It all started at Salon Goldschlag in 2018. Actually it started much earlier, but that concert in June 2018 was where we presented our program for the first time the way it was recorded in the following days and put out on the CD which we will be presenting in two weeks.
I had an inspiring conversation with a friend the other day. A graphic artist herself, she admired how musicians can improvise, create music on the spot. It seemed like magic to her. There are technical aspects of course, music theory to be learned and forgotten, physical boundaries and the limitations of the instrument. But the act of improvising remains magic.
We had been working on the raw material for the previous two years to develop fourteen duo pieces. There is a mix of compositional strategies. Some pieces are fully composed. Some are purely improvised. And some consist of composed and improvised sections. As Christoph Irrgeher of Wiener Zeitung put it: “A dialogue of airy, often lyrical sound gestures unfolds, carried out on the frontiers between Jazz vocabulary and free tonal expression.”.
The fact that it is hard to tell to which extent the music is improvised / written out is intentional. This open setting of little or no prior agreements demands a lot of musical empathy and trust from the people involved. It won’t work with just about anybody. It works very well between Oğuz and me. Henk Jansen of the Dutch Klarinet magazine had flattering words for it: “Their interplay is strong, intimate and unerring”.
We will be playing a series of concerts in Vienna, Passau (D) and Hallein. Ö1 Jazznacht will be hosting me on Saturday Nov 9th and our concert on the 11th of November will be broadcast on national radio. Woohoo!
For those who will not be around, join the live stream:
Jazznacht 2019-11-09-23:05 UTC+1
5 Mio Pesos Spezial 2019-11-11-19:30 UTC+1
The streams will be available for seven days after the broadcast, I will post a link once they are uploaded.
For those who can be around: please check the dates we have lined up for November and come to one of our concerts, I’d be happy to see you!
09.11.2019 Passau Café Museum 19:30
Ocouture-Burmeister, Innstadtkellerweg 11
10.11.2019 Hallein Cafe Pan 18:30
11.11.2019 Wien Radiokulturhaus 19:30
This post and all comments will appear on my blog.
Mario Vavti likes Sophie‘s status
Wow
To me this is among the most important information from the post:
I will turn up well prepared to the broadcast.
#^Mind Like Water, by Sophie Hassfurther Oğuz Büyükberber Duo
Thanks @h.ear.t
Yeah, I guess Hubzillians are more informed than the rest of the world… 😉
Happy to hear you will join us remote!
Here, taking notes 🙂 <3
elmussol likes Sophie‘s status
elmussol likes hEARt PhoniX‘s comment
Needs a public event me thinks.
I will stream. Not live probably, but stream I will.
Late reply… I was sick … but on my way to getting better!
@Manuel :heart: I am curious! Let me know what you think…
@elmussol happy to have you as a remote guest! And the public event is a good idea!
Tadaaa:
live stream of the concert for your calender
live stream of Ö1 Jazznacht (in German) for your calendar
@Sophie About what you write regarding improvisation and technique… Picasso was a great artist, academically speaking, but – as you say about music – he created his best art when he forgot the learned technique. Although better than forgetting, it’s better to talk about "transforming". In my experience with poetry, I see it more as a struggle between creative power and rules. From that struggle, when chance dictates it, an authentic and valuable poem emerges, which is not entirely yours or from tradition, but halfway. It almost never happens: either the technique wins or the subjectivity goes wild and an abortion is born. Rimbaud said that poetry consists of fixing vertigoes… I thought about these things while I was reading to you.
Alimentazione e quello che sta intorno likes Sophie‘s status
I can say that I like best what I have created, when I disappear behind whatever it is but fully and unconditionally dedicate to serve the purpose.
It’s this dissappearance that’s the hardest to achieve. But if I am constantly amazed by what "I have done", which I feel I haven’t, it has created itself, I am just the enabler, the tool.
I find your music very original, @Sophie . It’s curious, very different from anything I’ve ever heard and very difficult to taste at first hearing. From time to time I listen to one of the songs while I write or read and it’s always like experiencing something different.
Congratulations :-).
@Manuel that is a tough one 😉
I strive for a state of being in the present, in the now, when I improvise. Music is extremely complex, to understand the history or tradition one has to study a lot. To play an instrument one has to practise, a lot more. I once heard from a string player, that you have to practise one movement 1.000 times (for instance going from the note a1 to g1), before you have managed the movement and have a good chance of being able to execute it in whatever musical context. I have never checked the figure, but it seems plausible.
Then again, music is about emotion, not about scales, arpeggios or theory and counterpoint. All one can do is inhale the music you love in every possible way, practise, study, attend concerts, until it has become second nature. Let it sink in and, when you play, be open and available and share with the people around you. So yes, calling that transformation is a better term.
The interesting thing about improvisation is that you can’t win or loose this battle, because you either are there or you are not making any music at all. So the most trivial melody that objectively lacks any maturity, could be the exact right thing to play at that very moment. When there is no time for a second thought, no time for intellect, the now is all we have.
This of course drastically changes when I compose. About 80% of the pieces of music I start to write are complete rubbish and end up in the trash.
@hEARt PhoniX absolutely. Art only happens when there is no ego.
@Rafa Poverello Thanks for your kind words! :heart:
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@Sophie Great explanation! Thank you, sweetheart.
Mario Vavti likes Sophie‘s comment
Großartig. Weitermachen!
Likes @h.ear.t‘s Note I can say that I like best what I have created, when I disappear behind whatever it is but fully and unconditionally dedicate to serve the purpose.
It’s this dissappearance that’s the hardest to achieve. But if I am constantly amazed by what "I have done", which I feel I haven’t, it has created itself, I am just the enabler, the tool.
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You are most welcome, dear @Manuel !
@Carsten danke, mach ich 😉
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