George Cremaschi
Madrid, Spain 2008
KRK founded in 2005 has devoted itself to an integration of electronic and acoustic sonic worlds, incorporating technology from catgut and horsehair to infrared sensing and concatenative synthesis. Their concise, spontaneous compositions unite formal tautness with a fierce yet controlled energy, melding real-time musique concrete with virtuosic extended technique to open up undiscovered spaces in electro-acoustic performance. Having played sixty concerts in over a dozen countries, KRK continues to build on their experience.
bio/cv:
Cremaschi
Ostrowski
KRK large group at Alternativa Festival 2 November, 2019: video
with guests Burkhard Beins, Renata Raková and Michaela Turcerová
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Essl Museum Klosterneuburg, Austria 19 January, 2011: video
Ex Emerson Firenze, Italy 28 March, 2009
KRK with guest Pavel Zlámal in Brno, CZ 6 Nov, 2015
audio:
Humpenscrump [from KRK: Acouasm]
Tubicination [from KRK: Acouasm]
Mateotechny [from KRK: Acouasm]
Inter Arts Center Malmö, Sweden [1 Dec, 2011]
Ring Ring Festival, Beograd, Serbia 2005
reviews:
KRK – Acouasm (Acheulian Handaxe aha 0802) Completely abstract but dramatic and non-formulaic digital and analog electronics, Ostrowski on "controllers", Cremaschi playing bass, not that you can tell by casual listening what instruments make these sounds. Vivid post-industrial and probably post-apocalyptic events -- few patterns, little (obvious) formal logic but continuously inventive sonic manipulations and/or developments that seldom flag or languish. Recorded at NYC's innovative Harvestworks studio/education center. Good stuff, guys, boundary-breaking for them that likes it itchy.
– Howard Mandel www.artsjournal.com
Very nice to hear from 1980s veteran American avantster Matthew Ostrowski – it seems like years since I dug his rib-tickling Vertebra record for Pogus Productions. Well, here he be as one half of KRK rattling out some lively digital electronics on Acouasm (ACHEULIAN HANDAXE AHA 0802) alongside his partner George Cremaschi, who wields a huge contrabass plus further live analogue electronic effects for additional perplexment. This record’s possessed of the same sort of unpredictable crackle and lick we’ve hearing from some of Alvin Curran’s recent crazed cut-up experiments, with the additional bonus of being performed in real time by two very quick-thinking and hipster geniuses. Cremaschi’s quicksilver work on the double bass throws in a connection to the history of free jazz in NYC, but at that point the analogy breaks down. This is another chapter in the international ongoing task to open up undiscovered spaces in the electro-acoustic performance realms, and a great success too. Published on a tiny label owned by an experimental guitarist Hans Tammen, this is well worth clicking on your PayPal button if only just to check out what a track named ‘Humenscrump’, ‘Snirtle’ or ‘Tubicination’ is going to sound like pouring from your hi-fi. – Ed Pinsent The Sound Projector music magazine and radio show www.soundprojector.com
Vital Weekly (no.684):
Behind KRK we find Matthew Ostrowski and George Cremaschi, both from New York and both part of the lively improvisation scene. Cremaschi is perhaps the lesser known of the two. He plays contrabass and analog electronics here, whereas Ostrowski plays digital electronics and controllers. Eight pieces here of pretty wild playing. From on end this is the true world of improvisation, with its free play, rapid changes and everything you shouldn't do to an instrument (not as told by your teacher), but this goes mainly for the contrabass. Whatever else going on is what makes this more interesting, well, at least for me. This is the electronic component of the music. Things buzz, cracks, glitch, peep and hum. Like all good things microsound meeting improvisation in the world of musique concrete. Its again very lively, energetic, short and to the point. This release last about thirty-one minutes and that seems to me the right length for such vivid music, leaving the listener quite breathless afterwards. Things work best when the two ends, analogue improvisation and computer technique, meet up in the middle. Electronic jazz like in 'Mateotechny', but also nicely drone-like in 'Psithurism'. A release full of surprises.
(FdW) www.vitalweekely.net
