We mourn the pianist Ulrich Löffler, member of the Ensemble Musikfabrik. He passed away at the end of August after a short serious illness. We would like to dedicate the concert "Clock Dies", in which he was to take part as soloist, to him.
Our deepest sympathy goes to his family and relatives.
The team of the Ensemble Musikfabrik and the Ruhrtriennale
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George Lewis Assemblage (2013)
für Flöte, Klarinette, Saxofon, Klavier, Harfe, Schlagzeug, Violine, Viola und Violoncello
Sarah Hennies Clock Dies (2021)
für Flöte, Klarinette, Violine, Viola, Violoncello, Klavier und Schlagzeug EEA
George Lewis Tales of the Traveller (2016)
für Solisten (beliebiges Instrument), Flöte, Klarinette, Trompete, E-Gitarre, E-Bass, Klavier, Violine, Viola, Violoncello und Schlagzeug
As a composer, musicologist, pioneer of computer music and trombonist, George Lewis is a legend of the American new music scene. As creative as he is critical, as philosophical as he is experimental, the artist has helped shape the landscape of musical discourse and sharpened awareness of the hegemonic structures that continue to determine musical life. The broad spectrum of his career informs every one of his works – and differentlyfor each one. In his restless composition Assemblage Lewis re-combines the most heterogenous musical ingredients, inspired by the concept of Assemblage in the context of scientific and technological studies as well as the philosophy of Bruno Latourand Gilles Deleuze, and by Assemblage artworks of African American artists like Noah Purifoy, John Outterbridge and Betye Saar. In Tales of the Traveller, he harmonises a composed ensemble part with two freely improvised solo parts (»The Travellers«), thus creating a kind of sonic nomad history.Contrasting starkly with Lewis’ impulsive music of unexpected turns, Clock Dies, by the young American post-experimental composer Sarah Hennies, unfolds in meditative fashion. In this piece she explores the question, what might happen when the biochemical circadian clock in the human brain experiences disruption. The artist, who is from Kentucky and is a generation younger than George Lewis, shares with him an extraordinary breadth of activity and engagement, which, in addition to composition, improvisation and percussion, includes the fields of film and performance art. Her interests revolve around socio-political and psychological themes, such as psycho-acoustics or queer and trans identity. Once we immerse ourselves in Sarah Hennies’ seemingly calm, even music, we also come across the unexpected in her work: a lively sound structure preserved in time, full of tiny impulses – micro stirrings and movements of hearing and reacting.