With three years to go before the twenty-first century, the air over Bratislava is pouring from the West to the East, from the North to the South, over loosened border stones, freely as ever. Man has not yet discovered means to regulate the atmosphere flow, the freedom of which is always disturbing, for you can never tell what will it bring, in what combination and intensity. There is the same relation between these currents and the music of Pozon Sentimental, as there is between the apeiron and the world: they give uncontrolled rise to forms of Pozon’s music, they nourish it, watched by dazzled eyes of the listeners, and even, as I often suspect – of the composers, (future?) old masters, themselves. As apeiron is the eternal source of the most bizarre combinations of shapes, tastes and moods, pozonism, too, spreads its wings over us, ranging from the privacy of a street-organ and a violin to the heroism of heavenly sound cascades and colours.
Listening to compositions of Pozon Sentimental, weather-sensitive listeners feel as if the mild wind foehn was approaching Bratislava from the Alps: they feel like laughing wildly, yet, they experience almost disquieting nostalgia at the same time. Are we to envy them these feelings? I don’t know, it’s up to every listener. One thing is sure: musically, pozonism very seriously relies on the listener, it needs him, as one needs the missing player for a game of cards, it feels restless without him. Listening to music of Pozon, the listener – co-performer is easily transformed into an authentic participant of music-creating activity, for instance, by means of the noise of his coffee-spoon in his cup, of bursting into laughter or remaining in awe-struck silence. Pozonism doesn’t necessarily require that he takes part consciously, but it does automatically entice him into its game, even if he was in the middle of a noisy company. If you have doubts, just experience the ambience of the Prasna basta Cafe-Restaurant in Bratislava. Or listen to this CD…
Can one speak about the music of Pozon Sentimental seriously? I would say that what is serious, is the condition of the inquirer. Does it really matter whether this is „serious“ music, or, in Werich’s words, just fun? Music of Pozon Sentimental is not to be „comprehended“, „analysed“, but it surely is to be experienced. It is possible to relax and expose our atavistic antennae and sensors, and – as today’s young would put it – to rave about the effects of the pozonesque shower on the prehistoric membranes of our Central-European, if you want, middle-class, souls. This music pulls, it has a drive, both in terms of the past and the future. All composers of these pieces are linked to the deepest undercurrents of world’s music. It is important for us, listeners, not to lose connection with what’s going on here and now, to be united with the original message of each composer, without exception. Thus, inside, we can enable surprising encounters of the banal with the serious, the superficial with the penetrative, etc., while automatically transforming ourselves into a place of culture-creating activity. It is this Palmstroem-like spontaneity of pozonism that constitutes from the beginning the much-awaited contribution to Slovak contemporary music.
What amalgamates Pozon Sentimental is its inherent curiosity, humble humour and at times even wild playfulness drawing from Albrecht the essayist. Composers explicitly adhere to what is most straightforward and humane on the unique personality of Professor Ján Albrecht and his legacy. Hansi, as we all knew him, embodied the essence of style and humour of the Slovak, Hungarian and Austrian mentality, and he is by definition implanted into the genetic code of Pozon’s musicality.
That fundamental musical sensitivity, with which composers of the pieces featured on this CD choose their musical „material“, has strong Palmstroem-like features. Their macrocompositional technique used to treat the chosen musical material carries gargantuan allusions and pantagruelian collages. Do I have to continue by comparing their style of glorifying stupidity in music or in our everyday life to Erasmus?