Reviews
“The emphasis here appears to be on evoking the spiritual realm more than the motions made there….’Flute Soundscapes’ offers the key to describing these pieces. Added percussion, electronic manipulation, and sound effects too abstract to describe contribute to the music. Extended playing techniques such as simultaneous singing and playing, air attacks with no tone, bending pitches, and glissandos are fundamental to the sound palette. The tone quality in these pieces is great well centered, and deployed with much variety.” By Gorman, CD Review- Guide to Records, American Record Guide. May/June issue, 2021, USA.
“Yael Acher a.k.a ’KAT’ Modiano is a unique phenomenon on a number of accounts. The flutist is equally fluent in jazz and classical music, as the present album bears witness.” By Phil’s Review, Atlanta Audio Club, November issue 2020, USA.
“[R]ealizing [Bach] in terms of what the flute does best…greater flexibility and fluency of Kat’s flute… Kat’s solo flute pieces…track the poet’s thoughts as perfect correlative, in beautiful sine curves of sound that enrapture and illuminate our minds.” By Phil’s Review, Atlanta Audio Club, November issue 2020, USA.
“Her own compositions are particularly unusual and remarkable. Her delicate handling of her flute covers a wide range from whispering into the flute to wildly snarling, almost talking to the flute… It is always a special experience and treat to attend her concerts.” – The Danish Pioneer, Kirsten Vibe Phillppides, May May 16, 2016, New York, USA.
“The idea of light emerging, dying, emerging again is a sensual one and it is done here with great beauty and avocation” – By New Music Connoisseur, 2006, New York City, USA.
“Suite for the Spirits” conjures water nymphs with subs aqueous wow drifting overdub interplay, wavy arpeggios, and eerie inhalations…Sophisticated multitracks and electronics create glinting, spooky “Audio Images”. By Fred Bouchard, All About Jazz, 2006, New York City, USA.
“The extreme changes between the sounds of pan flute and the crystal-clear trills showed the instrument incredible capacity for variation, and created relaxing point in the afternoon, which main theme was the celebrated poet, Inger Christensen.” By Tue Andersen Nexø, Information, October 8, 2002, Denmark.
“Solitude was performed powerful, and sensitive by the Israeli flutist Yael Acher….sparkling baroque interpretations were given so that the heart was pounding with joy. The two Bach interpretations at yesterday’s concert showed that the flutist still has a total grip on reaching the core of the music, making the interpretations relevant.” – Bornholm Tidende, Poul 0. Lund, June 2002, Bornholm, Denmark.
“The Israeli flutist Yael Acher moved gracefully between the impressionistic and the expressionistic in her piece City Flights. And later she improvised fabulously over the choir’s solid sound in their piece together Semisoz. …After a beautiful, colorful Japanese-inspired solo flute, finished Yael Acher by playing again with the choir…” By Kjeld Frandsen, Berlinske Tidende, October 19th, 1998, Denmark.
“The concert began and ended (two extra tracks) with Acher’s own improvisations, first “Cantabile” from 1994. A piece, full of insight, well phrased, played with temperament – we should get much more of that later – and with a consistent contrast between pastoral expressions and stormy outbursts.” By Pol, Bornholm Times, August 6, 1997, Bornholm, Denmark.
“The temperament and energy, with perfect technique came forth clearly in Hindemith’s Acht Stuche. It continues in J.S. Bach’s a minor partita. Seldom is a Baroque piece played with such a deep and clear expression. And with a legendary elegance! Yes, the temperament was kept on short leash until after the two above pieces were completed. Now we got what was like discrete undercurrents in full scale. Breathtaking. Superb.” By Pol, Bornholm Times, August 6, 1997, Bornholm, Denmark.
“Two extra numbers were performed [by Yael Acher] before the audience, about 200, were fully satisfied. Here, what one had probably guessed in the introduction was confirmed. Yael Acher also mastered the difficult art of improvisation.“ By Pol, Bornholm Times, August 6, 1997, Bornholm, Denmark.
“Hypnotic Visual and Audio Event”- By Uri Klein, Ha’aretz, April 8th, 2018, Israel.
“The combination of the film and Acher’s performance created a highly inspiring cinematic-musical experience…purely modernistic in character, blasting around the film, encompassing, supporting, and enhancing it… The intensity of her composition and live performance destabilized the silence that characterizes silent movies. Her music also completed the film’s unsettling perception of reality and confronted it”- By Uri Klein, Ha’aretz, April 8th, 2018, Israel.
“I have seen the film many times but viewing the film with Acher’s music was like seeing the film for the first time. During the screening my gaze moved constantly between the screen action and Acher’s image standing and playing at the edge of the stage, dressed in a masculine suite and hat, and my wandering gaze enhanced the unsettling feeling that Wien’s film inspires in its spectators.” By Uri Klein, Ha’aretz, April 8th, 2018, Israel.
“’KAT’’s music created such an ecosystem in which to fully absorb the beauty of the film.” By Kristin Prevallet, poet., March 25th, 2018, New York City, USA.
