|
|
|
|
Christian Zehnder about his work
"My language is music—I compose with voice, sound, light, objects and with the body. Already at the time when I was working with Stimmhorn, my greatest concern was to create an inherent vocal and instrumental theatre form in which music, non-semantic language, light and image (sculpture) would unfold having a will of their own and to create visual and auditory landscapes which through scenic compression would develop a sense of autonomous dynamism and evoke an intermediary world far from genre concepts.
In my recent works (solo & more), musical, theatrical or visual compositions have, for the most part, not been created in a traditional manner. My idea of performance is to create a kind of event. It is idea transposed into action, similar to conceptual art. It comes into existence at the instant of its execution and is the process of its own realisation. It is consummated in the here and now, is unique and lives from the immediacy of the voice, the breath and gestures. Above all, it analyses and dissolves borders, so that at its best, it can create new intermedial art. Not without reason do I again and again refer to the earliest forms of performance art: to Futurism and above all, to Dadaism which comes nearest to my sound-performance world. I do not wish to portray anything during my performance. I myself create the event. I am surely more or less theatrical in my approach, but am not making theatre in and for itself. I move consciously across the borders of music, language, theatre, visual arts or as in my recent work 'popple music', into the area of Pop Culture. During my performances, I emphasise the "one time" happening. I believe that the artist and the artistic work can not be separated one from the other.
Lost Ways of Singing
Phonetic poetry pushes the boundaries of poetry and music. It is made up of new sound connections without conventional word meaning or articulation of the human voice. It is for the most part determined by the artist or by the composer for the acoustic presentation.
My (live) performances are extensively concerned with new sound combinations and with new, partially electronically supported experiences and arrangements of atypical vocal possibilities.
The vocal event is deeply rooted in the theatrical and performance aspects of my life. It is hardly distinguishable from incantations, from religious or pathological verbal expressions, from man-made or secret languages, from song without word in music or from phonetic transcriptions of animal calls (and corresponding onomatopoeia). I believe that when one deals with the inexpressible, it also implies a confrontation with certain spiritual questions of our world: the voice sets out—goes on a journey—discovers the unknown—and transforms itself into a new consciousness, a new perception inherent in language and communication.
I compose artificial, theatrical and musical sound-poems, in which the moment of articulation, by way of gesture and sound expression, comes into existence on its own. I create poetry mainly in a non-semantic linguistic form. I believe in the power of communication of feelings and rely spontaneously upon body language. The exploration of the body and the voice, the search for one's own (also traditional) roots, the desire to create a spontaneous and emotional language which crystallises in a musical form, which is derived from an archaic form of expression—these are the main directions of my work, be it in connection with saxophone, alphorn, percussion, electronic music or other instruments.
Sound produced by sudden closing and opening of the glottis & Overtone singing
My singing has also an almost obsessive kind of love for alpine music, that is, for the earliest forms of the yodel or for the culturally-related sound which is produced by the glottis. The fact that I, as a vocal performer, combine the yodel with creative overtone singing from the world of shamanism is until today absolutely unique. Yodelling and overtone singing are the main stylistic elements of my work, which I constantly associate with or distance from European classical and archaic vocal techniques. Using these elements, I as a sort of vocal painter create a non-semantic, and sometimes rather amusing linguistic and tonal cosmos, without denying the roots of my alpine homeland.
Working with Electronic Music
When one works with electronic music in live performances, it is of experimental nature, as long as one does not simply reduce it to playback. It demands a spirit of discovery and joy in innovation, in order to reach the spectator as listener. New technology can be sought out during the live performance and can be experienced in dialogue with other action performers, as well as with the public. Concerning live electronic music, what interests me most is the connection between sculptural sound and action performance. One is able to explore new, unheard of and unseen horizons as well as new potentials of expressiveness. It is important that the natural expression of the human vocabulary (voice, body and language) stands out in contrast to electronic music, analyses it, or even ignores it at times. In our day in age, the computer and electronics offer a new and still yet unknown potential for creativity and communication. Particularly in the latter, unsolved questions and certain illusions are yet hidden, which I believe should be investigated.
The "popple music performance" is not really about my personal affinity to Pop culture. It concerns itself to a greater degree with the dissolution of genre concepts and is also about the zeitgeist of electronic music: synthetic worlds of sound and human beings.
Machines
Musical aids have always played an important role in my work as a vocal performer. These "accompaniments" are for the most part taken from daily life and become part of my spontaneous vocal form in a quite unexpected fashion and create a novel artistic momentum.
At the present time, I am working with rotors in different ways. The idea that one could make music with propellers was something which occurred to me some years ago. I worked over a longer period on different prototypes, but was never really satisfied with the results. While during my later investigations I encountered the phenomenon of certain archaic whirling devices ("Schwirrholz"), which function in the same manner as rotors do, was I finally able to get onto my original idea of the sound which the instrument can produce. In the polyphonic combination of "Schwirrholz" and propeller, I was able to conceive of fascinating harmonic constellations of great energy. In addition, the use of whirling machines is captivating because of the unusual physical, as well as theatrical qualities of their manipulation.
It is particularly pleasing to me that the 'popple music' performance will include this spectacle for the ear and the eye. The tone quality and sound are amazingly similar to that produced by synthetic whirling effects. In this way, the "missing link" between mechanics (in its archaic form) and electronics has been made. On the CD, the recorded sound of the propeller unfortunately is not yet heard."
(Previous sound machines: the sound-rasp-sled, the milking machine-organ, the organ pipes balloon, the Transalpine Express, the vacuum cleaner-whistles, the vacuum cleaner-sound-vibrating membranes, etc.)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
