Considered in the most general terms, the recording is a remarkable realization of a freely improvised timbral counterpoint. By putting lines made of sound color against each other, BRAC succeed in conserving the fundamental formal quality of the string quartet while working with a largely untraditional content. This isn't to say that more conventional pitches and phrases are absent; members of the quartet play elongated harmonized tones or sequences of tones at various points in the performance. But the main focus remains on the contrasts and similarities of timbral qualities, and the layering and interplay of sounds in determining changes in textural density and saturation. Although improvised, the set is in effect a real-time composition made up of planes of sound pushing and pulling against each other. Many passages have all four instruments stacked in fully-voiced strata of long duration. Within these events timbral contrasts are brought out in a variety of ways: Long harmonics extend over a thick underlayer of tapping and creaking that gives way to a midrange drone; rough vibrato bowing or whistling gull-like sounds float over a long-held unresolved dissonance; massed siren-like glissandi move upward and downward with and against each other. Just as suddenly these dense, highly saturated events may dissolve into short, sharp episodes made up of widely spaced plucks and percussive strikes. The nonstandard makeup of the BRAC quartet--consisting in its substitution of a double bass for a second violin--works to the group's advantage in crafting a sound profile uniquely its own. The double bass is an essential element in leveraging the full spectrum of colors available to a string ensemble, adding, as it does, a noticeable degree of shading to the overall sound. Beyond supplementing the range of an ordinary string quartet, Cancoin's bass opens space within the ensemble by supplying spare timbral accents under the other players, particularly Royer's denser viola lines. In fact, in an inversion of the more usual string quartet practice, Royer's viola often takes the role of lead voice, with Bertoncini and Altenburger creating inner lines of subtle balance.' From Percorsi Musicali by Daniel Barbiero.
This CD was awarded the Goldener Bobby 2014, first prize in the category "classical / instrumental music" by the "Verband Deutscher Tonmeister"
