Concert, discussion and art exhibition
December 1st, 2022
Kunstraum Niculescu
Program:
Ignaz Schick Rof Oirt Rettimsnart (2022 world premiere)
Florian Bergmann Capriccio (2022 world premiere)
Benedikt Bindewald Neu gemischt (2022 world premiere)
Christian Manuel Zanon lembi scabrosi (2022 world premiere)
Makiko Nishikaze trans-formed for trio (2022 world premiere)
As guest: Nikolaus Schlierf (Viola)
Moderation: Patrick Klingenschmitt
Art exhibition by Christian Manuel Zanon

Schick’s work as a composer is based on a theoretical concept he developed himself, which he summarises in twelve chapters in the “Book Of Music”. Old photos, graphics, drawings or mathematical tables from books and magazines are collaged into visual scores or translated directly into musical parameters. This creates playful and exciting shifts, not infrequently Schick leaves it to the performers themselves to bring these formally structured specifications to life with their own sound material, whereby a clear overarching form binds the material.
The piece is notated in the form of a linear graphic score, which precisely determines the rhythm, while leaving pitches and timbres largely to the (spontaneous) decision of the performers. The basis is a cyclical groove inspired by experimental electronic dance music, which is sonically abstracted and transformed by the players. This results in a field of tension between the extremely different performance and reception practices of contemporary music on the one hand and beat-oriented music on the other, which is renegotiated with each performance of the piece.
We are constantly being remixed. The algorithm reads us, shuffles our cards, and throws at our feet what it thinks it recognises in us. No one really knows where things are going any more, reality has been chopped up into too many small pieces to recognise any thread or logic in it. We dance “for reel” to the beat of some whistle. And yet there is our own path in life. Our own thread that guides us, even if we feel it is lost.
Zanon makes no secret of his fascination with many aspects of musical technique, composition, the nature of sound and the importance of performance on stage. Even if they do not explicitly refer to music, the graphics and poetics of Zanon’s works – as well as his incessant thinking about the concept of time – nevertheless undoubtedly overlap with musical language and many of his works directly inspire a sonic translation.
Zanon’s works will be present in two forms: on the one hand as musical graphics translated into music, and on the other as a visual exhibition of the paintings and the sculptures linked to them.
Listening with the eyes?
Graphic notation offers musicians the possibility to imagine sound and action with their eyes. The notation is like a map that the ensemble can use to navigate together and create a space-sound situation. The composer accompanies this process to determine the final version.
supported by initiative neue musik berlin