New Music Days, Luzern

Music and art students come together for an amazing media evening. Does the music fall by the wayside?

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At some point there will only be a wall. A sea of ​​human bodies, an army marching across the screen. Naked, sexless, white and anonymous. The music gives the direction and drives the nameless lump in front of it. Life implodes and technology triumphs. Musically and visually. This performance of “Es-Wir-Ich” is a big cinema with the same soundtrack. It is the spectacular start with which the “New Music Days” will open their annual presentation on Thursday in the South Pole campus.

This visual-musical collaboration between the Universities of Lucerne – Music and Design & Art has a long tradition. An interdisciplinary course has been advertised for seven years. And the course has developed into an actual interface between student training and contemporary music. In recent years these events have taken place either in the Neubad or in the Maihof. For the first time, the new university building, more precisely the “Blackbox Kosmos” concert hall, serves as a stage. This gives the artists practically a free hand. The hall can be changed individually, depending on the project.

In the opening piece “Träum von mir” the musicians playing the saxophone and flute sit on pillars. Projected hands interlock from above and below, all around the pillars are illuminated with light. Kaleidoscopes that keep drawing new structures. The puzzling, searching music – creaking, breathing and lustful – is linked to the human longing for togetherness.

The next light theater, “Alchemia Somnium”, takes place at the opposite end of the hall. A sleeping woman, a white partition, a dancer and a pot are enough as utensils. Their shapes and shadows tell the core of the story. Rushing fields of film, an intensification of colors provide the storyline.

The music / projection mix “Juicy Fly with Diamonds” is then played almost classically on the screen. The rapper and the violinist set the sound. Four artists on the laptop convert this directly into schemes and images.

Mirror of your own screen world

Is that what the future concerts look like? Our world is more visual than ever. Various end devices illuminate and determine our being every second. Youtube, graphics programs and video clips are everyday items for the students. It is only logical that the young creative people also use this world of experience artistically. The other concerts of these “New Music Days” are also strongly geared towards the eye and the screen. In «Shapeshifters», modern classics are presented in a multi-media manner (Saturday). On Sunday audio-visual works by Óscar Escudero are on the program. “On the one hand, it is a coincidence that so much video comes together,” explains Erik Borgir, head of the university’s contemporary music department. “But it is certainly also the spirit of the times. It is positive: visualizations help to understand the new music. This is very abstract. The visitors are often not familiar with the history of the development of the modern age and have difficulty classifying what they hear. The latest trends in cinema and film, however, are often common knowledge. Abstract video clips are therefore understood more quickly. “

Is the music losing?

This mixture works extremely well in a concert. At first glance. Of course, the modern tones blend into harmonious paintings. However, in the perception of the listening listener, the music often clearly takes a back seat to the images. The composition becomes in part a mere accompanying program. The color and shape explosions are also very bombastic. The rapid changes, the staccato with which the stimuli flash through the screen, tire the eye and the imagination. As in many movies, the visitor is given little space for their own mind games. More stringency here would also sharpen the artistic profile of the individual groups. For example, the installation “Dream Shifting”, which is displayed in three rehearsal rooms, is pleasantly simple. A successful attempt to give the phenomenon of “minimal music” an equivalent. Simple, overlapping images of the person that open up creativity and life, especially in their “inactivity”. The question remains: will the music be changed forever here? “One cannot replace the other,” explains Erik Borgir. “Personally, I am a strong believer in traditional concerts. Pure hearing brings about a completely different depth and density. “

Note: Tip: “New Music Days” with various concerts until Sunday, June 27th. All in the black box cosmos, campus south pole.

The easiest way to find information about the program is to enter “New Music Days”.

SA June 26
2 p.m .: Blackbox Kosmos (also in the live stream).Highlights from the academic year
Works by Pierre Boulez, Helmut Lachenmann, Edison Denisov, Luigi Nono, among others; 8 p.m., black box cosmos.

Shapeshifters
Multimedia elaborations of modern classics; Sunday, June 27th, 2 p.m., Blackbox Kosmos.

SPAM (An)Archive
Corentin Marillier (Master Music and Art Performance) and the Ensemble SoundTrieb play audiovisual works by Óscar Escudero, with an introduction by the composer; 7 p.m., Blackbox Kosmos (also in the live stream) SARGO set plays works from Dieter Ammann’s composition class; Clemens Heil, Victor Alexandru Colțea, management.

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