Schörken / Wittbrodt - Sea-Less [Umland Records 059]

Put out on the circuit via Essen's ever active Umland Records imprint on September 15th, 2k22 is "Sea-Less", the very first full on collaborational album effort cooked up by Hanna Schörken and Emily Wittbrodt. Following an improvisational pathway of creation in combining vocal and cello performance their firstling sports a total of nine pieces laid out over a course of roughly 34 minutes which are providing an oftentimes scraping and chaotic, well demanding journey into sound for a limited, defo Avantgarde-informed audience which is used to explore the outer fringes of an instruments limits with a musical ark going from extreme Free Improv to Dark Ambient-leaning minimalisms in tender, highly atmospheric pieces like "A Core Of", appreciates explosive outbursts alongside hints of Classical traditions buried deeply with "Between" as well as naturalistic, yet slightly twisted, melancholia-infused song structures in "Without Stand", embraces the unfiltered madness in the first half of "Years Could Scatter You" in the same way as the tenderly plucked strings and growling vocal utterings to be found in the second to last title track "Sea-Less". Difficult music for difficult listening, this.