concept, composition and audiovisual electroacoustic composition by Ellen Fellmann
(25 min, black-white, stereo or 5-channel sound, 2015/ 2017
Musicians: Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin
assistant: Julia Hertäg
construction sound-image-instrument: Stefan Pernthaller
soundingeneer: Arne Vierck
videoingener: Oliver Becker
comission by Edith-Ruß-Haus for MediaArt,
Netzwerk Neue Musik and Klangpol, supported by Stiftung Niedersachsen
with generous support by the Electronic Studio of the Technical University Berlin
Soundengeneer soundrecording Musicians: Andre Bartetzki
© Ellen Fellmann 2015
As if produced by magic, in the composition Schwarz, ever-new movements and formations appear on three screens. Interrelated and yet autonomous, in line with a finely tuned rhythm, they behave in a contrapuntal manner to the acoustic voices.
From the motion of the volcanic sand, oscillating movements and resting surfaces in black and white form before our very eyes. The electro-acoustically composed music evokes associations of wind and waves, sand and scree, whose mighty force lies dormant under the surface in the installation. The seven sentences show highly diverging qualities between a meditative mood and an explosive, abysmal collision. The projection falls silent in black when the three classic instruments in the middle of the composition insert a caesura in an internal dialogue and give space to the purely musical composition.
Here, Schwarz, a composition for volcanic sand, violin, viola and cello, is shown as an installation version of an audio-visual composition that was originally performed live. In the piece, the form of the classic string quartet is redefined in a gestural choreographic way. The fourth voice accompanying the three classic string instruments is a sound-image instrument specially constructed for the piece, where the act of stroking the volcanic sand is recorded and then processed in the composition.
Ellen Fellmann has developed a gestural vocabulary of forms of movement that generates both animated visual and audio forms. The vocabulary served as the basis for the composition of the image and sound voices.
The piece is inspired by research into the so-called sixth sense, the sense of movement, which physiologically is located in the equilibrium organ, thus in the ear.
copyright Ellen Fellmann 2015
© Ellen Fellmann
