Plötzlichkeit. Gesten

The choreography of musical space is divided into numerous options. Composition and improvisation, closed and open form, stand side by side. They provide the material out of which the musical gesture is able to unfold itself. To communicate the relational affectivity and perceptivity of the material,

I have tried to create a musical language of “Plötzlichkeit”, suddenness. It is a language that combines the individual autobiography of the players with the complexity of the musical thought. Conceptually, it refers to the idea that affect and percept are not a matter of isolated mental states, but of relational dynamics between human and non-human actors, actions and discourses on a site. Taking this into account, a special sound is created: the open form of improvisation finds a structural mix with a musical language influenced by Béla Bartók, György Kurtág, Luciano Berio and Morton Feldman. This music demands the total, intense presence of each player. Gestures become as fast as the musical thought. The music then operates precisely in the interval between the constructed and the deconstructed, the composed and the improvised, the determined and the just found in the mode of “Plötzlichkeit”, suddenness.

Concept text for the recording Christopher Dell Plötzlichkeit.
Gesten, published in a booklet by enw, Berlin, 2002.