It’s one of those early spring days on which everything seems possible. We’re sitting in the garden at Café Rüdigerhof, the sun is blasting our faces, the coffee is getting warm instead of cold, and the conversation takes on depth more quickly than you’d expect. Ingrid Schmoliner and Alex Kranabetter talk to Ania Gleich about liminal spaces: between tones, states, people, perceptions. About live experiments, piano compromises and the question of how much freedom music can bear without losing its form. As the duo DRANK, they have just released their debut album – “breath in definition” – a work that starts from exactly that place: the unfocused, the open, the in-between.
How did you meet and how long have you been working together?
Ingrid Schmoliner: We’ve actually known one another for a very long time, from the Vienna improv and experimental scene. We always wanted to make music together, but it took a while until it happened.
Alex Kranabetter: It was always, “we have to do something together sometime!” But in the end, it took the invitation from the V:NM Festival in Graz to make it happen.
When was that?
Ingrid Schmoliner: 2021. Or was it 2020?
Alex Kranabetter: Yes, in trio with Franz Hautzinger.
Ingrid Schmoliner: The three of us played at the V:NM Festival. That was a nice concert, a great collaboration.
And then you continued as a duo?
Alex Kranabetter: Yes, we had really been talking about doing something together for a long time. It took a couple of years, but good things take time.
What were the first steps in your collaboration?
Ingrid Schmoliner: We started at the echoraum in Vienna. There’s a small but very good grand piano there that I know well; we were able to work and compose there.
Alex Kranabetter: We worked on the music and on ideas we had for the duo there. It was very structured from the beginning on.
Are there fixed compositions, or is your music mainly improvisation-based?
Ingrid Schmoliner: It’s all based very strongly on improvisation, but there’s a kind of basic composition for each track.
Alex Kranabetter: The textures are fixed, as is the instrumentation – the way the piano is prepared, or which effects I use.
Ingrid Schmoliner: The process is mostly that we improvise first, then we listen to it or remember certain passages. We usually record everything; then we sort the material and decide what works.
Were you able to find a musical language together from the beginning, or was it a longer process?
Alex Kranabetter: I’d definitely say we had an idea of what we wanted to do [from the beginning]. There was a kind of concept.
Ingrid Schmoliner: We created almost ten pieces or fragments, and only four made it on to the album in the end.
Alex Kranabetter: We played them live and noticed that they worked well, but it took quite a while before we made the final decisions for the album.
“We want to create a framework that enables another kind of perception.”
Did you record a lot of material?
Ingrid Schmoliner: We recorded a lot. There are multiple versions of every composition.
What was the production process?
Ingrid Schmoliner: We had various session: first with Martin Siewert, but then we decided to do one more session and we went into Westbahnstudios with Markus Wallner.
Alex Kranabetter: Right. We ended up going with the recordings we made with Markus, but we went back to Martin to master them.
What led to that decision?
Ingrid Schmoliner: All the preparatory work was really necessary for us to find a compositional structure.
Alex Kranabetter: We both hear a lot of very diverse music, and we didn’t want to confine ourselves to a single genre. It was important to stay open.
What music influences you? Do your tastes overlap?
Ingrid Schmoliner: I actually listen to everything – except traditional folk-pop [volkstümliche Schlager].
Alex Kranabetter: I even listen to that! It’s not all the same: Schlager from the 70s and 80s are completely different than what passes for Schlager today.
Speaking of musical influences: what was the intention behind the name drank? Am I even pronouncing it correctly?
Alex Kranabetter: That’s fine. I just find the word funny – it’s onomatopoeic; it actually has no meaning at all, but when you hear it of course you immediately think of “drunk”.
Ingrid Schmoliner: Especially when you read it, you automatically think of it. You can play with that… At the same time, it also matches our music. We want to create a framework that enables another kind of perception. It’s very much about that trancelike character, about minimalism, about a certain atmosphere. I’d say there’s something almost ambient about it.
Alex Kranabetter: One the one hand, it’s a little droney, but then it also has something lyrical and programmatic, also something of industrial toughness. It combines a lot of elements. In the end, it’s about this delirious condition that music can engender. Music is just incredibly powerful.
Ingrid Schmoliner: That’s exactly why I became a musician. Music isn’t just sound – it affects us strongly on the physical and emotional levels. When you realize that we never experience absolute silence – that everything, even our organs – have a sound, make noise, then you see how deep that all goes. Music can calm, strengthen, even torture. In any case, it clearly connects dimensions, but also permeates them.