“It was a Sunday afternoon, and it was not difficult to concentrate, since it was a gifted flutist who played the soulful resonating instrument. After the interlude of Mozart’s Andante in C major, we heard [Acher’s] interesting interpretation of [J.S.] Bach Cello suite III. in C major, here for flute. It must have been difficult enough to transcribe these complicated passages with doubles stops for the flute, but Yael Acher played effortlessly through the six movements, so that one forgot that the piece was written for the cello!” Helsinger Dagblad, Grethe Jorgensen, September 1st, 2005
“Even more beautiful was [Acher’s] contribution to new compositions for the flute. Her [Acher’s] Suite for The Spirits l-V Opus 3. was a fresh and unique piece of music in five movements. Every movement challenged the flute’s technique differently in playful ways. Contrasting expressions, suddenly a ’really’ blue sound, followed by a primal sound and much more, all processed here in a virtuoso-conscious treatment with high spirits that was felt among the audience, who gave Yael Acher long, steady applause.” Helsinger Dagblad, Grethe Jorgensen, September 1st, 2005
“Yael Acher ‘KAT’ Modiano is a flutist and composer known for her energy-packed pieces that transcend a multitude of styles.” High Line Blog, “Up Late: A conversation with Yael ‘KAT’ Modiano & Ursula Scherrer”, Victoria Tripsas, July 18, 2016
“Yael Acher is a flutist who isn’t about faking the funk. Instead of floating diaphanous tones on top of innocuous smooth jazz, her hard-edged Junk Kat Modiano ensemble is run from the kick drum.”- By Steve Smith, Time Out New York, Magazine, February 14th-20th, 2008, New York City, USA.
“Acher raises the excitement level frequently by using overblowing techniques to ignite the collective voices. ” Cadence Magazine, Frank Rubolino, June 2004
“Alert and poetic flute…supported by a dynamic energetic rhythm. Their concept of modernity, which is as the inheritance of post-hard-bop, is especially original and convincing.” By Thierry Quénum, Trans Europe Express, JAZZ magazine, issue # 545, February 2004, France.
“A deeply satisfying album [“Modiano”] which proves that it is true that jazz’s genuine strength is that it is a bastard art form, which keeps on finding new ‘holes in the hedge’ it can copulate with, and in every foreseeable future, it would be able to conceive piles of new non-degenerated and very greedy Bastards… Hallelujah! ,” By Anders Kirkegaard, Jazz Special, Issue #71 August/September 2003, Denmark.
“[The] sound created a space that really felt like the inner life of consciousness.“ By Lynne Constantine, George Mason University, August 28th, 2013, USA (Music for dance production Prisoner of my Projection” by choreographer John Ollom)
“Sparked by wonderfully evocative music from Yael Acher-Modiano”. By by David Noh, Gay City, August 29, 2013, New York City, USA.
(Music for dance production Prisoner of my Projection” by choreographer John Ollom)
“[A] bold, daring Bach –solo by the flutist Yael Acher, which initiates the spatial body energy in the beautiful pillar-yard, with her crispy tones and her androgynous jacket suit movements.”- By Anne Middelboe Christensen, INFORMATION, August 8th, 2013, Denmark. (Concert review, for dance production “Summer Dance Festival” by choreographer Tim Rushton)
“…When the dancer and choreographer Alessandro Sousa Pereira danced Tim Rushton’s piece, ‘Syrinx’, he danced as the seductive faun. A hot contrast to the beautiful flute that played enchanting Debussy, with a wonderful magical interpretation by Yael Acher” – Dans Kritik (Dance Critique), Monna Dithmer, “Gutter and Red Carpet”, August 7, 2013, Copenhagen, Denmark. (Concert review, for dance production “Summer Dance Festival” by choreographer Tim Rushton)
“Poetic Women Journey…From spirit to body, accompanied by electronic noise and mostly Yael Acher played the flute and with a recorded electronic art-noise. It created an audio spaciousness and let us dream together with the dancers.” By Erik Aschengreen, Berlinske Tidende, March 1st, 2003, Copenhagen, Denmark. (Music/perromance for dance production “[4]” by choreographer Tim Rushton)
“It is performed together with the flutist Yael Acher, who wakes the phantom-lady to life, with air-blowing, which throws a light over the stage…” By Alexander Meinertz, Politiken, November 1999, Copenhagen, Denmark. (Concert review, production “The White Lady” by choreograph Thomas Eisenhardt)
“Danish flutist awarded at the annual meeting of the American Scandinavian Society in New York…Acher showed that she was the right choice by performing her inspiring composition called, ‘Suite for the Spirits’. Her art stretches from the classical through modern, free-improvisation, contemporary and progressive, jazz and beat, Latin and electronics. She has performed as a soloist, in multi-performance productions, and in concerts in Scandinavia, Israel, Romania, France, and New York.” The Danish Pioneer, by Jens Ulff-Maller, January 2007.
“Ombre-bouchure… Her [Acher’s] performance reputation has developed to the point where she has been invited to perform in such far-flung countries as Israel, Scotland, Italy, Japan, Romania, France and the U.S. This has certainly given her a multi-cultural outlook on the works, something deeply reflected in her music”. Recordings, BLC 2008
