Travis Just
hi christian.
Christian Kesten
hi travis.
TJ
glad we could find a time, i guess it is late over there.
CK
well it's ok. i'm a bit exhausted from last preparations before leaving for a month, but i'm in good mood.
TJ
well what shall we talk about? what is the climate in the berlin new music world like these days?
CK
there are the big festivals like UltraSchall and MaerzMusik, they're still existing, people go there, but besides places like Tesla got closed and nobody really cared, there was no big protest against it. Money gets less and less. There are scenes which try to get acquainted with this "post-economic" situation, like the very vivid scene of Labor Sonor or ausland or similar places, no-money series, but a very good exchange. We started Labor Diskurs, a talk among musicians, improvisers, composers, also theorists, and it seemed there was a big need for that.
TJ
yes, I have heard about all of the closings. it seems quite difficult (from a distance). of course there are still so many artists so that is hopeful. Is Labor Diskurs an event at KuLe? who has been appearing there if so?
(ballhaus naunynstrasse should be mentioned as well...)
CK
Right, I was just thinking about Ballhaus... We were trying to do our annual "maulwerker performing music" at Ballhaus, since Tesla doesn't exist anymore (where it happened before). Now we're searching desperately for another place, and it's not easy. Right now, we don't know where it will happen, and July is coming soon… - Labor Diskurs was started by Andrea Neumann, Burkhard Beins and me plus Arthur Rother and Fernanda Farah. We had the desire to talk more theoretically about certain issues in the music which is played at Labor Sonor, and invited people from the "scene". It has a good resonance. After first more general discussions about topics like "the union of composer and performer", "notation and non-notation", etc., musicians introduced their works more specifically. So far Kai Fagaschinski, Burkhard Beins presented their works (in a talk), and a duo work of Andrea Neumann and Sabine Ercklentz has been discussed.
TJ
it's interesting how these topics and these scenes are so linked to issues of space. obviously one of the things that everyone was so excited about berlin was the abundance of space for work.
CK
that's maybe true. there are a lot of small no-budget places, yes.
TJ
do you find a different kind of work being presented in these venues (Labor Sonor, etc) in comparison to the larger festivals?
CK
definitely. on the one hand it's more "improvised" music [this term is discussed heavily at Labor Diskurs...], or "echtzeitmusik" (real time music), which is maybe a bit presented at MaerzMusik, but not at all at other festivals. Or it's simply called "Jazz" like in donaueschingen. at labor sonor and ausland, we also try to present performance art or art which is between music and performance art, or works for music and video etc.
TJ
do you find that your work as a composer is separate from the work as a performer (or organizer)? do the processes interact at all?
CK
yes they do interact. sometimes it's weird being both or all of this. but being also a "composer-performer", meaning, performing my own work, or composing for myself, has its certain qualities. only composing can be quite theoretical. performing brings it down to earth.
how is that for yourself?
TJ
similar. sometimes one takes precedence out of necessity. an interesting thing about at least some of your music is the emphasis of the body. of course since you are such a compelling performer, the music is related closely to your, CK's, body. but one of the things I love about the pieces is that they work for other performers as well.
CK
interesting. i always try to make them performable for others. although they are maybe developed through my body (tongue piece, breath piece), i try to fix them in scores, which are readable and performable for everyone. kai fagaschinski for example is the opposite: he only composes for himself, his sounds are his own, and he never tells any composer how he creates his amazing clarinet sounds.
it depends if you understand yourself as a "band" or as a score composer, i'd say.
TJ
yes there is this intense involvement with one's own physicality, certainly in improvisation. when that translates to a score in your case there seems to be a real intimacy present in the music. maybe another way of putting it is that your willingness to see the performing body as one that goes out and lives a life (has a drink, sneezes, gets into bed) after the performance is a different approach to other composers that work with concepts of 'performance'.
CK
yes i see a necessity to keep it permeable.
TJ
permeable in what sense?
CK
i mean life and art can interpenetrate.
for me it's as you already noticed the body which makes it necessary to integrate different ways of perception - acoustic, visual, spatial, physical … - in one piece or one work.
TJ
and these ways of perception are then put through the prism of the body?
CK
yes, one perceives through the body. the listener/spectator as well as the performer.
TJ
yes and this feels like a difference to me, for example, with cage. where the physicality of the performer is de-emphasized in favor of abstraction. your music still retains this abstraction but engages the meat-muscle-blood of the body in a way that is unique I think.
conducted online, 2.27.08
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