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Boulez Materialism 

 

Christopher Dell - vibraphon 

Johannes Brecht - electronics

Christian Lillinger - drums

Jonas Westergaard - bass

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DELL BRECHT LILLINGER WESTERGAARD 
Boulez Materialism  


The Dell Brecht Lillinger Westergaard Ensemble (DBLW) invents musical constellations that are characterized by a tight intermeshing of tonal structures and hyperreal soundscapes. Yet, what DBLW creates is different to, for instance, the hyperrealism of 15th century Dutch painting, because they are more concerned with an intensification and materialization of the non-representable areas of music than with ultra-perfect representation. 

The interplay of acoustic instruments with electronic soundscapes is driven by an ideological-critical moment to demonstrate that the oppression of the individual can only be countered by the totality. DBLW’s music negates the specific as well as the general and hence, moves toward an absolute identity where precisely non-identity, which it still contains, comes to light. 

By interweaving serial as well as motive- and theme-related procedures, DBLW’s music aims at relational organization, especially where these procedures differ significantly in their relation to unity. While serial composing focuses not only on unity as fact, but also on what remains hidden within it, sthe motive- and theme-related musical composition establishes unity as something in process and, thus, eventful. 

It is possible to compare a music ensemble with a purpose such as this with experimental science, which has to expect surprises by their results. To paraphrase Hegel's theory of phenomenology, “Against that view it must be pointed out, that truth is not like stamped coin that is issued ready from the mint and so can be taken up and used. Nor, again, is there something false...” DBLW wants experimental music to no longer be budgeted “with stamped coins,” but should create compositions in which development influences form and in which form cannot be predicted in the production process. 

This allows the music to unfold a uniquely independent aesthetic that is open to multiple differentiations, variations, sound overlays, and referential contexts, which gives way to intense three-dimensionality and plasticity. In formal terms, DBLW's real-time compositions combine energetic play with rigorous execution. While compositional elements are interconnected in real time in ever-new ways, the focus remains on the development of form as a production process. DBLW is a relational ensemble in which all partners are on equal footing and, thus, transcends the traditional counterpart of solo artist and accompaniment. “Boulez in real-time” is how Tim Gorbauch described it in the Frankfurter Rundschau.