Enno Poppe

Prozession pairs two ensemble works by Enno Poppe: a three-movement quartet that evokes the sounds and gestures of rock and pop, and an hour-long procession for large ensemble driven by a big percussion section. Both are first recordings, made with two formations closely tied to the composer, and the album went on to win several prizes in Italy and France.

Poppe, born in 1969, has become a fixture among German composers of international standing, and Wergo devotes a series of its own to his music. Fleisch is played by Ensemble Nikel, a quartet of saxophone, electric guitar, percussion and keyboard, in the group's own production. Prozession is played by the Ensemble Musikfabrik under Poppe, in a production of Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln licensed by WDR mediagroup. The album was made with the support of the Kunststiftung NRW.

Fleisch (Flesh), for tenor saxophone, electric guitar, keyboard and drumset, calls up the sounds and playing gestures of pop and rock, and savours microtonal effects with Moog synthesizer sounds, for which Poppe has a soft spot. Poppe conducts only Prozession. Prozession, written for Musikfabrik between 2015 and 2020, leads for almost an hour through changing instrumental combinations along a continuous chain of differentiated rhythmic impulses from a large percussion section. It is surprisingly entertaining, and at the end it mysteriously dissolves into natural sounds. On the disc it is divided into nine tracks, each named only after the bar where it starts, from bar 1 to bar 693, which says something about the piece as one unbroken movement.

The recording received the Premio Abbiati del Disco 2023 in the new music category, a Coup de Coeur of the Académie Charles Cros for contemporary music, and the Grand Prix du Disque de Musique Contemporaine 2023. The two works make a good entry point to Poppe: the short, physical quartet next to a long piece in which a single rhythmic idea is stretched over an hour.

CD, Wergo WER 7401 2, released in 2023 in the Edition Enno Poppe series, first recordings, total time 68'05".