New episodes on Mixcloud! My guest for this third episode is Berlin-based improviser and composer Hannes Buder, whose work concentrates on issues of movement, authenticity, intuition, minimalism, density and slowness.
Having performed across Europe, Australia and in the USA, Buder has also composed, improvised and recorded music for different dance, theater and film projects, as well as given workshops at festivals, music schools and prisons.
hannesbuder.bandcamp.com/album/ro
I had the honour to be invited to the home of Canadian composer John Beckwith in autumn last year. He came to see Tandem in concert at Toronto and I took the opportunity to sit down with him later on and have his thoughts on the art of musical composition.
Topics varied from writing music to text; hymn-tune and nursery-rhyme rhythms; operas; acting and performance in theatres, as well as electroacoustic composition. He even put questions to me about my improvisation projects – how we prepare an improvisation and the importance of human connections between improvisers.
Various names pop up, such as John’s long-time collaborator, poet, and friend James Reaney, and my ever-present late father, two problematic quotes of whose we chew over: “Various species of experimental music not made of notes might give pleasant listening experiences, but I don’t see why every pleasurable listening experience has to be called ‘music'”; and “Most music is a conversation with itself”.
The music you hear throughout the episode comes from various pieces of John’s repertory. The orchestral extracts featuring at the beginning, middle and end of the conversation all come from John’s 2016 piece, ‘Calling’, performed by the New Music Concerts Ensemble. You can also hear the first movement from ‘Pages’, for solo piano and performed by Barbara Pritchard, and the enigmatic second movement from the set of six fantasies for guitar, ‘Ut re mi fa sol’, performed by Peter Higham.
PS Don’t adjust your sound system! There’s an intermittent buzz in the right-hand channel of these recordings, due to my faulty Zoom microphone. Sorry.
I spent several days last summer with composer, improviser and spinet-player Christoph Schiller at his somewhat legendary studio in Basel. Given the concentrated subject matter, and the sheer length, of the discussions, I decided to make a three-part Echo Chamber special that deals overall with the question of freedom in musical composition:- composition as an emancipatory means to deeper reflexion and a more sincere gestural approach.
Composition in the sense we discuss it here becomes a tool that is more efficient in prying open interior dialogues within the musician than any score-less method; a tool whose sharpening is the result of a simultaneous rejection of Romantic ideals, various amalgamations with new technologies and improvised methods, and the embracing of the earliest written music practices.
The music you hear throughout this episode comes from Christoph’s bewildering piece Missa, recorded in Basel in 2016 and featuring many of the musicians and singers from the Millefleurs ensemble.
Find about more about Christoph on his website.
PS Don’t adjust your sound system! There’s an intermittent buzz in the right-hand channel of these recordings, due to my faulty Zoom microphone. Sorry.
I spent several days last summer with composer, improviser and spinet-player Christoph Schiller at his somewhat legendary studio in Basel. Given the concentrated subject matter, and the sheer length, of the discussions, I’ve decided to make a three-part Echo Chamber special that deals overall with the question of freedom in musical composition:- composition as an emancipatory means to deeper reflexion and a more sincere gestural approach.
Composition in the sense we discuss it here becomes a tool that is more efficient in prying open interior dialogues within the musician than any score-less method; a tool whose sharpening is the result of a simultaneous rejection of Romantic ideals, various amalgamations with new technologies and improvised methods, and the embracing of the earliest written music practices.
I took great pleasure in choosing what music to accompany these conversations, what sounds of Christoph’s that I not only have a personal fondness for but that also best give some kind of musical parallel to the content of our discussions. For Freedom & Composition Part 1, Christoph’s joint album with violinist Anouck Genthon, Zeitweise leichter Schneefall (Newwaveofjazz, 2019) fits the bill perfectly.
Parts 2 & 3 will be out in the coming weeks.
Find about more about Christoph on his website.
PS Don’t adjust your sound system! There’s an intermittent buzz in the right-hand channel of these recordings, due to my faulty Zoom microphone. Sorry.
Mon invité pour le dix-septième épisode fut le saxophoniste improvisateur Sébastien Branche. On s’est retrouvé chez lui à Leipzig en printemps pour prendre le thé et discuter les origines et la continuité de sa pratique de musicien expérimental, ainsi que celle de masseur shiatsu et professeur de mathématiques. Je m’intéresse beaucoup à son approche singulière et hyper-sensible envers un traitement musical du son, silence et bruit qui le mène sur un chemin que je trouve, il m’excusera, quasi-chamanistique.
Intéressé par les phénomènes perceptifs, il axe son travail principalement sur la matière sonore, se présentant avant tout comme un « faiseur de sons » qu’il donne à entendre. Il joue aujourd’hui dans le duo de saxophones Relentless, en duo avec l’altiste Cyprien Busolini ou avec Miguel Garcia à l’électronique, et en grand orchestre avec l’IMO. Il développe par ailleurs un travail en solo au saxophone ténor sur pied et électronique (Lignes), ou au soprano avec l’eau (saxoph2one). Il a joué en Europe dans divers festivals ou salles, pour des concerts, de la danse ou des balades sonores.
Cet épisode mets en écoute exclusivement l’éblouissant album Pnoladeu Avvrhig, deuxième sortie du duo de Sébastien avec Miguel A. Garcia.
Trouvez tout sur Sébastien, y compris ses autres sorties et où les acheter 😉 sur son site:
One of the last interviews I’ve made is with the double bassist and architect Klaus Kürvers, in Berlin. We spent a fine afternoon in his garden house while he told me all about his musical career, the exciting experimental music scenes in ’60’s Germany, and his particular sensitivity to the mental spaces created by musical improvisation with regards to his deep knowledge and experiences as an architect.
At a moment near the end, I’ve introduced some sounds from my neighbourhood in Marseille, I couldn’t resist when Klaus brings up sonic environments. Also, a softly ticking clock can be heard pretty much throughout this recording, an eery reminder of linear perception of time despite our trying to break out of it through conversation.
Klaus Kürvers, born 1950 in Essen (Germany), doublebass studies 1964-68 among others with Peter Trunk. During the late sixties member of the Essen Youth Symphony Orchestra and also at the same time of different amateur Jazz groups (“Free Jazz” since 1967); 1969-71 in Cologne with the Jazz-Rock-Group “Eiliff” (w/Rainer Brüninghaus). Interupted 1971-2006 his public music activities for his studies and professional scientific career as an architect and cultural historian in Berlin. Since 2006 resumption of his musical activities as part of the Berlin improvisers’ scene. Performing bassist again since 2009.
Klaus has released many albums in collaboration with many of the movers and shakers of Berlin’s improvised music scene, which can be found here.
The music featured in this episode is taken a recording session between Klaus and Madrid-based drummer Sam Hall.
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Enjoy.
Ed Williams 