Breakfast With Cardew – Treatise by Cornelius Cardew

Brgs: prepared snare drum, feedback speakers, modular synth, string boxes, effects, objects

Recorded by Brgs
Mixed and mastered by Jure Gruden
Artwork by Brgs
Recorded in Hotel Gabronka in Bistrica ob Sotli
Special thanks to Mitja Hlupič and Smejchi
Released at Zvočni Prepihi/Sound Draughts in september 2021

The music is interpretation of the graphic score Treatise by Cornelius Cardew

“Intriguing and enjoyable new approach to Treatise from Brgs (Jaka Berger), ‘Breakfast with Cardew’. Seven tracks, each utilizing from one to six pages of the score, deploying various forms of electronics and percussion. Good work.” Brian Olewnick – Just Outside

“While pretty much a lot of the music on this disc is part of the world of improvisation, at the same time, it is more. For instance, ‘Endless Loop Of Spotless Mind’ contains repeating drone loops, captured from some broken speakers (maybe this the feedback speakers?), which sound crackling and lo-fi. And it sounds great. ‘Shapes Of Emptiness’ consists of a lot of silence and a bit of sparse music, sounds, noises and works excellent intensely. Sometimes Brgs is working towards a more electro-acoustic approach, using the surface of the snare drum and objects in ‘Tension Of The Surface’. Brgs bends and re-shapes his improvisations so that they become improvisations. Working with different set-ups allowed him the freedom to work his way through the material. This music is not your standard improvised music release, which I enjoy all the more. I would think that in each of these pieces, Brgs goes for a slightly different approach, which makes this a highly varied disc, well beyond any traditional approach to improvised music, and perhaps that is the whole idea of using the Cradew score.” Frans De Waard – Vital Weekly

“BRGS is therefore an interesting sound artist – percussionist using the vibratory and resonant possibilities of a skin or percussion instrument surface tensioned with the help of utensils, and amplified with effects etc. He is credited with prepared snare drum, feedback speakers, modular synth, string boxes, effects, objects. Listening to his sound universe, one can hardly imagine how he proceeds to produce these multiple sound aggregates, these interferences of timbres and rumblings, these parasitic highs, these sonic occurrences from the beyond. In some rooms, the use of effects is judicious (track 2). In piece n ° 3, we have the impression of hearing the percussive sounds via the electronic effects. The use of silence and pauses is very relevant. In piece n ° 5, Jaka Berger plays one or more string boxes, which evokes the resonant arcs or this zither from Burundi heard on an Ocora album. It is a high level work in terms of its realization. For each title, with a very distinct sound and dynamic profile, are indicated sequences of several numbers put in brackets such as (130 131 134) after Tension of the surface or (176 166 133 89) after Descent into silence…” Jean-Michael van Schouwburg – Orynx Improv and Sounds

Here is an intriguing piece of work featuring modular synth, although in this case not alone; there are other sound sources – a prepared snare drum, feedback speakers, string boxes, effects and objects. Turning to the accompanying press release, it becomes evident that Breakfast With Cardew is in fact evidence of one musician grappling with parts of the score of Cornelius Cardew’s well known graphic score, Treatise, created during the period 1963-67. That being said, the music on Breakfast With Cardew is compelling. Particularly the fifth track “Conversation between the lines (67 47 35)” with its insistent bubbles and scrapes. I like the ways Berger interacts with his equipment; it’s almost a living thing that the musician works lightly in partnership with, suggesting little ideas here and there. “Endless Loop Of Spotless Mind (42 43 44)” is a change of pace with slow blooms of animated accordian-like tones moving in and out of slowly rotating low-pass filters; their capacitors clogged with the fertile loam of a windswept field in winter, the occasional jackdaw flopping down from leafless branches of a withered tree. Sound Projector Magazine

The Sound Projector radio show – Platform Games – UK

“A presunljivo je, kako Brgsu uspe inštrumentarij pokombinirati – tudi če ni harmonij in jih niti ne bi mogli pričakovati, inštrumenti včasih skorajda pojejo in lovijo tone. Lep primer je komad Tensions Of The Surface, v katerem na enakomernemu dromljanju nekako nadzorovano piska in ravno prav kombinira in stopnjuje, denimo temu, basovsko mrmranje in višje ležeče cvileče zvoke. Pa recimo bolj »živahna« Conversation Between The Lines, v kateri se precej zvokov v skoraj groovie stilu stopnjujoče dogaja hkrati. Ustvarjalec doseže res veliko z inštrumentarijem, udomačenim v letih, z veliko rekviziti in njihovimi preparacijami, ki Brgsu omogočajo zanimive kombinacije, večglasje, tako rekoč akorde. Skoraj kot bi poslušali veččlansko zasedbo.” Brigita Gračner – Radio Študent

“Poslušamo glasbo z dveh novih plošč, Hiss Lift Jepha Jermana in Tima Barnesa, njuno interpretacijo terenskih posnetkov, zvoka predmetov in tolkal v dve daljši kompoziciji ter zbirko novih interpretacij grafičnih partitur Corneliusa Cardewa, kot jih je na izdaji Breakfast With Cardew zabeležil Jaka Berger.” Primož Trdan – Glasni novi svet – Radio Ars 3.program Radia Slovenija