Beleuchtend (“Illuminating”) was a program concept developed by the ensemble from 2014-2016 using simple lighting techniques for an overall seamless staging effect between pieces.
This is not simply a didactic approach, but a creative way of bringing the audience closer to our interpretation of each particular piece. We want our role to be more than just musicians, we want to be closer to the role of a curator, who seeks to combine ideas from artistic works creatively, constructing a concept step-by-step with each musical piece fitting inside of an overall conceptual frame.
The program began in darkness with each piece traveling through various “images” (lighting “scenes,” like the theater term “stage image”) not to complete light, but only to the point of revealing the performers identities and bodily features. This was our attempt at a calibration of the visual and audible senses.
Lighting was always secondary to the music. It is not meant to distract or create another narrative. It is a simple exploration of the “concert experience”
Alex Buess – Eskalation (2015)
for 1 Large Tam Tam, 4 spacialized snare drums, 5 channel live-electronics
-supported by Kulturelles Basel-Stadt, Basel-Land
Michael Maierhof – Specific Objects 11min (2013)
-for 4 snare drums with sonic motors and plastic cups
Simon Løffler – b (2014)
-for feedback controlled with distortion pedals and fluorescent lights
Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri – Kein Thema (2007)
-for small objects (marbles, paper, xylophone bars, ceramic pots)
Georges Aperghis – Les Guetteurs de Sons (1981)
-for 3 percussionist and lighting engineer
the piece Eskalation from Alex Buess was comissioned with funds from:
