Two new releases by Jonas Kocher’s Flexion label, and those releases can be had for the exchange of money, other CDs, books, bottle of wine, postcards etc. The first of these is not by Kocher himself but by two friends, the duo of one Hans Koch on bass clarinet and Gaudenz Badrutt on electronics – whatever that may consist of these days (laptop, stomp boxes, synths, electrical connections) cooking up some radical improvised music. Not radical in the sense of things being very loud or very soft, but in the sense of approaches to the bass clarinet and the use of electronics. It sounds all very improvised, with many short sounds of all kind on both of these instruments, sometimes even dropping below the threshold of hearing, and sometimes all of a sudden they make long form, sustaining gestures of gliding scales. Crackles, drones, perhaps a synth of some kind, it makes up a fascinating ride for the entire fifty-four minutes in twelve tracks, ranging somewhere from mere thirty-six seconds to just over ten minutes. Best enjoyed, I thought, when played as one piece, rather than a selection of twelve pieces. Koch/Badrutt don’t play easy pieces of music, far from actually, and intense listening is required, but once you get deeper into this some true beauty unfolds. Strangely wonderful difficult music. (FdW / Vital Weekly)