Keiji Haino - voice
Reinhold Friedl - piano
recorded and mixed by Rabih Beaini at Morphine Studios Berlin, 2024/25
mastered by Stephan Mathieu
Haino-Friedl
'For over four decades, the legendary guitarist, improvisor and Fushitsucha leader has reinvented songforms, sought out unlikely collaborations, and held nothing back in his continuing quest to reach music’s furthest extremes' [The Wire Magazine]. The collaboration of the dark magus of the rock underground with pianist, composer and zeitkratzer mastermind Reinhold Friedl is not as unlikely as it might seem at first glance. Keiji Haino and Friedl have been working together for more than a decade with Friedl's zeitkratzer ensemble, released several albums, including Stockhausen's From the Seven Days, and played concerts in Germany, Poland and Japan. Here the two avant-garde musicians – known for their openness and musical radicalism – present themselves in an intimate setting: piano and voice, recorded in Berlin.
In 'truly, slightly, overflowing, whereabout of good' will the piano takes on the role of an entire orchestra, accompanying and contrasting Haino's lucent vocal inscriptions with complex spatial sounds and noises. Intense, intimate, serious and colorful, the album begins with a metamorphosis of Billy Holiday’s and Nina Simone's brutal classic 'strange fruits', featuring Haino’s unique vocal techniques and his 'singular, unwavering vision of what music can be'. Friedl’s distinctive piano sound, based on decades of research into new playing techniques, transforms the classical instrument into something more akin to an orchestra.
With his focus on new physical sound qualities ranging from precise sensuality to raw harshness, Friedl taught the instrument to sing and breath and 'developed his 'inside piano' technique to such a level of delicacy and precision that the tonalities extracted from the instrument bear little resemblance of their acoustic source'. (The Wire Magazine).
'wild harvest' and 'true, slightly fly' unfold further musical adventures: Keiji Haino sails and flies over misty landscapes that are suddenly torn apart by eruptions and small explosions, extreme registers, interfered and juxtapositioned with almost indescribable vocal interventions from deep smoky bass sounds to mountain calls. Multi-instrumentalist Haino focuses on his voice, showcasing its flexibility, richness and uniqueness. Microtonality becomes natural, sharp expressive interferences go straight to the body. Keiji Haino's vocal practice encompasses the widest range of human expression, from screams and shrieks to humming and whispering: a liberation, wild and beautiful! Merging with Fridl’s piano: open your ears and listen!
credits
releases November 21, 2025
all music composed by Keiji Haino and Reinhold Friedl
strange fruits by Abel Meeropol
recorded and mixed by Rabih Beaini at Morphine Studios Berlin, 2024/25
mastered by Stephan Mathieu