Quarz is a project created, ran and managed by Alexandr Vatagin, an Austrian musician also involved with the projects Tupolev and Port-Royal. Vatagin invited several musicians, and Quarz was chronologically joined by Nicolas Bernier, Stefan Németh (Radian, Lokai), Alexander Schubert (Sinebag) and Martin Siewert (Trapist, Heaven And).
On “Five Years on Cold Asphalt†the collaborations were expanded by special guests Bernhard Breuer (Elektro Guzzi, Metalycée) on drums and David Schweighart (Tupolev) with some delicate field recordings. Recording iteratively with each of the seven musicians, the new material was gradually implemented, so that each new collaborator came across a new version of the piece, already elaborated by his forerunners. This was a long process that demanded a particularly extensive mixing work but that nevertheless results in a very organic-sounding piece, therefore turning the mixing and the recording to almost coequal artistic tasks.
“Five Years on Cold Asphalt†is characterized by an electronic sound that is subtly subverted by a whiff of improvisation. It combines the vividness of a live collaboration with the precision of a studio project.
“Five Years on Cold Asphalt†is now available directly from Crónica or from selected retailers.