dafeldecker/fussenegger-bogengaenge
'when you have heard the sound a bow makes on a string (…) that's thrilling for me, much more than the idea of playing a note (where you don't think of the bow on the string; you just think the note – an abstraction)' (malcom goldstein, musiktexte 28/29, 1989, page 21), wrote violinist /composer malcolm goldstein, for whom modern music is just as natural as free improvisation.
the human ear is continuously loosing its capability of reception. the increase in the general level of volume has led to a naturally higher acoustic stimulus threshold. and/or: the increase and great accumulation of sounds requires the desensibilisation of the sense of hearing in order to be able to cope with permanent acoustic stimulations.
a tradition spanning from the noise and sound orchestras of the futurists, to edgar varèse's 'ionisation' and finally to the sound cataclysms of glenn branca represents one possibility of musically dealing with our 'clamorous century'. the continuing increase in musical volume levels (and the possible consumption of the sence of hearing involved) has reached a temporary climax in earsplitting tekkno events. there are different kinds of volume. as paradoxical as it may seem, certain subtleties in music can only be achieved with high volumes. just think of jimi hendrix's elaborate feedback virtuosity.
by creating an explosion of 'composed silence' anton webern provides another possibility of dealing with our noisy times. we are submerged into a musical world of quiet. just as in nano-physics where space is unfolded toward the inside and where the 'interior universe' is explored, music at the (lower) level of audibility develops a fragile sound space. it takes courage and devotion to enter into this space. and the risks of failure, even of a possible breakdown, remain faithful companions all as much as the danger of escaping into a world of music void of an 'inner world' (music without an atomic nucleus – just a 'shell'). werner dafeldecker and uli fussenegger, both virtuosi of the art of reduction dare to walk this tight rope of subtley combined sounds. thats exactly why: still!
'people want to be left in peace, and consequently they hate nothing more deeply than the ear and the brain. the social ideal is the totally deaf and dumb mass, and so society naturally inclines to shoot on sight any ears or brains that crop up; here is a brain, they say, shoot to kill; here is an ear, shoot it down. (…) history proves that the ear and the brain are always being hunted down, shot to death. (…) wherever there is an ear or a brain, there is hatred; where there is an ear, there is a conspiracy against the ear, where there is a brain, there is a conspiracy against the brain. the rest is lies. the dying birds of europe are being protected, konrad is supposed to have said, but not the dying brains, not the dying ears.' (thomas bernhard, the lime works, the university of chicago press, 1986, page 67).

bogengaenge. a music of not-in-between and between-the-borders.
(a place where you are and where you dont wait.) music of liberated limits in an open frontier space. a musical landscape in the clear light.
(a place you enjoy being and where you don't wait.)
dafeldecker and fussenegger explore every inch of this landscape and admit to have left the numb senses behind in the familiar world; they know that in our mass media society in which idolatry prevails there is no more difference between the event and the corresponding message is said. still, that's why: well?
dark, conciliatory timbre of the basses, ruthlessly insisting on the beauty of the almost unspeakable. dafeldecker and fussenegger musically turn the basses spike over scroll.
'(…) auditory sound-color control quiz: is the u a somber sound? is the o somber? is the e somber?' (chris marker, cinéma épistolaire, falter 1/85, page 15). the fragility of the basses does not conceal their authority.
'a person either hears and sees, or else a person hears, or a person sees, or else he doesn't hear or see and you cannot teach a person to hear and to see, but a person who hears and sees can perfect his hearing and his seeing, above all perfect his hearing, because it is more important for a person to hear than to see.' (thomas bernhard, the lime works, the university of chicago press, 1986, page 22).
(a place where you enjoy waiting.)
burkhard stangl