Alex Kranabetter: Most of all because it functions so intuitively. It goes directly into the body before you even process it consciously. That’s the fascinating thing about it – regardless of what genre it comes from.
Ingrid Schmoliner: Sure, it can work completely nonverbally, but it still creates associative spaces. Every person has different points of association, depending on the kind of day they’re having.
Alex Kranabetter: And then there’s the dynamic between musicians – especially in a duo. That’s a unique challenge, because you’re dealing with someone on a very different level of discourse than in a trio or a larger group.
What role does “in-betweenness” play for your project, and particularly for the album?
Ingrid Schmoliner: As soon as two people are working on something together, there are two perspectives. The place where you meet – or don’t meet – is the “in between”. There, everything is negotiable in the end.
Alex Kranabetter: You really feel that in a duo. When one person has one idea and the other person another, you have to come to an agreement. It creates tension that often doesn’t exist with the same intensity in larger groups.
Ingrid Schmoliner: It goes even further for me: I specifically wanted to collaborate with Alex because he has a certain aura as a person that’s important to me in music. I always think very carefully about whom I want to work with. The nonverbal plays a role, on a human, spiritual level among other things.
Alex Kranabetter: That’s a nice image, it being about aura. It’s also one of the main reasons that people like making music together.
“Connections are made, but so are breaks. Both are important.”
I also see that “in between” as a kind of compromise. Every artistic collaboration is an attempt to build a bridge between one’s own ideas and those of the partner. In the end, you can only approach one another – you can never be the other person. Is that the way the two of you see it?
Alex Kranabetter: Totally. There’s the process of approaching one another, but sometimes you experience that magic moment where it really feels like a mutual perception.
Ingrid Schmoliner: That’s the point where music really works. I’ve played concerts after which the other musicians and I had completely different opinions, and the audience had yet another completely different perceptions. I find those different perspectives interesting.
Community is often considered a given, but it’s actually created through difference. That means we have to talk about our differences in order to make a life together possible – and that’s exactly what happens in music. Do you see that as a political aspect of your work?
Ingrid Schmoliner: Absolutely. Especially in improvisation, this negotiation takes place again and again. Connections are made, but so are breaks, and both are important.
Alex Kranabetter: Particularly because we consciously keep our pieces open: they change from place to place, from concert to concert. That’s not just an artistic decision; it’s an attitude – preserving the vitality.
So you move in the area between uncertainty and possibility?
Ingrid Schmoliner: Exactly. And that’s precisely what makes it interesting for us.
How is it improvising with one another? Have you found a fixed working process together, or is it a continuing exploration?
Alex Kranabetter: I’d say we just start from the beginning and see what happens.
Ingrid Schmoliner: Yes; we support one another, but we also reflect a lot. When something works well, we might try it again the next time – but in a slightly altered form. We analyze length and structures and discuss practical things as well – like how something can be performed on tour.
Alex Kranabetter: The fact that Ingrid doesn’t always have the same piano presents a certain challenge. We have to stay flexible.
Ingrid Schmoliner: But to be honest, sometimes I just don’t want to constantly compromise. It would be wonderful if venues could at least provide a piano between 180 and 220 centimeters long with functioning pedals, so that we could realize the instrumentation at least roughly as it’s planned. I work very precisely, with a lot of attention to detail, but even then, there are still big differences how my preparations work in the various instruments. It adds an element of vitality, of course, but it makes fixed tonalities almost impossible.
Alex Kranabetter: [But] if we were to say, “sorry, then we can’t play,” every time, we’d hardly play any concerts at all.
Ingrid Schmoliner: Often financial factors dictate what’s possible. In our music, we constantly have to make compromises.
How many concerts have you played together so far?
Ingrid Schmoliner: I’d say about ten.
Alex Kranabetter: More or less. But we also play in different situations together. Sometimes we play consecutive solo concerts at festivals – which is also interesting, because then the experience of playing together might be different. One time I played solo for half an hour, then Ingrid played her solo piece “MNEEM”. That might also be interesting for listeners, because it makes them perceive the connection between our musical approaches differently.
Ingrid Schmoliner: Naturally, you listen to one another when you’re working together. And even if you don’t consciously categorize, you automatically absorb what the other person’s doing.
How much space for experimentation do you allow within your improvisations? Or do fixed structures develop?
Alex Kranabetter: I’d say we allow ourselves a new element almost every time. Of course there are ideas that we keep within a framework, but we always try to develop something further.
Ingrid Schmoliner: Yes…it happens automatically, because the conditions are different every time – the piano, the sound of the room, the cues…that influences our tonal decisions.
