lange//berweck//lorenz: Nachtstücke / synthetic DNA 1

Asmus Tietchens is one of Germany’s best-known artists in the field of abstract music. In the new commissioned composition “pseudo topos”, he wants to “sonically describe a place that is actually not a place at all”. The place is rather a condition that Tietchens describes with different sounds and noises. They do not follow any conventional rhythm, harmony or melody. The tempo is restrained, the dynamics are limited. The composition has neither a defined beginning nor a defined end, therefore the duration is also arbitrary and can be adapted to the respective performance situation.

Alongside the work “pseudo topos”, lange//berweck//lorenz presents the “Falter-Lamento” from his first solo LP “Nachtstücke”, which attracted considerable attention on its release in 1980: it came out almost two years later than originally planned, with an unauthorised subtitle and an entirely different cover. The album cover was originally intended to show a leather embryo whose eye was shot through by a laser beam: instead, the sleeve showed three blurry figures dancing. “Nachtstücke” has little in common with the “pseudo-pop” of the Sky phase that followed – but it does shed light on the sombre, ghostly aspects of Tietchens’s later works. When it was released, what Tietchens described as the album’s “gentle rhythms and blissful harmonies” did not seem at all timely. “Falter-Lamento” avoids dissonances, sudden accents and brutality of any kind. The repetitive opening motif floats in a whirl through different sound worlds, settling first on one keynote, then on another.

The works by Andrea Neumann and Korhan Erel are part of the trio’s project “Soundtracking”, which explores a new form of collaboration between composition and performance. Neumann and Erel have each constructed a soundtrack to which Silke Lange, Sebastian Berweck and Martin Lorenz play on the synthesizers with minimal specifications. In composing for the synthesizer, the problem arises that a specific notation can only be realised using a particular product/instrument. And any broader description of the sounds will be less precise. The approach of lange//berweck//Lorenz enables the composer to have a precise influence on the resulting sound and structure timings through the pre-set track. To a large extent the track replaces a written score. It prescribes a formal sequence within which the three musicians play following clear concepts or are able to improvise freely to varying degrees. The performers focus entirely on a listening approach to the composition.

For “Signale vom Rand” Andrea Neumann has recorded sounds from the so-called “Innenklavier” that she invented and from no-input mixers. The audio track engages with both physical and electronic resistance and borderline situations, making signals audible and examining their various qualities. The reverb-free space of the no input mixer and the reverberation of the “Innenklavier” are deliberately juxtaposed and connected. The sparse and rudimentary nature of the track leaves lange//berweck//lorenz with room to play and to interpret these phenomena with the means at their disposal.

The electronic composition “Losing Track in Four Movements” by Korhan Erel is a study of the development of an audio tape piece that can function both as an accompaniment for improvising musicians and as a standalone work. The piece uses both synthesized sounds as well as snippets of improvisation on Erel’s own instrument, the “Omnibus”. “Losing Track” is a playful reference to the composing process, during which Erel has lost their way several times, but also to the course of an improvised concert in which the musicians are prepared to “lose track” in order to embark on a new collaborative journey.

Bernhard Lang took inspiration from Gilles Deleuze for his extensive cycle “Differenz/Wiederholung” (Difference/Repetition). His “DW30: Loops für Klaus Schulze” was created for the trio lange//berweck//lorenz in 2015. Here Lang collaborated with Berweck to devise new notation systems. The piece combines instrumental sounds, vocals and electronics. It pays homage to one of Lang’s heroes: Klaus Schulze. Born in 1947, Schulze experimented with electronics in the 1970s and is regarded as a pioneer of electronic music. Many people even consider him the forefather of techno, while others see him as the inventor of ambient music.

Programme

Asmus Tietchens (*1947)
Falter-Lamento (1980)
pseudo topos (2022/2023)
World premiere

Andrea Neumann (*1968)
Signale vom Rand (2022)

Korhan Erel (*1973)
Losing Track in Four Movements (2022)

Bernhard Lang (*1957)
DW30: Loops for Klaus Schulze (2017)

Cast

lange//berweck//lorenz
Silke Lange, Sebastian Berweck, Martin Lorenz synthesizer