D A N C E H A L L S I X01-2012

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LIMPE FUCHS

LIStEN to tHE SoUND DISAPPEArINg:SoUND AND NoISE wItH UNCoNvENtIoNAL

INStrUMENtS

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ANNE-MArIE CoPEStAKE

MUSIC PAgES 12

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PAtrICK FArMEr

A rESIStANt MotIoN/gEttINg oFF tHE groUND –– (gEttINg rUbbINg, rUbbINg)

In the language of systems theorists, the life of the individual looks like this:

“On the level of the individual, heteronomous methods of producing social performance have overshad-owed those of self-determi-nation. We no longer learn, we are instructed (particularly via the readymade opinions of the media); we no lon-ger organize our environ-ment ourselves, it is delivered to us by industry; we no lon-ger live healthily, but are looked after by medical pro-fessionals; we no longer de-termine the value of our lives, it is dictated by experts. People who are no longer able to create their own system of intrinsic values will have their values delivered to them. The actions necessary for all of this are increasingly congesting

the social system.” (Erich Jantsch)1

This is why I have di-rected my attention to the possibilities of self-deter-mination. To questions like: What is important to me? What form do I want my life to take? To know one´s body, its strengths, and its weaknesses; to ex-amine the sphere of com-munication; to search for variety. To withstand the difficulties of the harshartistic Dasein [existence/ being]. For me, this means constantly developing the possibilities of my playing - there are no limits here - but it also means bringing order to these possibilities and arranging them in a way that suits me. Over the course of forty years, my collec-tion of instruments has

LIMPE FUCHS

LIStEN to tHE SoUND DISAPPEArINg:SoUND AND NoISE wItH

UNCoNvENtIoNAL INStrUMENtS

developed into what it is now, and is above all theproduct of my collabora-tion with the sculptor and sound artist Paul Fuchs and through contact with many other musicians influenced by John Cage, minimal art, and soundscape artists. Between 1981 and 1983I spent three months each year travelling throughout the U.S. and Canada with my family, then in 1986I was invited to the NewMusic Festival in Chicago, and in 1989 with Paul Fuchs to a festival in New York.

In a 1990 article appearing in Jazzthetik, Dita von Szadkowski describes my understanding of rhythm quite precisely: “No longer is there the rhythmic musician coupled only to the beat. The concept of ‘Rhythm’ has been brought

back into proximity to the music of ancient Greece. Through a very fine understanding, thestyle of [Limpe Fuchs’] rhyth-mic-musical range of expres-sion actually comes close to that vision of antiquity which also draw rhythms of personality, of architecturalconstruction, and of a per-sonalized positioning, into

its approach.”

My music has devel-oped itself around move-ment; instruments arespatially distributed. Inthe formulation of Rein-hard Schulz of the NeueMusik Zeitung, “theinstruments, in pass-ing by them, are causedto vibrate, sometimes apparently without design, sometimes with playful con-centration. And after a time,an aura emerges - in a sense, a

living relationship of the sound generator [Klanger-zeuger] to its surrounding space and to its listeners. This aura amplifies itself through this tension, as its in-ner materials are divulged.”

This openness of interaction with sound materials gives me the possibility to put ever new scales together out of my stockpile of ser-pentinite stones, which I se-lect for their sound proper-ties from the quarry at Val Di Chiesa (Bernina Alps, Italy). With the Pendelsaite instrument, a large bronze drum is hung from a frame, in the skin of which a bent bronze rod is attached toa piano string. Through this suspension, a double pen-dulum is formed; the move-ment is unpredictable. It can be played by using the string - plucking, bowing, changing the sound by raising the bronze rod - or with a stick: hit it soft or hard and let the soundfade, beat it rhythmi-cally with and without intermediate pauses. The noises of movement are another important accent - rolling balls, for example:

emptying of an entire bowl-ful. A wooden ball comes to a standstill differently than an iron ball or a stone ball, and they sound dis-tinct on different surfaces.

The bent tone bar on the Pendelsaite is set in mo-tion by means of rota-tion, a large rock crystal is set within reach on the floor, the instrument is hit,and the bar turns itself, spin-ning back and forth in a self-renewing sound, a sound of movement which can last up to a quarter of an hour. The sound materials in-vite me to this, my active role - touching, beating, bowing, throwing - in or-der to expand the passive component of indepen-dent motion or vibration. This is especially the case when I use a violin or voice to resonate with these

broadening vibrations.

This luxury of time, the let-ting a tone decay, the rolling of a ball until it is still, the impact of a stone and its re-verberation, brings sounds to blossom. Because of

this, my task is not virtuosity, but rather to convey simplic-ity and sensitized listening: the equivalence of melodies, rhythms and sounds; aperiodic movement, speech melodies, and the surrounding environ-ment. What makes sound, what makes noise? Listening to, not turning away from lis-tening. I am certain: a listen-ing society can only contrib-ute to the loosening up of our clogged and congested system.

Translated by Ben Atkins and Erin Troseth.

1 Translators’ note: See: Erich Jantsch, Die Selbstorgani-sation des Universums: Vom Urknall zum menschlichen Geist, 1979 (Reprint, Hanser Verlag, 1992). Available in English as The Self-Organizing Uni-verse: Scientific and Human Implications of the Emerging Paradigm of Evolution (Pergamon, 1980). However, this is long out-of-print and, as of yet, still beyond the reach of your transla-tors, who have hastily thrown to-gether their own English version of the Jantsch passage cited.

“Apart we are together” Stéphane Mallarmé.

A weather one surface or object encounters when moving over another schism rooted inside engagement of will

abrasion–resistance discord opposition attraction a reading of enmity, animus.

All surface, all body,, ability of macro of micro, leaning towards illusion, towards simultaneous conflicting measurement. All surface, all body,, always an intensification of environment, amplifying intention, arm in arm miscalculation, a willing indeterminacy in the distance of approach, no predilection to familiar degrees of familiarity. A context of object, object introduced, surface object, median, mind acceptance mind eventuality mentions hyperbolic ingress, a disposition exposed, how one reacts to the minute of instant solitude, encountered subsequent re-introduction of principle, in lieu of duration, insensitive pith of form of disquiet inside form remain behind objectobject tear from blind skin in a manner befitting removed states of a median. Stratum created as levelled, with one, forever in circles, with one, four ever never touching parallels of sonority–pulled in pulled out of an obsessive embrace.

the body is gesture clutching actionbase rumination

response a lunatic sport the main–top

the body is drain.

PAtrICK FArMEr

A rESIStANt MotIoN/gEttINg oFF tHE groUND –– (gEttINg rUbbINg, rUbbINg)

twosurfacesplusandminus introduction are twin.* Listening in method utilised attending to something in common. *Always in mind of a particular resonant property of an individual–foundpost approach, ears pop in swallowed maltreated convergence.

Surface object does not move. Surface object moves.

Median departs. Maintaining absence*.

Uprooting object. Neither giving voice to either.

*Existing as consequence, one leaves as does other, behind traces ofdeparture in a coming departure, (perpetual) abandonment beginning, initiate, balanced unwilling enters median.

Pothos – at once motionless the surface object howls . Himéros – at once the surface object remains .

An absent object framed by the sedentary existence of a median– expressed in hesitant confrontation. A surface of ears. The introduction substitutes itself to an alternative.

What I have affirmed a first time, once again affirm, without repetition, affirmed affirmation, minus contingent, begin again.

An accident in the light of perspicacity.In the light of madness.

I approach a drum as I would a turntable, it took time to realise neither one is inert neither one is spritely. Thought patterns remain the same in difference, a surface is that, an object is that, they do not exist to pleaseeach other,

they are forced together (a violence found crawling inside devout) . Quickness founded sonority. No surface is utilised to decrease, a density of scale pervades, where is a median, placed outside continuallyresounding. Lost control past a certain point, drawn together in shore likemovement. The result subsequent the result.

Subtle permutation of experience as repetition, each approach a different person, a co-dependence sleeps in between subjection and heightenedawareness. These relationships exist said exploring ones own silence and the minutiae of homeostasis, self, diet, clothes, walking, sleeping,interaction – abundance of patterns in riot of equilibrium. Everything issurrounded, sitting with object is first and foremost a retelling of difference in difference leading to first and foremost–echo answers echo.

Not long past re-iteration, shuffle, of subject of object–placementobserving introduction. Intrinsic elements, everyplace dynamic, findthemselves sheer, in mind of no allusion to qualitative measure unearthed in the heightened relationship of presence said absence of weight. It is not a virtue, unavoidable, coalescent in mind of perception . A qualitythat permeates projective technique in light found surrounded of overlooked corners reserved for tacit refraction, in time unavoidableclutter, stretched thin, layers reveal themselves through themselves filter.

Fountainhead, chance chimeric intrigue of combination, Odysseuswhispers to a shore resounding familiar, what has changed in a voice, inthis case, is found in the white noise of a handful of stones. A poet states– no ideas but in things–hands clasped we hear, something, repeating.

approaching resonance.

CoNtrIbUtorS

PAtrICK FArMEr

Patrick Farmer (b.1983) is a musician and sound artist working within im-provisation, field recording, and composition. Commonly referred to as a percussionist, Farmer will often enlist the help of a drum or turntable to act as a resonator for natural materials or filtering field recordings. He has performed throughout Europe and America, including concerts at the ICA, Stockholm National Gallery, and The Radiator Festival. He has re-cently spent time as artist in residence at Q-O2 in Belgium and MOKS in

Estonia, with a forthcoming residency at Soundfjord, London.

http://ideasattachedtoobjects.blogspot.com/

ANNE-MArIE CoPEStAKE

Anne-Marie Copestake’s work encompasses video, film, writing, sculpture, and she has produced several books. She often works collaboratively and is a member of two collective groups in Glasgow: exploring textual and musi-cal ideas in Muscles of Joy, and using the medium of print for collaborative

work in Poster Club.

The image for Psykick Dancehall is a print of some of my attempts at writ-ing down ideas for drums, and noting what I had played on the drums with Muscles of Joy. I have no musical training, and it became imperative to find

some way to make notes.

LIMPE FUCHS

Limpe Fuchs, composer of acoustic and visual happenings, works in the theater and musical performance sectors, has produced Klanghörspiele (son-ic radio plays/radiophonics/sound documents) for German public radio broadcasters Westdeutscher Rundfunk and Bayerischer Rundfunk, and or-

ganizes sound projects for both children and adults.

http://www.limpefuchs.de/

bEN AtKINS & ErIN troSEtH

Erin Troseth lives and works in Hamburg. Ben Atkins is in London, study-ing at Birkbeck and working in Soho.

PSyKICKDANCEHALLrECorDINgS.CoM/PUttHEMUSICINItSCoFFIN

Dancehall is published quarterly, in January, April, July and October.