Timeless Suite Klaus Paier & Asja Valcic

• 1Incontro Con Stravinsky05:25
• 2Inside a Flower04:40
• 3Saskia's Dance05:33
• 4Amelie's Fairy Tale05:13
• 5Vocalmente03:33
• 6Sarabande04:38
• 7Ibiza at Noon04:00
• 8Dramatique05:14
• 9Green Rondo04:39
• 10Maestoso & Melodioso04:13
• 11Oblivion04:49
• Total Runtime51:57

Info for Timeless Suite

„Timeless Suite“ connects music of the past and the present in an distinctive, unique lineup – cello and accordion. Always keen on new influences – from Classical, jazz to world music, Klaus Paier and Asja Valcic form a congenial alliance. An exciting dance of which the listener wishes that it will never stop.

Accordion and cello. A rare combination, but no less remarkable is the sound of the Klaus Paier and Asja Valcic duo. Is it jazz, classical or world music? Old, new or crossover? Whatever it is, the music is timeless, intense, always surprising, and transcends genre borders.

The quest for the perfect sound of accordion and bandoneon led Klaus Paier to an entirely new, unique playing technique that allows his instrument to breathe and gives him the space for unrivalled stylistic and improvisational freedom, and in no way does Asja Valcic take a back seat. She plays her “cello, that can foot it like a double bass” with “an incredible wealth of variations” (KulturSPIEGEL).

In combination, this dream team displays “an unconventional beauty for which we lack any comparison. Energetically-breathing chamber music, in which the composition and improvisation are fascinatingly linked” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). On “Timeless Suite”, Paier and Valcic accentuate their roots in occidental art music. A suite is a form of music that contains successive pieces, mostly dances, and here the two have brought together eleven dances and dance related themes for the album. New compositions and classical oeuvres are developed and enriched with improvisation. Jazz and tango, waltzes and baroque music mingle as if they were always meant to be together. For “Incontro Con Stravinsky”, for instance, Paier uses Igor Stravinsky’s ballet music “Pulcinella”, which harks back to the Italian baroque composers Pergolesi and Gallo.

For Valcic, on the other hand, the music of Johann Sebastian Bach is a decisive inspiration, especially in her interpretation of “Sarabande” from the Bach suite No. 5 in C Minor for cello. “Maestoso & Melodioso”, composed for bandoneon and cello, and the spirited “Saskia’s Dance”, in which part of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor is invoked, are also inspired by the great German composer.

“Inside A Flower” and “Amelie’s Fairy Tale” provide the balladesque moods between the dances of the suite. “Vocalmente” makes sure there is also a slow tango on “Timeless Suite”. “Green Rondo” is an original jazz piece based on the Dave Brubeck classic “Blue Rondo A La Turk”.

“Timeless Suite” merges the past with the present in an unmistakable and unique way. Curiosity and courage are the outstanding virtues here that unite these two adventurous musicians in a congenial alliance. It is a scintillating dance that one hopes will never end.

Klaus Paier, accordion, bandoneon
Asja Valcic, cello

Asja Valcic
She studied with V. Despalj (Zagreb/Croatia), L. Terraspulsky (Massachusetts/USA), N. Schahovskaja (Moscow/Russia) and K. Georgian (Detmold, Germany). Graduation with Soloist's Diploma. She attended master classes with B. Pergamenchikov and B. Greenhouse. She has played chamber music with G. Schulz (Alban Berg Quartett), H. Schoneweg (Cherubini Quartett), I. Bolton (Brodsky Quartett), I. Bieler (Melos Quartett), A. Engegard (Orlando Quartett), T. Brandis (Brandis Quartett), and many others. As a soloist she performed with the Zagreb Philharmonic, Belgrade Philharmonic and the Westfälische Kammerorchester, conducted by the likes of Kazushi Ono and Zubin Mehta. In 1995 she won the “Concours international de jeunes concertistes de Douai" in France. She recorded Sonatas of Shostakovich and Schnittke for Jugoton (1989) and Serenads of Martinu for d+g (German Record Critics' Award in 1998). Valcic was teaching at the music academy of Zagreb (Croatia), at the Dartington International School of Music/England, in Chioggia/Italy and at the university of music Detmold/Germany.Since 2008 she is playing in duo with Klaus Paier. She is a cellist of radio.string.quartet.vienna since 2004.

Klaus Paier
studied accordion, jazz and composition at Klagenfurt conservatory. Paier has been particularly inspired by such instrumentalists as Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans, Charles Mingus or Thelonious Monk. For him, their conception of jazz, with its wide diversity of musical possibilities and freedoms, was of inestimable importance. In addition to the historically evolved European harmonies involving the accordion, the classical component has also assumed an unmistakable position in Paier's compositions. He himself aims to express a positively charged polarity in music: attraction and rejection, weight and lightness, loudness and quietness, openness and selfcontainment, strict discipline and passionate explosiveness. He accomplishes this feat again and again in an inimitable manner, enthralling his audience in concert tours in Israel, France, Italy, Sweden, Poland and many other European countries. Be it as a soloist, with his duo partner Gerald Preinfalk, in the trio with Stefan Gfrerrer and Roman Werni, or the radio.string.quartet.vienna – Klaus Paier ranks among the great European accordionists with a world-wide reputation.

Booklet for Timeless Suite