The Kilowatt Hour - Premiere for Festival MITO SettembreMusi

[inkinthewell]

Here's a good review (and not because it's a positive one, but because it's well written and the author gives the impression she knows what she's on about):
http://www.shuffle-mag.com/news/sylvian-mathieu-fennesz-the-kilowatt-hour/

This is my yucky translation:

ROMA, 22 September 2013 -:- AUDITORIUM PARCO DELLA MUSICA

One of the most anticipated events of autumn 2013 sees three distinguished interpreters of musical experimentation, Stephan Mathieu, David Sylvian and Christian Fennesz, take the stage behind sophisticated electronic stations. Three giant screens at their backs show fluctuating and rarefied images. The three artists, on the basis of previous collaborations, have created a really fascinating project in which the sound universe produced by their individual and common experiences is inseparable from the visual art.
This compact ensemble of rarefied and elusive sounds, is made using cleverly selected instrumentation - David Sylvian: piano and laptop; Christian Fennesz: guitar, pedals, laptop; Stephan Mathieu: zither, e-bow, laptop, mixer. The three musicians, enshrouded in total darkness, produce ephemeral yet firm harmonies, apparently ignoring each other but giving proof of a solid interplay, in spite of only few rehearsals before the tour.
The human voice enters this universe of impalpable sounds exclusively through recordings - and you can't help thinking of past projects: from the spoken parts of the first track of the instrumental section of "Gone To Earth" to the works Sylvian produced in collaboration with experimenters and sound designers like Holger Czukay. Leaving aside self-quotations and other sources, the novelty of this project lies in the deep reflection on the earthly experience of the human being, rendered through sounds and beams of light. A story, a narrative of sound whose drama unveils at the end.
In this sonic and visual discourse is a celebration of nature, evoked visually and verbally - corn fields, seagulls, sky - the main character of an immediate enjoyment limited to the present time, that of the unique pleasure experienced in a transitory and transient moment.
The picturesque representation of the natural world is disturbed by artificial piercing sounds (due to Mathieu's brilliant mind), while the rhythm of this mass of sound and images, primarily under Fennesz's responsibility, is alive and kicking, although imperceptible; it's something that relates to the movement of stars and planets, to the phases of the moon, the vital rhythm of the universe.
The improvised piano and guitar parts insert themselves on a ready-made carpet of synthetic sounds, and are the introduction to a new visual elaboration of the sound texture, hypnotic and concrete. It's the encounter of two opposite spheres: one is the expression of the breathing of the soul, a combination of acoustic and sampled sounds, the other is made up of distorted or artificial sounds, noises, and electromagnetic vibrations on which the narrating voice returns as the screens show the perfect symmetry of spherical shapes floating in a dark, magmatic background. The threads of this plot join to raise a powerful and insurmountable wall of sound, while in the final section samples of strings from Schubert compositions lead the narrative to its end: death.
"The Kilowatt Hour" is a performance characterized also by its brevity - which, considering the intensity of the emotions aroused, can be considered a virtue. And still it can be read as the chronicle of the story of a human being: the space of time of an entire life condensed in little more than an hour.
It's the sound of our lives today, in 2013, whether we like it or not.

Susanna Buffa

[inkinthewell]

Live in Rome 22.9.2013

https://soundcloud.com/#srdjan-mitrovic ... 13/s-3S4BI

It's great to hear the whole performance rather than little snippets

Banyan

Excellent. Some bits bring back memories from the performance, others sound completely new. On the whole, it's sounding better than I remembered, getting more familiar.

[inkinthewell]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHKpKmOMeqg

[ob8]

The recitation takes this to another level for me. I don't think that the music is particularly interesting or new on its own but from the clips I've seen the combination really works. I realise they've said the sound will develop and change from performance to performance, but how much?

I feel however that the recitation may have had more impact for many in the audience if elements in local languages could have been added (such as Sakamoto did with a live version of "War & Peace" in Japan). For some non-English speakers the recitation may have not meant much at all, although the voice has an interesting quality, the true impact is felt listening to and understanding the words.

I hate to say this but I did not enjoy the concert in Pescara one little bit. The show dragged and I found myself clock watching and wishing the show away.

The music was at best average and if this is the end product these 3 talented musicians can come up with then to me this collaboration is an absolute failure.

At best this would have been the music for an installation but as a concert it did not work one at all for me.

The only saving grace for me was the voice and recording of Franz Wright. I was not familiar with his work and I was not sure if the recording of Franz was a recitation of some of his works or an ad lib recording. I figured he was reciting his work and his poems were dark but tinged with a subversive humour. I loved listening to his recitations. I ordered Kindertotenwald right after the show had finished. I think most of his recitals came form this book.

There was a lot of people saying after the show that there should have been subtitles as they could not understand Franz Wright and I think they have a valid point.

I have listened to the show four times since returning and the music does not grow on me at all. David on a piano for over an hour without any real structure is nothing more than self indulgent nonsense. If he wants to improvise then he needs to bring in the musicians with the talent to make a concert like this work. His talents lie elsewhere.

I don't blame David for doing this and like anything you have to try something before you can say it's not for you.I hope David takes something from it and does not repeat this mistake. His voice and his words are without comparison, and without them we all were missing that special something.

[kitaj]

I myself am loving it more and more. I think it's truly a touching peace. I may be in the minority as not being crazy about David's singing in general and especially in the last few years, and I've always loved him in the instrumental mode, so it's right up my alley.

anyway, I wanted to post this blog entry by guitarist Gary Lucas, which apparently shows Franz Wright also did some collab of sorts with him with regard to the Kindertotenwald collection: http://garylucas.blogspot.com/2010/04/h ... html#links

[silentwings]

Stephan Mathieu has released some of his work recorded at the Kilowatt Hour gigs - available as a download at Schwebung.bandcamp.com. Fascinating to compare this back to the original performances and then to the piece in its released form (without Stephan) as 'There's a light...'

"Radiance V - for Franz Wright
1.
If you love, 08:00
2.
he wrote, 12:00
3.
or wish to love, 04:00
4.
do not dream. 20:00


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Recorded at Fønix Kristiansand, Officine Grandi Riparazioni Turin and Sala Santa Cecilia Rome in 2013, edited at Studio Schwebung during Summer 2016

The titles are a line from Kindertotenwald by Franz Wright, used with kind permission from Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC

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Stephan Mathieu – Phonoharp, Radio, Processing

Published by Touch Music/Fairwood Music
© ℗ Schwebung 2016


RADIANCE
Schwebung Étendue V
credits
released September 30, 2016

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PLEASE NOTE:
This album is also available in the RADIANCE Subscription Series, a limited 12CD box + 12 digital editions:

schwebung.bandcamp.com/album/radiance-subscription-series

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Thanks for choosing lossless music "