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SCHMICKLER, MARCUS - Demos (for choir, chamber quintet and electronic music)

Format: LP Label & Cat.Number: A-Musik A-32 Release Year: 2006 Note: lim. 500 Price (incl. 19% VAT): €13.00 Warning: Currently we do not have this album in stock! More Info MARCUS SCHMICKLER präsentiert mit "Demos" drei auskomponierte, anspruchsvolle Stücke mit viel Chor-Einsatz, die eher dem Bereich "Neue Musik" zuzuordnen sind. Grandios!! "Marcus Schmickler's recent release on A-Musik is yet another proof of his stylistic diversity. His music defies all attempts at categorization. Schmickler appears to be well versed in all musical genres, having reached a level of perfection which seems almost unique in these times. Demos -- which can be heard on this release in an arrangement for choir, chamber ensemble and electronic sounds -- deals with Nietzsche's thoughts expressed in his Zarathustra on the extent with which language could be dealt with (or addressed) as music. The piece does so on the basis of fragments from the text. The basis for (t)his philosophy Nietzsche perceived in the expression of the choirs in ancient Greek tragedy. Marcus Schmickler transcends the classic mythic emblems of ancient Greek choirs such as recitative and declamation by employing contemporary means. In the overwhelming power of the choir, Demos -- the Greek term for 'community' and commonly used for 'people' -- lets one sense the energy, which serves as a metaphor for a people and their ability to strongly voice their desires, their requests and their demands. Moreover, Schmickler's abstract and strepitous electronic sounds blend in an illustrative way with the text and the imagination of events portrayed in the dramatic performances of the choir. Thus they become projections of the clamour of an abstract mass. Demos is demanding, disturbing and suggestive in its idiosyncratic blend of sounds. This is a music which passes on the spirit of such luminaries as the late György Ligeti ('Requiem'), Jani Christou or Iannis Xenakis ('Medea'), but which in Schmickler's contemporary attitude gains a wholly different significance. Complementing the album are two excerpts of Schmickler's musical arrangements for theatre productions. All in all, this is an album which resurrects traditions as well as pursues the hitherto unheard in a unique way. In addition to that, it examines in how far constructivist and post-dramatic approaches can today inspire classic forms with new structures though the amalgamation of text, music and performative elements without betraying the qualities of the originals." [Joachim Ody] "Throughout the by now extensive career of Marcus Schmickler we have learned to know (and like) his work for its immense diversity. An improviser with the likes of Mimeo, electronic music as Wabi Sabi, Pol, techno with Marc Ushmi, post rock with Pluramon and electro acoustic with Kontakta. If that isn't enough, you should realize they all work with electricity. But Schmickler was trained as a composer and knows how to scribble notes on graph paper. On this LP only (what a pity that must seem to some), we find three pieces that deal with a choir. The opus magnum here is 'Demos', which means community in Greek, and the choir represents the ability to voice their desires, requests and demands and is based on texts of Nietzsche's 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' (and sounds nothing like the Strauss piece of the same name). It has spoken word vocals, sung vocals, cluster. The spoken word sounds like Eva Libertine of Crass, while the sung part is mediaeval like, like a mass. The chamber quintet provide with wind instruments and the electronic music ensemble scratching and squeaking noises, which all form a dense pattern of sound. Chaotic it may seem if you try to concentrate on specific parts, but listening to the overall sound things fall right into place. A scary piece, but very beautiful. On the first side of the LP we find '0' which seems to be for choir only. Building clusters of sounds, singing as well as whispering, with some vague sounds of falling objects, this is almost like Cardew's 'Treatise'. If that wasn't fine enough, 'Rache Ist Des Willen Widerwillen' is also on this side of the LP, which is an even better piece. The voices clearly distinct from each other, humming and singing, with a differation between the male and female voices. A great beauty this one." [FdW / Vital Weekly]