It’s 2021! The stars are shrouded tonight - but yesterday (in the Lüneburger Heide) was the first night this year here with a clear view of their artistry.
I have decided to bestow upon you some adjectives: curiousity, candour, ruth, resilience.
I hope that the beginning of the year has been… well … ahem. I hope that everyone has been doing their best in keeping themselves and their community safe, and has also been making the best of difficult situations, which I am sure that many of us find ourselves in.
In these times, I think of beloved friends and family and cherished colleagues near and far often. Many who are involved in the culture industry are truly suffering, as most people are aware of. Let’s please remain united and never stop believing in the importance of what we and our admirable comrades are doing.
Now follows the news of three musical projects that are or will be available/ happening online. Maybe you can find the time to take a look/listen.
///////////////////It seems fitting that the first news in this little newsletter is related to some friends and artists who are extremely important to me, who have inspired some intimate works. There are many ways of listening to these pieces, but one of them might be a musical implementation of certain character traits of these extraordinary human beings. I'm a little late sending this, but the good news is is that you can still hear it online for the next 30 days:
14.01.2021, 00:05 (NOW! Link available online for 4 weeks)
Deutschland Kultur, Neue MusikUngeteilte Wahrnemung - Die Kanadische Komponistin Annesley Black - vorgestellt von Carolin Naujocks
Annesley Black: "aorko" for viola and live electronics, "scissors" for trombone solo, "Moment-Curitiba-Vorspiel" for quintet "4238 de Bullion" for piano and live digitally processed sound and video.
with:
Jessica Rona (viola), Andrew Digby (Trombone), Ensemble Ascolta and Rei Nakamura (piano), Annesley Black (live-electronics).
Link:
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17.01.2021 (to be published online, available indefinitely)
"1000 Scores. Pleces for Here, Now & Later” is an online performance space created and conceptualized by Helgard Haug, David Helbig, Cornelius Puschke and Rimini Apparat, that presents new scores from various artists on the web.
More about 1000 Scores: (Please take a look at the other inspiring contributions)
https://1000scores.com/about/
One of the nice things about these scores is that they are meant to be performed at home, and are not only for musicians.
I was commissioned by the International Musikinstitut Darmstadt (Darmstädter Ferienkurse) to create a score for this project. It's a text-based video score and is called
TOO BIG TO FAIL
It deals with the classifications relevant/ irrelevant a.k.a. essential / non-essential.
This audio score will be released this Friday 17.01.2021. I would love to hear/ see some interpretations. Remember: you don't need to read music or play an instrument. It can be danced, recited, sculpted, cooked, cared for, push-upped, cleaned, skated or even snowploughed. If you do an interpretation you are pleased with, why not record it and send it my way?
Starring: you
Link:
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28.02.2021 20:30 (online zoom event)
Music for Hotel Bars@Home Edition
Normally I would put this as "save-the-date" but the FIRST instance of this series is happening this Friday, 15.01.2021, with Les Trucs,an ironic, iconic, supersonic band(/duet) based in Frankfurt. Maybe I'll see you there? Or at the the next installment, the Music for Hotel Bars Machine from Oliver Augst? Or at the latest on 28.02.2021 at our contribution, Well, you back up and push - songs from the fifth floor.
Those who are familiar with this series may be wondering. . . or maybe not! Hey- it's 2021!
In Zeiten der Pandemie ist die einzige Bar, die offen bleibt, die Hausbar. Und wer hat da schon eine eigene Band? Vom 15. Januar bis 28. Februar 2021 beauftragt die Musikreihe „Music for Hotel Bars“ die Komponist*innen und Musiker*innen Charlotte Simon & Toben Piel (Les Trucs), Oliver Augst sowie Annesley Black & Friederike Thielmann musikalische Situationen für die unzähligen Home Bars in den Wohnzimmern und Lebensräumen ihrer Gäste zu kreieren. Über Youtube oder Zoom können sich die Gäste dazuschalten und neue Formate und Orte des Zusammenkommens erleben – sei es eine digitale Barmusikmaschine, die Welt einer gemütlichen Kellerbar oder die eigentlich geschlossene Marmion Bar im Lindley Hotel.
Das Publikum ist eingeladen, drei Abende online mit selbstgemixten Drinks, Gesprächen und natürlich neuer Musik zu erleben.
Die Abende sind kostenfrei und finden online statt. Die Links zu den Veranstaltungen sind unter www.musicforhotelbars.com aufrufbar. Jeder Abend wird begleitet von einem Signature-Drink, den die Künstler*innen trinken und fürs Publikum anleitend mixen werden.
So we have been working hard and have been trying to find ways to make site-specific art be available EVERYWHERE ONLINE.
I am proud to say that this has instigate one of my crazier instrumentations yet, and I have quite a few, but hold on to your hats for this one: Well, you back up and push - Songs from the Fifth floor
Music theatre/ performative online installation for bluegrass quartet, intimate hotel bar, fixed audio track and zoom conference
by Friederike Thielmann (concept/ stage direction) & Annesley Black (concept/ musical direction)
Joon Laukamp (violin/ mandolin, voice), Annesley Black (5-string banjo/ percussion, voice), Robin Hoffmann (guitar/ jaw-harp, voice),and Paul Cannon (contrabass, voice), Felix Dreher (sound engineer: fixed audio track)
Get ready for a a real hessen hootenanny under the shady grove of the European Central Bank, where the money is green, but the grass is blue. With bizarre arrangements of traditional tunes and their variations, recorded in specially sculpted situations - and tune in for our live reaction to/dialogue with/ independent visual counterpart to the collage of these recordings.
Link:
Friederike and I tried out a preview of the home-bar atmosphere last night (with milk mustaches.)
Come, please join us on these evenings!
Raummusik der inneren Seele
