Biliana Voutchkova & Sarah Davachi: Slow Poem for Stiebler

In 2020 Another Timbre released Für Biliana, an album of four compositions by the veteran German composer Ernstalbrecht Stiebler, two of which, "Für Biliana" and "Glissando für Solo Violine," he had composed for the Bulgarian-born Berlin-resident, violinist & composer Biliana Vouchkova who performed on all four of the album's tracks. Her solo rendition of "Für Biliana" ran for six minutes and the piece was through-composed and melodic, ideally suited to violin.

Voutchkova and Canadian keyboard player Sarah Davachi had met in 2018 when the violinist accompanied Davachi in a concert she gave in Berlin. Davachi was a long-time admirer of Stiebler's music. A few months later, Biliana asked Davachi if she would like to work on a sort of re-composition of "Fur Biliana," which might be something they could play together. The two began work on it in earnest in the summer and autumn of 2021, doing some back and forth sharing of ideas and score material. In February 2022, Biliana gave a rough presentation of some of the material, in Berlin. This album was recorded in April 2022 at 2220 Arts + Archives in Los Angeles, with Voutchkova on violin and voice, and Davachi on reed organ. It runs for forty-nine-minutes.

The immediate reaction on listening to "Slow Poem for Stiebler" may well be that it does not sound like "Für Biliana," but that is hardly surprising given the different instrumentation used on the newer piece. Furthermore, Davachi has said, "We were thinking of it as a sort of remix or re-composition of Stiebler's original piece... So, essentially we took different sections of the piece and extended them over a much longer period of time and broke them apart much more, made them more circular... " Leaving aside its debt to "Für Biliana," "Slow Poem for Stiebler" is a beguiling piece which stands up well to frequent listening, revealing more and more with every iteration.

Two things are clear; firstly, we are lucky to be able to compare and contrast "Für Biliana" and "Slow Poem for Stiebler" as appreciation of one sheds light on the other over time. Secondly, Voutchkova and Davachi are formidable together, and we must hope to hear more from this duo soon.