ErbtMäderAmBerg? & Lehn: In Echoes' Shadow

The Swiss German quartet ErbMäderAmBerg? & Thomas Lehn offers a striking and complex exploration of electroacoustic improvisation with In Echoes' Shadow,, released in May 2025 on Lucerne-based Veto Records. The ensemble brings together three of Switzerland's most adventurous bass clarinetists—Christoph Erb (Veto Records founder), Elio Amberg, and Niklaus Mader—alongside German electronic music veteran Thomas Lehn on analog synthesizer. Lehn, a classically-trained pianist turned synthesizer specialist, has a decades-long pedigree, having worked with figures like John Butcher and Marcus Schmickler, ensuring an informed, non-preset approach to the electronics.

The central concept is one of monochrome fusion: Three bass clarinets merge into a single, darkly resonant entity that collides with Lehn's electronic interventions. The resulting sound inhabits a strange zone between free improvisation and avant-garde composition, creating fields that feel both organic and unsettlingly otherworldly.

The track "When Shadows Walk" opens with a rising cadenza of one bass clarinetist's hissing breath tones, stoic and subtle, immediately abetted by Lehn's disfigured synth maneuvers. The woodwind artists weave in and out, shaping atonal noise with hurried ruminations that project periods of angst and high-pitched cries. The trio's chemistry is evident from years of collaboration, focusing on the instrument's power through subtlety, not force. When the three bass clarinets converge, the density is almost orchestral yet remains remarkably transparent.

Lehn's analog synthesizer work is critical, transforming what could be a monochromatic exercise into something far more complex. His vintage equipment enables real-time manipulation, allowing him to respond instantaneously to his acoustic collaborators. His textures range from shimmering, high-voltage bursts to coarse-grained drones. The continuous collision between the warm, woody grain of the bass clarinets and the cold precision of the analog electronics maintains a productive tension throughout the album.

On "When Shadows Dance," rippling and sizzling synth sounds initiate a scene where the clarinetists' unruly improvisations project moments of dismay, swarming and swerving as if deconstructing life itself. The quartet consistently avoids common electroacoustic pitfalls; the electronics neither dominate the acoustic instruments nor serve as mere decoration. All four voices maintain equal footing.

Much of the music operates in a shadowy half-light, suggesting forms without fully revealing them. The clarinets work in close microtonal intervals, creating friction and beating frequencies that blur individual boundaries. When Lehn enters with sustained tones, it becomes impossible to distinguish between the synthesis and the clarinet overtones—a powerful, deliberate ambiguity.

In Echoes' Shadow is a significant achievement in contemporary improvised music. This is demanding work that refuses easy categorization, but for listeners attuned to the outer reaches of sound exploration, it offers profound and unsettling rewards.

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