Alex Kranabetter: And we often have very little time to set up. It’s great when we have our own sound person, because then [the concert] can really sound the way we intend it to.
“I’ve accepted that you can never reach the point where everyone feels the same thing.”
How much do the room and the audience affect your music? Can you remember concerts that were particularly magical – or particularly challenging?
Alex Kranabetter: It’s a surprise every time. You often notice during the soundcheck that you have to adjust something tonally because Ingrid can’t pitch the piano the way it was originally intended.
Ingrid Schmoliner: And then Alex usually says, “OK, I’ll adjust toward that tonality.”
Alex Kranabetter: We’re both professionals; we can adjust quickly. But of course the way you feel on a given day plays a role – the way we perceive things, the way we think about them afterwards.
Ingrid Schmoliner: I might be euphoric after a concert and Alex stays more down-to-earth…or vice versa.
Alex Kranabetter: But that’s natural. I don’t think you can ever expect that everyone shares exactly the same feeling.
So you sometimes have differing perceptions after a concert?
Ingrid Schmoliner: Sure – not about the entire concert, but certain parts. I’ve accepted that you can never reach the point where everyone feels the same thing.
Alex Kranabetter: Exactly – and that’s actually a wonderful thing, that people have different levels of energy, satisfaction, or what they’re projecting. That makes it interesting.
Ingrid Schmoliner: Some days, things just don’t work as well, or they work differently than expected. You just have to live with it.
Alex Kranabetter: I’m basically optimistic about it; I think it’s better to stay positive. Otherwise everything just goes down, down, down. Negative thoughts have an unbelievable power to multiply – you see it everywhere.
Ingrid Schmoliner: Absolutely. That also applies to that “in between”: in today’s world, those liminal spaces are getting smaller and smaller. There’s almost no space left for openness, ambiguity, uncertainty.
To touch briefly on the album title: why “breath in definition”?
Ingrid Schmoliner: It came to me during a flight: breath is essential to me, and as a trumpet player, Alex works with it all the time.
Alex Kranabetter: Exactly.
Ingrid Schmoliner: To me, it’s about this atmosphere, about what air does with sound. “Breath in definition” is a paradoxical combination – because breath actually isn’t precisely definable.
Alex Kranabetter: Every breath is unique, even if you try to make them the same.
Ingrid Schmoliner: Exactly – I find that fascinating. It’s about this dichotomy: things that are interdependent, but can never be pinned down completely.
Breathing is interesting because it’s automatic, but can also be controlled – for instance in yoga or trumpet playing, or while walking. What does breathing mean to you in this context?
Ingrid Schmoliner: That’s the fascinating thing about it: it’s a constant interplay between control and automatism. But to me, it’s about more – about humanity in itself, about how fragile the whole concept of humanity is, particularly where liminality is disappearing from our spaces, while interpersonality – a feeling of oneself confronting another, at the same point in time – is becoming ever more relevant: being human in the context of the natural synergy between all forms of life and all the resources on this planet.
Alex Kranabetter: That’s also in the text of Breath in Definition: it’s about how we deal with resources, how we deal with each other…
Ingrid Schmoliner: Look carefully at a face: the right and left sides are energetically different; the perception changes according to the side. It’s exactly the same with interpersonal interaction: there’s a spectrum between proximity and distance, between sensitivity and detachment, the left and right halves of the brain, polarity, and everything in between. A lot of details that are completely lost in our digitalized world. The uncontrollable, the unrestrained frightens people more and more precisely because it’s ungraspable, uncontrollable, but manifestly perceptible. That’s why there’s this increasing attempt to standardize and dominate everything.
Alex Kranabetter: And at the moment, the world is generally really draining. That’s why “breath in definition” is such a multifaceted phrase to me: it refers to a lot of issues at the same time, but of course it also has to do directly with breath and with touchable humanity.
The piece “Breath in Definition” is the last track on the album. Why did you put it at the end?
Ingrid Schmoliner: It’s meant as a kind of epilogue. Our music is mostly instrumental, and it adds a spoken dimension at the end.
Alex Kranabetter: Exactly: we wanted to avoid at all costs putting it somewhere in the middle. If it were at the beginning, it would have had a completely different effect – as an opening to something that never takes place.
Ingrid Schmoliner: This way, it works more as a conclusion. If you really try to absorb my text, to take in the multiple meanings of the lines, you may be able to get closer to the complexity of your own biography and understand our music differently the next time you hear it.
Alex Kranabetter: It may also be a kind of teaser for whatever comes next.
“When one door closes, it often allows another to open.”
