Blue Dog

The “Compositions for Trumpet and Electronics” continue the ZKM | Institute for Music and Acoustics series for solo instruments and electronic sound.

The brilliant and versatile contemporary trumpet player Marco Blaauw belongs to the modern generation of instrumentalists who have grasped that the further development of instruments and technical resources is part of the evolution of new music. He therefore sees the computer as a stimulus, as an acoustic counterpart of the musician, and as an instrument itself, which is there to be made use of in its potential. The four compositions recorded on this CD are prime examples of this openness in performing and experimentation.

They have been assembled by David Dramm, Yannis Kyriakides, Agostino di Scipio and Michèl Koenders who put both the instrument and the musician in the limelight in a very individual manner and take the listener to unexpected realms of sound: Yannis Kyriakides composes a tonally balanced interplay between instrument and tape with synthetic sounds, Agostino Di Scipio integrates the trumpet into an unstable feedback system, Michèl Koenders processes trumpet sounds in real time, and David Dramm stages a mixed-media constellation consisting of set and live components.

The communicative play in these four compositions is also interesting because it is based on the familiarity of the instrumental sound, involves this in different unpredictable interactions, which makes what is heard vivid, and emphasizes the performative quality of the interplay. This continually re-models the communicative quality of the reception, the relation of the music to the listener.