Enno Poppe – Rundfunk (for 9 synths)

”Without broadcasting, new music wouldn’t exist as it does today. The invention and development of electronic music in the studios of the public broadcasting services led to some magical moments of a medium that aimed to interrogate its own possibilities and requirements. Radio stations were even willing to support specialized institutes. These days the medium has changed to being a news provider and entertainer.

In the field of electronic music there has been rapid technical development for decades. Just as rapid is the fading of those same new technologies. Often, earlier pieces can no longer be performed today because the required technologies went missing or don’t work anymore, or performers simply don’t know how things were done 25 years ago. Since up-to-date technology is always the one that works best, sound aesthetics turn out to be extremely time-related. Therefore, the creation of pop music pieces can be meticulously determined by a specific preset of the DX-7 or a certain software tool.

Composing means taking apart. In Rundfunk (Broadcast) for nine synthesizers I don’t use historic instruments but historic sounds. The instruments are nine computers and nine keyboards. The sounds are from the 60s and 70s: FM synthesis, Minimoog, Piganino. Their pioneers are Gottfried Michael Koenig, Thomas Kessler, John Chowning, Wendy Carlos, and Tangerine Dream. No original instruments are being used but only computer generated reproductions, everything sounds different than it would have done in their day. I have all of the sounds at my fingertips at any time. I can play back any number of parts and I can switch between tunings freely and constantly. The sound is being reconstructed and put back together in new ways. The performers aren‘t keyboard virtuosos, by the way, but virtuosos in the handling of electronic sounds in general.

The piece consists of thousands of atoms. The music is analytic and emphatic. It’s being compounded in a laboratory. While composing I am wearing a white lab coat. A concert is not an experiment, however. The moment I stop understanding what’s happening, art emerges. The beauty lies in being overburdened.”
– Enno Poppe

Ensemble mosaik was founded in 1997 and has evolved to become a particularly diverse and experimental formation in the field of contemporary music. Beyond their outstanding instrumental skills they display creative individuality and a never-ending joy in experiments. In years of tight cooperation they have created an entity of sound that is highest ranking both in artistic competence and openness to the most diverse concepts of contemporary music.

Close cooperation with up-and-coming composers and the tying in of digital media are key to the ensembles work in composition, interpretation, and presentation. It prefers an egalitarian workflow between all participants in a project. Transparency helps focus and intensify creativity. ensemble mosaik has cooperated with many composers over the years, thus enhancing a musical development in mutuality.

A special focal point is the reflection of new approaches in performance, such as including scenic and visual elements, and the trying of new concert formats, shedding light on shared contexts connecting individual works, consolidating current strands and probing new perspectives. In cooperation with artists from other fields and musical genres, the concerts themselves become experimental designs.

This concert is made possible through the friendly support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, Goethe Institut, the region of Västra Götaland and the municipality of Svenljunga.

Photo © ensemble mosaik

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