1998 · Album
Tangens
Recorded November 8, 1997 · FMP · Venue: Total Music Meeting, Podewil, Berlin
Two Masters Meeting in Berlin Improvisation
Tender, beautiful music by two empathic giants working at the height of their powers.
By 1997, Alexander von Schlippenbach had spent three decades pushing the boundaries of free improvisation in Europe, building a reputation as one of the continent's most uncompromising pianists. Sam Rivers, the American saxophonist and flutist, brought a parallel history of restless experimentation across the Atlantic. Tangens documents their meeting at the Total Music Meeting in Berlin—not a studio session, but a live encounter where two musicians of equal stature simply played together, no script, no net.
The recording captures something rare: two players with nothing to prove, listening intently to each other. Rivers moves between soprano and tenor saxophone, occasionally switching to flute, while Schlippenbach responds on piano with sharp, angular phrases and sudden silences. There's no rhythm section, no safety. The music breathes in unexpected places—long pauses where you'd expect resolution, sudden bursts of activity when you anticipated quiet. Tracks like the opening statement show both players testing the air, feeling out possibilities, then committing fully when something ignites between them.
This isn't a peak work in either artist's catalog—both had already made their major statements elsewhere. But it matters because it shows two musicians at a stage where they could afford to be generous, to listen more than assert, to find something worth saying in real time. Released in 1998 on the FMP label, it circulated among listeners who understood that sometimes the point of improvisation isn't virtuosity or revelation, but the simple act of two minds in conversation.
