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Reviewed by:
  • Electroacoustic Works by Clemens von Reusner
  • Ross Feller
Clemens von Reusner: Electroacoustic Works
Compact disc, 2018, NEOS 11803, available from Neos Music; www.neos-music.com/.

Clemens von Reusner is a German composer whose work is focused on exploring the boundaries of acousmatic music. For almost four decades he has produced a body of work involving electroacoustic music, radio plays, and soundscape compositions. His recent release on Neos, Clemens von Reusner: Electroacoustic Works, contains seven compositions composed within the last decade that represent a variety of approaches to making acousmatic music.

In Anamorphosis (2018), the first work on this collection, we hear carefully crafted, high-quality sounds and production techniques. Von Reusner has created a sonic universe in which unidentifiable sounds are used to form a highly compelling, plausible, artificial or virtual landscape. Sounds “appear” from nowhere, moving at various speeds and trajectories passing by the stationary listener. This is mostly accomplished by using gradual changes in amplitude and spatial positioning. It was sometimes difficult to tell whether separate events existed as part of a composite timbre or texture, or whether they were intended to be heard as separate entities.

Von Reusner allows his materials to develop organically at a leisurely rate within through-composed forms that allow the listener sufficient amounts of time to become attuned to minute changes in the overall texture. This strategy draws the listener in from start to finish.

The second work, Ho (2008), begins with a series of sharply attacked, synthetic sounding timbres, bathed in a heavy dose of reverb. Some of the sounds seem intentionally to resemble sci-fi sounds, at times conjuring up sonic images found in Bebe and Louis Barron’s well-known film score for Forbidden Planet. Each new sonic reiteration contains a rich variety of waveforms articulated in different ways using various amplitude envelope shapes.

Von Reusner takes a “kitchen sink” approach to his introduction of sonic materials—there are a plethora of simple waveforms, processing techniques, and simple and complex forms of modulation, all situated within a highly fragmented soundscape. Often the general texture is quite thin and sparse. Because the pacing of events is aperiodic, the listener is continually surprised when new timbres and sounds are added. Materials are added very gradually, with the effect being that each ostinato or fragmented texture is listened to intently, with a close focus. Sounds are heard within a disconnected, pointillistic format, with few antecedent–consequent relationships besides those that occur simply due to placement in the same timeframe. [End Page 83]

The composer has clearly thought considerably about panning details and gestural shaping. For example, a low-pass filtered noise is amplitude-modulated with a low frequency oscillator that loudly begins in the left channel, and moves over to the right channel as it decrescendos, building back to full force as the sound returns to the left channel.

The composer’s use of pitch-centered “instruments” reminded me of much work with Csound, and in fact according to the liner notes: “Ho was achieved by means of additive sound synthesis using the Csound audio programming language.” Each “instrument” type is clearly heard and re-identified, as it is re-heard, even when processed with other types of sound treatment. Set loose at the beginning of the composition, it is almost as if each instrument follows its own trajectory throughout the piece.

About 2 minutes from the end of this 12-minute piece, the music becomes locked into a background ostinato pattern over which the composer brings back some of the previously heard sounds in a less urgent manner. This carries the piece to its conclusion, which is marked by a scratching or paper crinkling sound. The listener is left to ponder what it all means.

Definerte Lastbedingung (2016) [Defined Load Condition], the third piece, presents us with an unusual method for producing an acousmatic work. According to the liner notes: “Definerte Lastbedingung works with the sound of electromagnetic fields generated by electrical equipment. Recorded with a special microphone, this sound material has hardly any of what is otherwise typical for ‘musical’ sound. There is no spatial depth, nor any dynamics.” Unlike the previous composition, for which I suspected...

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