Shwoon
Shwoon
Statement
We are used to listening to music up close, but the experience of the concert hall still fascinates us: our physical relationship to sound is complex and contradictory.
Compositional credo
With microphones, we can explore all the phenomena of the sounding world. We can also make all other measurable and conceivable vibrations audible. Headphones allow us to experience all these sounds with enormous presence.
Even though I wouldn't want to do without these possibilities of listening, I mainly write music for the concert hall. The situation there is fragile, it can be more scattered than in a private headphone room. However, an attentive communal experience of human music-making can, if successful, be of unrivalled intensity and have a profound effect on us beyond the moment. It can give us support and at the same time disorientate us, triggering our search. The efforts and risks of such performances are always worthwhile.
In my music, voices and instruments are often interwoven with digitally generated layers. This is how I try to deal with our media-influenced perception (with our microphone ears and camera eyes, so to speak). The physicality of making music is important, but is sometimes blurred by the simultaneous presence of the virtual.
Curriculum vitae
| 1972 | born in Hanover, grew up in Hamburg from 1979 |
| 1992-97 | Studied at the Folkwang-Hochschule Essen: Composition with Nicolaus A. Huber (1992/93 also with Walter Zimmermann), electronic composition with Dirk Reith and Thomas Neuhaus |
| 1997-99 | Further studies in live electronics at the Centro Tempo Reale in Florence, combined with private lessons with its artistic director Luciano Berio |
| since 1999 | Artistic-scientific collaboration at the Centro Tempo Reale: research primarily in the field of spatial sound control and the development of complex live-electronic performance environments; participation in numerous productions, with a focus on realisations of Berio's works at major concert halls worldwide |
| since 1999 | Collaboration with the choreographer and director Claudia Lichtblau |
| since 2007 | Professorship for Electroacoustic Composition at the University of the Arts Bremen |
Selection of works
Orpheus and Democritus. Eine Klaviermusik mit Tonband (1997)
Three Salomonian Houses for soprano, flute/piccolo, guitar/mandolin and percussion (1997)
Broken Consort for ensemble with electronics (1999)
Le poumon oxygène for female voice and electronics (2000)
Cutting Clouds for high soprano (2001)
Thronlos for accordion, electric bass and electronics (2003)
Baskisches Mobile for percussion quartet and electronics (2004)
Glanz und Zwielicht for trombone and electronics (2006)
A Humming Drum for bass flute, bass flute, bass drum and electronics (2008)
Kerbholz for oboe, percussion and electronics (2010)
Pendelnde Schatten for alto flute and electronics (2010)
Knotenkunde for piano, two keyboards and electronics (2012)
Gespinste for organ (2013)
Flugträume for double bass and electronics (2014)
Springende Filze for piano with keyboards and electronics (2015)
Dünen mit Sanduhr for gayageum and janggu (2017)
Points (and less) for male voice with electronics (2019)