Astrid Schwartz.
In her performances the organic meets the constructed, poetry meets noise, field recordings meet notated.
Especially in her research with self-welded steel instruments she investigates the moment of materiality of the instrument, and composition as interface. Special attention is given to perception and movement in space, in the field of tension between consonance and dissonance in interaction with silence, noise and words. Astrid Schwarz has presented her works not only in Austria but also in other European countries. She has composed sound worlds for films and theater plays and has conceived and co-directed a festival for experimental music. For her compositions she received the Theodor Körner Prize twice and was a scholarship holder at the International Academy for New Music Avant-garde Tirol. In 2022 she was awarded the Austrian State Scholarship for Composition and is laureate of the Theodor Kery Burgenland Foundation. Furthermore she has been producing and presenting different programs for Radio Ö1(Austrian Broadcasting Cooperation-ORF). She lives and works in/near Vienna.
Do I call you Rise or Fall – a Nocturne / Nenn ich dich Aufgang oder Untergang- ein Nachtstück
Audio 48kh/24bit 20:17 Singer: Anselma Schneider, Speaker: Michael Köppel, Sybille Norden. Lyrics excerpts: Marieke Barnas 2021 An electroacoustic piece that reflects fear in the face of language.
Freezing, flight and attack come to mind when we think of the feeling of fear.
One word itself comes from αγχω and means to choke, strangle; Latin angor anxiety, angustia constriction. Fear changes the way we think, feel and act. “What makes us afraid is not the experience of a threat, but the idea of being helplessly at its mercy.”(Gerald Hüther) Fascinated by the subject and use of language by the poetry of Dutch poet Marieke Barnas the work enfolds in chapters in which the speakers breathe life into the litany and yet remain untouched. The voice of Anselma Schneider provides a quasi lyrical counterpoint in the musical episodes and questions the assumed truths.