Schwebstoff – Moritz Gagern – The Present
Available Now On:
Tracks
1. Schwebstoff Ouverture
2. Air Manifest
3. Molecule Love
4. Particle Song
5. Nano Panic And Pneumo Plastic
6. Ruach
7. The Subject Of The Air
8. Not A Word
9. The Unspeakable
10. Winds Drive Her Along
11. Silent Aircraft Call
12. Of These Words Will Remain
13. Schwebstoff Finale
About New Album
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Schwebstoff – Moritz Gagern – The Present
vocal music 8+1 eight solo voices and one voice for spoken word
„Schwebstoff“ is a composition and a poem about the voice being the air’s daughter. Air may be the condition of breath and sound but often it turns up as their object, too: we encounter a lot of „wind“ and „heaven“ in traditional and modern lyrics of vocal music. This invisible life-giving entity is filled with gods and ideas – and with floating particles. The air’s transparency and balance, which had been the grounds for its praise, is being clouded by human pride. „Schwebstoff“ looks at our relation to the sky, also at our personal encounter with the sky in a silent aircraft.
The three parts of the piece connect the topic of aerosol particles (being spread and inhaled by the singing voice) with air mythology and a dystopian plot: After a 8-minute fall-out of the air, no life is left except for some creatures in the deep ocean and a group of three deep-diving humans who return back to the surface after the incident is over. They hope to find a fourth survivor, an aeronaut travelling with a gas balloon. The piece was originally performed as a scenic concert of 80 minutes in total length in August 2022 at Villa Elisabeth, Berlin, funded by Hauptstadtkulturfonds.
Vocal ensemble: The Present
www.thepresentensemble.de
Olivia Stahn: speaker, Soprano
Hanna Herfurtner: Soprano
Stelina Apostolopoulou: Soprano
Bernadette Beckermann: Alto
Amélie Saadia: Alto
Robert Sellier: Tenor
William Frost: Tenor
Elias Arranz: Baritone
Lyrics, composition: Moritz Gagern
www.moritz.gagern.net
Moritz Gagern (1973) has been creating conceptual concert evenings since 2007, including commissions for Maerzmusik, Festspielhaus Hellerau, Tonlagen Dresden, Ruhrtriennale, Taipei Arts Festival, Opernfestspiele Munich, Neuköllner Oper Berlin, Akademie der Künste Berlin and Jewish Chamber Orchestra Munich.
His compositions are often interdisciplinary in nature. He participated in several stage collaborations as a composer, performer and/or author. For the orchestral piece ‘Air Condition’ (2013) he used micro- and macro-physical processes as a subsoil for the instrumental process.
Mathematically unresolvable proportions served as a model for musical structures in the ensemble pieces ‘Concert For 50 Windgongs’ (2010) and ‘Fenster’ (2011). The tension between narrative, procedural and mathematical aspects in music is a theme that runs through several of his pieces. As a dramaturgical consultant Moritz Gagern has worked for festivals and opera houses like Ruhrtriennale and Munich State Opera.
Credits
Thanks to: Kulturbüro Elisabeth, initiative neue musik, Förderband, Wave Akademie, Musikfonds, Salon am Moritzplatz Berlin.
Lyrics, composition: Moritz Gagern
Vocal ensemble: The Present
Recorded live at Villa Elisabeth Berlin, August 27, 2022
Sound engineer: Adrian Holder
Published by Elektramusic Berlin – February 2025
All rights reserved © Moritz Gagern 2022
2025 ℗ Elektramusic Berlin – Paul Clouvel