Paula Sanchez - Katharina Weber

…and discovering fishes that have their own light (2025)

item number CR379

Limited CD Edition

Release Date 10.05.2025

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About Paula Sanchez / Katharina Weber

The young Argentinian cellist Paula Sanchez received classical cello lessons in her home country and studied at an art academy there. This was followed by studies in free improvisation at the Basel University of Music with Fred Frith and Alfred Zimmerlin. Katharina Weber met Paula there when she was an expert on her Master's degree.
As Paula went on to study Contemporary Arts Practice at the Bern University of the Arts, the two became friends and played together in various formations, including with Fred Frith and Christian Kobi.
Since completing her second Master's degree, Paula has been touring the world and has performed as a soloist in the world premiere of Fred Frith's opera TRUTH IS A FOUR-LETTER WORD in Paris.

The pianist and composer Katharina Weber, who retired from teaching at the Bern University of the Arts and the Bern Conservatory in 2023, is now devoting more time to composing and performing in free improvisation after hundreds of concerts in Switzerland and abroad as an interpreter of classical and contemporary works. Her latest major work, ‘Hommage à Frank Martin’, commissioned by the Bern Chamber Orchestra, was premiered in October 2024. She has also been using her voice in her improvisation concerts for around a year.

What the two musicians have in common is their love of the finest nuances of sound, both in tones and in noises, their spirited playing and their spontaneous interaction with each other, which does not deny the diversity of their playing, which is given by the character of their instruments, among other things.

Audio

…and discovering fishes that have their own light

part I :    07min 02s
part II :   09min 16s
part III :  09min 15s
part IV : 08min 05s

Total Time: 33min 41s

excerpt from part I

excerpt from part II

excerpt from part III

excerpt from part IV

About «…and discovering fishes that have their own light (2025)»

A play of surfaces, of formal proposals countermanded by a deep impulse to question, to challenge, to undermine. Every echo, every pulsating breath, every breaking away into distant reveries, all of its exquisite tension capturing the ear and the heart and holding them fast. I was lucky enough to attend this concert, and my memory of it was of holding my breath, on the edge of my seat enthralled and astonished by qualities in the playing of these two dear friends that I felt I’d never heard before. Listening now my attention has subtly shifted, because of the deep details that passed me by in that big resonant space.  Enthralled and astonished still, the exquisite tension still working its magic, but not surprised any more. It’s more like: “Of course! This is the edge of the world! This is the resistance!”

Fred Frith

Presse

…and discovering fishes that have their own light is a 34-minute, dramatic piece that highlights Sanchez and Weber's love for the finest nuances of sound, both in tones and in noises, as well as their rich sonic palettes, which aim at expanding the sonic spectrum of their instruments. Sanchez says that during that performance, they had the feeling of being in the ocean, amazed by the sound of creatures of the depths. Sanchez and Weber enjoyed the resonant space of Grosse Halle Reitschule in Bern and sound as one sonic entity, extending and resonating with each other’s ideas and gestures, in a spirited, poetic manner, and in the most natural but completely unorthodox way possible. 

Frith, who took Sanchez as soloist in the world premiere of his opera TRUTH IS A FOUR-LETTER WORD, notes that this piece is a “play of surfaces, of formal proposals countermanded by a deep impulse to question, to challenge, to undermine”. Weber’s piano becomes a delicate percussive instrument, almost gamelan-like, or mysterious, zither-like, while Sanchez’ cello sings in an ethereal, almost transparent flute-like voice. The subtle, exquisite tension further feeds the spontaneous, sensual interplay with deeper, poetic ideas that capture the mind and the soul. Frith, who attended this brilliant performance, was enthralled and astonished by the playing of his dear friends and concluded: “This is the edge of the world! This is the resistance!”  
PERCORSI MUSICALI - Eyal Hareuveni