Efzeg live at Sammlung-Essl, February 2000 Martin Siewert

There is something very exciting happening in and around Vienna these days. For the last couple of years, I have seen strange and fantastic records coming out of Austria. When putting them all together, one is surprised at how the same people appear on many of these records, although in different combinations. This is usually a clue: there is a music scene organizing itself. And indeed, to the outsider's eye (and ear!) the experimental music scene in Vienna looks like the best thing to happen since the heydays of Ambiances magnétiques in the mid-1980s. But unlike Montreal's collective (where a handful of musician friends founded a record label, acquired a studio, founded a production company, etc.), the Vienna scene is not that organized.

"Maybe the special thing is that there are many collaborations and also a high degree of interest and maybe influence amongst a bunch of musicians working somewhere between electronic, improvised and contemporary composed music", says guitarist Martin Siewert. Saxophonist Boris Hauf clarifies, "I see the 'Vienna experimental music scene' as quite decentralized, which is good. This of course also allows flexibility. There are a few venues and labels which can said to give hand to the emergence and continuation of such work. A label or a venue cannot be the cause for a 'scene"'. Obviously they are a great help -- if you will -- to give the network some kind of structure or definition."

Network: the keyword here. First, a bunch of very talented musicians: Werner Dafeldecker, Martin Siewert, Boris Hauf, Christof Kurzmann, Uli Fussenegger, Helge Hinteregger, just to name a few. Second, two record labels based in Vienna are releasing most of their material: Durian, led by Dafeldecker and specializing in the more acoustic side of the Viennese sound, and Charhizma, Kurzmann's baby, pointing toward the electronic side.

The Viennese sound: a selected discography

What is the Viennese sound? Is there a Viennese sound? Yes. All these musicians share a taste for the use of electronics. All of them aim at long, slowly-unfolding improvisations with static noise, computer-processed acoustic sounds and tortured electric guitars. But the most important aspect of the Viennese "sound" is the profoundly organic feel of the music. It's harsh, it's noisy, it's very abstract, it doesn't have melody or rhythm but it has GUTS, it moves, it embraces. It sucks you in only to spit you out an hour later, shaken but satisfied.

The landmark album, the one you should look for first, is the untitled Charhizma release by Werner Dafeldecker, Christian Fennesz, Christof Kurzmann, Jim O'Rourke, Martin Siewert and Kevin Drumm: live improvisations with lots of guitars and electronics slowly moving in a snake-like way. Simply orgiastic, it's a mind-opening record.

Martin Siewert's Komfort 2000 (also on Charhizma), with Dafeldecker, Hinteregger and "outsiders" Wayne Horvitz and Tony Buck, is another good place to start. This one is more organized and maybe less extreme in sound, more pleasant to the untrained ear, although it is still freeform. Don't let the presence of drummer Buck fool you; you won't find a single beat on this record.

Boris Hauf's Efzeg project is also very interesting (see Grain, on Durian). It couples two highly-skilled guitarists (Siewert and Burkhard Stangl, both processing their sound through electronics) with a DJ and Hauf's saxophones. There is a more acoustic quality to this one, but that does not make listening to it any easier. A great listen.

Last but not least, and just to show that the Viennese sound is not tied to electronics, I must mention Klaus Lang's Die Überwinterung der Mollusken (Durian). The composer uses a twelve-piece acoustic ensemble on two memorable works consisting of barely audible impressionistic touches. Although it always sounds the same, the music changes very slowly. Listening to this CD becomes a mantra-like experience -- at one point, the sound seems to come from within the listener instead of the speakers. But mostly, Lang's music is very organic; it breathes at its own pace, just like the rest of the music I mentioned in this column.

Very few North Americans have discovered the Viennese experimental scene yet. Publications and festivals still need to catch on. It will come in time, and then we will all be able to experience this music.

. Next month's topic: electro-acoustic music: what it is, how to listen to it and where to start.