AUSSEN V: storytelling (live 14.11.2017, Ensemble JVLMA) by Hannes Dufek

This is the fifth piece in the AUSSEN or OUTSIDE series. Scored for Soprano saxophone, Viola, Clarinet and Double Bass with additional noise-making devices, sample layers and a visual level unfortunately not representable here, the piece tries to balance two goals.
First, it seeks to investigate speech-like sound structures (in abstracted versions, in music) and possible translations into different levels of clarity. The result of this is a perforated musical texture with sometimes clearer, sometimes more vague audible and perceptible connections.
Second, the piece also wants to be a musical performance as such, albeit a non-dramatic one - a sequence of (in this rendering) 11 minutes of organised sound, a micro-drama of translation, communication and failed attempts at both.

The piece is written as a "simultaneous score" but with many points where the players should and could change, also with many repeats and possible changes at those repeats, etc., leading to the situation that the score does not represent the audible result. The choices as when to change from what to what and as to the number of repeats etc. are yielded to the players, thus enriching the field of semantic interpretation and possible approaches.

In this recording, this complex task was brilliantly taken over by the Latvian Ensemble JVLMA and the performers Arvydas Kazlauskas (saxophone), Peteris Trasuns (viola), Viktors Stankevics (double-bass) and Guntis Kuzma (clarinet). A live-recording from the opening concert of the 2017 Festival Crossroads in Salzburg - enjoy!