teeth

Ever since making their debut at MaerzMusik ten years ago, the EnsembleKollektiv have functioned as a cohesive musical unit that stands for artistic diversity. Four institutions of Berlin’s independent music scene – Ensemble Adapter, Sonar-Quartett, Ensemble Apparat and ensemble mosaik – have joined forces as a super-ensemble of sorts, acting as a mediator in a productive exchange across aesthetic boundaries and different musical traditions. The EnsembleKollektiv concert at this year’s MaerzMusik continues this principle. It will open with a work by composer Ashkan Behzadi: “Convex” for 13 musicians creates a complex, holistic soundscape from several discrete elements. This is followed by an interpretation of Helmut Lachenmann's piece “Mouvement (– vor der Erstarrung)”, composed between 1983 and 1984. Lachenmann’s examination of the body’s final physical movements before the onset of rigour mortis uses means of alienation and decomposition, repeatedly creating new moments of density and tension. Similarly, the music of Michelle Lou has a sculptural character. Her compositional interest primarily centres on the discursive potential of audio technology. For “teeth”, commissioned by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, she is working with a multi-channel system and using digital manipulation to pose questions of corporality and the mediation and alienation thereof.