Klaus Paier & Asja Valcic
www.klaus-paier.com / www.asjavalcic.com
Klaus Paier - accordion, bandoneon
Asja Valcic - cello
Both are established musicians with international careers. Both have played with the
greats of the world, and both have successfully broken new ground. And now Asja Valcic and Klaus
Paier have brought out a recording sensation: 13 pieces for accordion/bandoneon and cello.
The cornerstone for this duo was laid several years ago, when the celebrated accordionist,
bandoneon player and composer Klaus Paier set standards playing solo, duo (with Gerald
Preinfalk), with his trio and in collaboration with the Vienna Radio String Quartet. The
Croat Asja Valcic belongs to the latter ensemble. She appeared as a soloist under the baton of
well-known conductors, made music with renowned contemporaries and played on many
chamber music CDs before turning to jazz.
Together Paier and Valcic have brought into being a musical cosmos full of percussive
electricity, internalized passion and deliberate purism that manages to leave room for
improvisation. Paier’s diverse compositions carry expressive titles like “La Pirouette,”
“Singing Bird,” or “Histoire d’ amour.” These are chamber music dialogues – tender and
gripping, passionate and cool, playful and strange – that draw on diverse musical forms
and traditions while remaining free from pathos. These compositions hint freely and directly
at French musettes, Argentinian tangos, Balkan dance, purple-haze rock and jazz, and yet
each piece is, above all, a genuine Paierish musical invention, intricate and marked by
gravity, precision and intensity. The pieces are carried off with passion and a
lighthearted ease by the musical soul mates Klaus Paier and Asja Valcic.
Annika Schroeter
Full bio (PDF, 58 KB)
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