● MINIMAL MUSIC I: Bluray (2018)

A revision of three works from 2016.

High Ideals and Crazy Dreams, Drumstick Improvisation 2, Damaskus.

● High Ideals And Crazy Dreams [8:36]

An old recording, where I’m on a safari in the sound possibilities of a broken violin, is here thoroughly distorted. The result is a soundtrack with bass and drum sounding elements that easily could be sampled for sweaty dance music but I resisted the temptation.

First I thought of using an image of Ghandi but chose instead to do funny faces along with the sounds. These pictures are pulsating, triggered by a spectrum analysis of what you hear.

The title is borrowed from a song by New Age Steppers which is one of most icy dub tracks ever produced by totally lacking the haze of hashish and romantic goo.

● Drumstick Improvisation 2 [10:50]

As indicated by the title this is based on a session where I hit a wooden beam with just one drumstick. A graphical visualization of the sound waves is simulating a cartoon marimba which run amok.

● Damaskus [17:48]

This work developed from two different sound sources. One is sampled from the war in Syria where government troopers film with GoPro cameras from inside their tanks while they shoot a housing area asunder. These recordings I found on the internet. First all human voices are deleted. Then the remaining engine sounds and artillery salvoes are processed with fragmentation filters and ring modulators to unrecognizability.

The second sound source is a kind of metallophone, a homemade percussion instrument, assembled of parts found in bulky waste. Three metal bars are cut into the right lenghts (1.964m, 1.168m and 0.780m) to generate the notes F, D and concert pitch A. These are complemented by cowbells, a casserole lid, a bowl and a serving plate tuned in C. In my kitchen I recorded two percussion improvisations to accompany the treated civil war sounds. Both percussion tracks are used in their entirety, one is however only heard vaguely as a breathing or a shadow in the background.

The images of the video don’t show how the original sounds are produced but is instead graphical representations of the resulting sound curves. Spectrographic and kaleidoscopic effects create an abstraction far beyond the extreme origin. Flowerlike formations resembling Middle Eastern ornamentation or arabesques fluctuate back and forth in accordance with the two voices. In spite of this beautification one is fully aware of the struggle for power.

The work is meant to be a rather long piece of meditation music but you must consent to sink in and let your thoughts flow freely. Meanwhile you can consider if physical strength or ideological purity is decisive, if wars are won with Russian tanks or with kitchenware. I don’t take the side of either party but subscribe to the belief that conflicts are never solved through warfare on the battlefield or on the home front. See also ‘War Flowers (Damaskus) - Instrument version’ (2019). Go to page.

● MINIMAL MUSIC II: Kling Klang 1 & 2 (2016) [62:00]

Human voices processed to sound like bells intertwining in a never-ending web. Video for installation work or audio for meditation. See also 2017.

● MINIMAL MUSIC III: Infinity Fucked (2017) [51:24]

An Audio work exploiting the score for the infinity series from »Voyage Into The Golden Screen Part Two« by the Danish composer Per Nørgård. The series starts with G and As from which the following notes are calculated. In theory the series is infinite, but the composer chose to stop at note number 1024 to avoid exceeding the range of the eight instrument groups. I played the series forward and backward to stress this incompletion of the original composition. A beautiful clash between acoustic piano and electric guitar. Available on audio CD. See also Infinity.