for piano & bassdrum / composed for & premiered at the 100. birthday of the extraordinary biohotel "Grafenast" in Tirol - chfs 2008

CHFS - AUS(R)ASTEN (3"CD, private): You don't see many pressed up 3"CDs these days, its all CDR. I don't think I ever heard of Christian F. Schiller, also known as CHFS, who plays bass drum and piano on 'aus(r)asten', which I can't translate. Certainly one of the more curious records of this week. It seems to be a kind of improvised piece, or perhaps sketched out along various paths Schiller wanted to follow. Playing sustain like chords towards the end for instance (think Palestine), or the solitary bangs on piano and bass drum in the beginning, or, at the very start some low frequency sound (fast playing on the bass drum, I imagine, rather than something electronic). Like I said a most curious piece that seems to be coming from nowhere and packed as a small 'arty' release (Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly NR. 679, Week 21, 2009 / http://vitalweekly.net/679.html)

"Hard Format likes to celebrate designs large and small and aus(r)asten tends very much towards the latter. It´s a 3" Cd with a small booklet. The motiv on the cover could never claim to be "emblazoned", that would be an exaggeration, it´s a small stick figure dissolving into dust. On the reverse, the figure´s arms are gone. Inside, a slender tree trunk without arms (branches) thrusts upwards while it´s roots hang skeletal-like in mid-air. Everything is black against white. Google translates "ausrasten" as "go ballistic", which playes against all the other signs nicely." (featured @ http://hardformat.org - former platform by London based Colin Buttimer, which celebrated music-related design.)