★Trente Oiseaux
Slow Gestures / Cérémonie Désir (For Heike)
“It is very difficult for me to speak of this work, since it is getting very close to my goal of creating a kind of language free space. I thus prefer to let it go without further comment other than that I dedicate it to my companion Heike - each gesture is both speaking of her, and speaking to her, without words.” Bernhard Günter
Crop circles
a rare early work by Steve Roden, a visual and sound artist from Los Angeles, known for his musical work under the name 'In Be Tween Noise'. Steve felt that this particular work, music for an installation he has done, was far enough from the music of 'In Be Tween Noise' to ask us to release it under his own name. It is a quiet soundscape, produced by using only a microphone and a speaker to create the sound material, and designed to fill the room at a moderate loudness to let the listener take a…
then, silence
Then, Silence is dedicated to Morton Feldman and Luigi Nono. The experience of listening to their music has changed my understanding, my way of hearing, my thinking about, and my creating music so much that my own work would simply be unthinkable without it. Dedicating Then, Silence to them is my modest Thank You to Morton Feldman and Luigi Nono, expressing not only my admiration, but also the sadness their untimely parting causes me.
Resonant Cities
Resonant cites was made entirely from field recordings in different cites around the world. It was originally created for Kunst Radio project "frequencity", curated by Steve Bates. The work was recorded at the bubble house, in 2002. It is dedicated with love to Ruth Steiner.
Home, unspeakable
Home, Unspeakable is a collaboration between Duncan and Günter based on Samuel Beckett's last work, an opera libretto entitled Neither that he wrote on the back of a card for Morton Feldman. Although Günter and Duncan both claim Feldman as strong influences, this work sounds little like Feldman, but is instead a "series of musical 'places,' which in their entirety form the topography of a 'landscape' we feel might be described by the final words of Beckett's text: unspeakable home" (from the lin…
Legions in the walls
It's very difficult to explain or interpret what my music conveys – so that's why I work hard so that the music can speak for itself - no matter how vague the message or imagery - the energy of what it's communicating is what remains most evident."Daniel menche
Japan
Originally projected to be sold exclusively at our concerts during our tour in Japan in November 2001 this split CD of Steve Roden and me will be released on TRENTE OISEAUX, along with Steve's upcoming CD for our label, because we found ourselves to fond of the pieces it contains to limit it to this use. While the three pieces differ very much in style (mine being made of noises exclusively, while the two by Steve are using concrete sounds), they work together very well.
Univers temporel espoir
For this CD, mister Günter has remixed his 1997 piece “Un lieu pareil à un point effacé, 1ere partie”, which had been released on a CD that accompanied the American HALANA magazine, and reworked “Un lieu pareil à un point effacé, 2eme partie”, never released before. He has also made a new version of his piece “The ant moves - the black and yellow carcass - a little closer”, a piece mainly based on sounds from New York based artist John Hudak, who also wrote the title Haiku. This new version has …
Redshift / Abschied
"I was forming plans for a very different project in my mind when i came across a number of DAT tapes from my first sampling days in 1993, the time of 'Un peu de neige salie' - these tapes contained sounds i had not used in those days, and that i could not at all remember the origins / sources of, but that sounded interesting to my present day ears. I thus started to work with them, without the slightest idea of what might be the result, and the piece kind of made itself - the result was a struc…
Crossing the river (night music)
Crossing the River is calm, peaceful, and beautiful, guaranteed to slow you down after a busy urban day (but unlike chemical products designed to this effect, it leaves your mind clear and aware). The effect it had on me was that i bagged my elaborate liner notes about 'crossing the river' as a Buddhist metaphor for reaching enlightenment, and replaced them by this:
Time, dreaming itself
This work's main aspects are, as its title suggests, Time, and the notion of Slowness. Of complex harmonic design similar to "brown, blue, brown on blue (for Mark Rothko)" the composition uses both instrumental images and elements of a more soundscape type character, plus a non-tempered scale as the basis for the various transpositions of the sounds. Other than that, i think it speaks for itself...
brown, blue, brown on blue (for Mark Rothko)
“I finished "brown, blue, brown on blue (for Mark Rothko)" in mid-july 1999, and it picks up where "Slow Gestures / Cérémonie Désir (for Heike)" left off (actually, the two pieces can be listened to as one large work in two parts...). It is dedicated to my favorite painter, Mark Rothko, and the title is taken from one of his paintings that has accompanied me for a long time as print hanging beside my bed. I finally got a chance to see this painting in an exhibition of Rothko's works at the Musée…
Til odslig horisont
Til odslig horisont evolves slowly and quietly over forty-five minutes and rewards the listener's attention with a great listening experience, manifold soundscapes and atmospheres melting into one another. As often, describing this work will not do it justice, and so I propose that you make yourself comfortable, close your eyes and simply listen. You will enjoy it without an eloquent description.'B. Günter