Music

"Music is the expression of what cannot be said and of what it is impossible to be silent about."

Victor Hugo 1864

A common thread...

Even though I preferred my electric toy train to classical piano lessons at the tender age of 10, and the joy of singing in the school choir came to an abrupt end when my voice broke...

In the end, music became a broad branch of the river in the delta of my life.

When I was 16, the toy train in the basement had to make way for a drum kit. And it was loud and could be heard all over the street, this drumming against the walls of the juvenile prison. Those walls held for many years, but gradually doors began to open:

  • own income as a dance musician until the end of my studies
  • non-verbal communication with fellow musicians and audience members
  • Access to the unconscious and my own emotions
  • The discovery of the political power of music, especially black music.
  • ...

My own music projects helped me to explore, structure and express my own creative potential, far beyond the musical:

Don't just stick to the last.

And there have always been concerts, workshops and recordings that have enabled me to make leaps of insight, to expand the boundaries of my perception and to show me and open up new fields of creative design.

With these audio and video examples I would like to share some musical aspects of my artistic journey.

Listening with the eyes

Every artistic expression contains the elements of tension, proportion, structure, rhythm, contrast... and that is only the beginning of a long list of words.

Listening, or more precisely, eavesdropping, reveals these elements beyond the words in the immediate moment. They fade away in the moment of creation, are fleeting and yet leave a trace in the memory.

For me, listening to music is always an opportunity to train myself to be immediately impressed and to listen to the echo that echoes in my memory. Sensory impressions go their own way, mixing and transforming into impulses that are realised in artistic expression, in whatever form.

A Story

When the Brazilian percussionist Airto Moreira was invited to audition for Miles Davis' band, he immediately began to play along cheerfully. Miles Davis listened to him for a while and then gave him the instruction: "Don't bang around, just listen!". After a few days of listening, Miles Davis came back to him: "Listen ...... and play!"

Strange Fruit

1940 A bitter indictment ...

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Thelonious Monk

His genius collides with listening habits ...

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Mercy, Mercy, Mercy

If something seems insurmountable ...

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Africa Djolé

Beyond the horizon of the drumset ...

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Star Spangled Banner

Jimi Hendrix in Woodstock 1969 ...

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Carla Bley

A composer of genius ...

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Fela Kuti Africa 78

Begegnung mit meiner "afrikanischen Seele"  ...

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World Music-India

Wolfgang Dauner & Charlie Mariano ...

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Timeless

The musical moment ...

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Ireland

Europe's Celtic heritage ...

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Karine Polwart

Enter the wild with care, my love ...

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