AUSSEN (2015) (live, 18.05.2015) by Hannes Dufek

AUSSEN (outside) is a Solo piece for Tenor dulcimer (and lots of stuff) and was commissioned by the outstanding Franziska Fleischanderl (www.franziskafleischanderl.com) Driven by the idea that "listening to music in a concert situation" is a highly artifical situation enabling us to withdraw from reality, the piece tries to include as much "reality" as possible in order to render this movement towards "passivity" impossible. Almost throughout the whole piece, two dictaphones with random pre-recorded material from the outside world ("sound situations") by the performer during the preparation time for the performance (thus, carrying "her reality" into the piece) are employed. Two additional dictaphones are used to create loops of either "world" material or composed/written material used in the piece. The piece draws a long line from using more or less unstructured sounds (unpitched, rhythmically free) from the tape machines and the "denatured" dulcimer towards actual dulcimer playing and back again. In the end - barely audible, but still - the audience is adressed with text written specifically for each performance by me, carrying "my" current reality into the - previously written - piece. It's quite long, but I hope you enjoy anyway!