At the beginning, you said you made a lot of recordings. How did you settle on the final tracks? Were they clearly defined at the outset, or more mismatched pieces that fell together later on?
Alex Kranabetter: At the last recording session, everything was already very constructed – we tried a lot of things out, recorded a lot, and then filtered the final pieces out of them.
Ingrid Schmoliner: With “MIN” and “Iridescent”, we wanted that atmosphere, that length, that arc.
Alex Kranabetter: We did some post-production on “breath in definition” and “Gitta”, added certain elements to them.
How did you choose your guests for the album?
Ingrid Schmoliner: With Lukas [König], it was obvious – we both respect him a great deal as an artist, and we knew his elements would be an enrichment.
Alex Kranabetter: He’s unbelievably versatile. Working with Anja [Plaschg, aka Soap&Skin] was more organic. She had already heard some of our music and was interested, and then the idea for her to take part arose.
Ingrid Schmoliner: That was really a lucky coincidence. When one door closes, it often allows another to open.
Alex Kranabetter: Originally, we were going to collaborate with Maja Osojnik; we even went into the studio thinking about what Maja could do. That’s why the first piece was so minimal. As it turned out, though, there was too little time, because we worked for so long on the album and then Maja went on sabbatical – and then Anja listened to the material and said: I could do something with that. And that’s how it happened.
Where would you situate drank – on the Vienna scene or beyond?
Alex Kranabetter: Do you mean in terms of genre?
Yes, but in the sense of how to prepare people for one of your concerts, especially if they’re not part of your scene?
Ingrid Schmoliner: It is possible to write about music without giving away too much.
Alex Kranabetter: I’d say that drank arises out of our musical possibilities. We bring a lot of influences to the table, both as composers and as improvisers.
Ingrid Schmoliner: drank works with influences from ambient/drone/minimal music, poetry, trance, circulation, stimulation, depth, silence. And yes, of course it’s experimental and narrative, and sometimes massive…
Alex Kranabetter: It’s not easy to pigeonhole. That’s what makes it interesting for us.
Ingrid Schmoliner: Yes.
Alex Kranabetter: When you’re at our concert, you know it.
Ingrid Schmoliner: The ad for our last concert described us as a “stellar duo”.
Alex Kranabetter: That’s nice, too – and somehow appropriate!
With music, we don’t want it to be the same thing all the time. How important to you are concert announcements and press releases in terms of reaching people who might not otherwise experience your music?
Ingrid Schmoliner: Very important! I feel like advertising and press materials are often handled far too offhandedly. Sometimes there’s no real statement about the music in there at all.
Alex Kranabetter: Yes, they’re often just empty phrases. And when it’s about experimental music, it’s actually that much more important to offer people some sort of introduction.
Are you satisfied with your press biography?
Ingrid Schmoliner: Very! Peter Margasek really did research and asked a lot of questions about how our music works. A lot of times, people think that I use electronic effects – but it’s a purely acoustic sound; it’s just well mixed and projected into the room. It was important to me that that be made clear in the text.
Alex Kranabetter: It’s also great when the text isn’t just kind of generic, but is really tailored to us.
“I like working with people who can really get deeply into repetition.”
Your music is very processual. How difficult is it to put into words?
Alex Kranabetter: Extremely difficult!
Ingrid Schmoliner: Yes, I think the most important thing is for people to just listen to the music. drank can be a lot of things, and which piece appeals to you at the moment depends strongly on your own mood.
Alex Kranabetter: It changes constantly. Sometimes I like one piece better, sometimes another.
Are there experiments you’d like to try with drank in the future?
Alex Kranabetter: For us, playing live is the greatest experiment.
Ingrid Schmoliner: Yes! Particularly because we have two concerts now where we have to play completely acoustically, which means Alex will be working without electronics. We’ll have to find new solutions.
Is there anything else you’d like to say conceptually about the album?
Ingrid Schmoliner: Good question…
Alex Kranabetter: I think we’ve said everything.
Ingrid Schmoliner: It’s important to me that it stays alive. I don’t want to be onstage and feel dead.
Alex Kranabetter: That would be bad.
Ingrid Schmoliner: I have a hard time with rigid music. But with imprecision as well.I like working with people who can really get deeply into repetition, open themselves to the music, so that it gets a trancelike character. That’s essential for me.
Alex Kranabetter: That’s why the pieces are so long. Our tracks are often between ten and twenty minutes long, because you need time in order to slip into that condition.
Ingrid Schmoliner: Exactly – it’s a kind of meditation.
Thank you for the conversation!
Ania Gleich
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Translated from the German original by Philip Yaeger