Lasciviously teasing your ear; this is an album full of spontaneity, sparking in the flutter of odd juxtaposition. A scramble footed Partch with a pinch of Bertoia’s love of reverberation, she treads anarchically out on her own, tasting the shapes, sensations.
I’m fortunate to have seen her ply her wares earlier this year at Fort Process, weaving freeform between a host of ingenious self-made instruments, her face constantly on the edge of a beaming grin. Luckily for the people who missed the spectacle, these studio recordings definitely re-capture much of that improvised zeal. The lush tonal reverbs of bowed piano wire, the brittle pin-bright patter of those lithophonics, the operatic sparrows that follow those slippery voila trajectories; all holding plenty of treats in store for the uninitiated.
You may not know this, but Limpe Fuchs is a bit of legend in regards to experimental music making. Back in 1971, bare-chested and fancy-free, she and then husband Paul paraded this initiative approach to sound-making up and down Europe as Anima, performing from the back of a specially adapted live-in tractor, a fascinating documentary of which will be available via video on demand by mid-2017 from the label’s website. This live experiment only lasted a summer, but it did spur on a sporadic outpouring of albums through the intervening years, the originality of which even got a weirdo check on the infamous Nurse with Wound List. A sonic richness the label intends on re-releasing, whetting our avant-garde appetites with quality downloads in the meanwhile (give Musik Für Alle a try, you won’t be disappointed). A glowing legacy that Limpe Fuchs is still actively upholding and exploring today, well into her seventies.-Michael Rodham-Heaps-
