A digestible classical EP, ‘Trost’ marks the latest effort by Munich-based duo Kontai Ensemble. Across four like-minded pieces for violin and cello, the record collects four compositions by four international composers, Annamaria Kowalsky, Ralph Heidel, Friederike Bernhardt, and Matīss Čudars. The commissions happened with the help of the funding program Bayern Innovativ and the concert series Feet Become Ears.
Active since 2021, Kontai Ensemble is the artistic union of violinist Teresa Allgaier and cellist Juri Kannheiser, both highly trained classical musicians with flourishing, longstanding careers. Their approach to classical music is rather refreshing, with the pair working outside of traditional institutions in favour of a more underground, open-ended approach. On this occasion, Kontai has teamed up with Joan Arnau Pàmies’s label Protomaterial Records.
The EP owes its title to Maria Trost, the southern German chapel where the Kontai recorded the four tracks. A wide, open space, the chapel gives ‘Trost’ a large reverb that’s incredibly cathartic and hypnotic, and that places Allgaier and Kannheiser’s strings in an environment capable of making a duo feel like a whole orchestra. That’s what we appreciate the most about the EP: its evocative, overwhelming aural charge that’s musically rewarding as it is emotionally heavy.
Recommended! Discover ‘Trost’ now: