Drummer and percussionist Fredy Studer loves women, and on the "Voices" CD, he improvises alternately with Lauren Newton, Saadet Türköz and Ami Yoshida. Each of these three musicians is their own personality with a well-defined direction: Lauren Newton navigates the susurrations and linguistic scats of contemporary improvisation; Saadet Türköz embraces the eruptive and earthy aspects of ethnic music; Ami Yoshida explores the outer limits of sound, where the voice can no longer be recognized. Fredy Studer, well known as the "pulse" of hardcore drumming, has continuously sought collaboration with musicians. As a result, he has established himself as an improv partner with discerning antennae. From 1996 to 2004 Studer collaborated with Robyn Schulkowsky (perc), Jin Hi Kim (komungo), Joelle Léandre (b), Dorothea Schürch (voc), DJ M. Singe (turntables) and Ami Yoshida (voc) to produce six "Duos" CDs. And in the Koch-Schütz-Studer trio, Studer worked with vocalist Saadet Türköz. With "Voices", Fredy Studer slips into the three musical expressions as if they were suddenly adapted to him, and naturally they are. He is at once listener and actor. The space he creates is an expression of his direct interaction with the voices. Compared with his more intemperate sets with KSS and other projects, Studer plays in a more measured manner here. He uses cymbals and small bells to create ambient textures, integrates the rippling of water, breaks into a resonant stream of drumming, circumnavigates the rhythm and generates space. The rhythms become more energetic as the intensity increases, the surfaces break and the voices stimulated. "Voices" is not a platitudinous work that simply presents one vocalist after another. In the sequence spanning Newton, Türköz, Yoshida, Newton, Türkoz, Yoshida, Türköz, Newton, Yoshida, Newton, Türköz, the CD generates its own distinct arch. The voices are blurred, no longer belonging to their supposed singers. This disarrangement of the duets paves the way for new relationships between sound and form. Tales are told, appearing and disappearing for brief moments like forgotten films. We hear musical processes that are only seemingly separated by space and time. As is the case with any good improvisation, these 12 tracks occurred in the here and now. Pirmin Bossart, translated by Sharon Kroska