rarely, 1994/1997), are "operational in that a system is set up and then put in motion." The pivot arrives with Glafsered I (2002) and Metal, Stone (2003), where Antonio hears "a bit more vertical orientation and perhaps a more expressive edge." The 32-minute Metal, Stone anchors the second disc.

Gewicht, Luft, Farbe (Weight, Air, Color, 2014/2015), at 37 minutes the album's longest work, introduces "a very clear and rare use of harmony in this collection of percussive pieces." The four-movement structure covers extensive timbral ground while using space dramatically. Tender Outermost Melodies (2022), another four-movement work at 21 minutes, feels even more evocative, balancing stillness with expressive depth.

Antonio grew up in a musical family near Albany, New York. His father, a band director and percussionist, kept drums, xylophones, marimbas around the house. "There was constant traffic of percussion students coming in and out," Antonio remembers. Unlike many percussionists, he gravitated to classical music early, learning drumset only later. Now with a full-time academic role and two young daughters, his performance calendar is less dense. "Because of this space, I've found I need to truly interrogate what directions to pursue by myself. This album of Jürg's music is one of the first truly personal projects I've worked on in years."

Playing Frey demands what John Tilbury calls "virtuosity of restraint." Antonio notes the challenge of working with such reduced materials, where every gesture matters. The pandemic, geographic shifts, and evolving interests aligned: "The past few years have just felt like the right time for me to work on Jürg's music as a performer."

The album, subtitled "(almost) the complete works for percussion," establishes definitive recordings of Frey's percussion output. Another Timbre calls it "essential music, exquisitely played." The cover photographs are by Frey himself. For Antonio, the project represents a homecoming to music that moves slowly, warmly, with profound attention to stillness and the spaces between sounds.