Edition ZKM: Georg Bönn - fallout (1995)

Die erste CD präsentiert frisch und neu vier klassische Herangehensweisen in der elektro-akustischen Musik: reine Klangsynthese - das gesprochene Wort als Klangquelle - Synthese, gewonnen aus konkreten Klängen - Samplertechnologie.
In seinem Werk »Après les Grands Tours« verwendet Johannes Goebel Schritte, einen Glockenschlag und ein Zitat aus Tacitus’ »Germania« als akustische Erinnerungsstücke jener Grands Tours, die den nord-südlichen Austausch über die Alpen Jahrtausende bestimmten. Ein Ausschnitt aus einem indischen Raga mit Sitar und Tambura ist das Ausgangsmaterial für neue Klangwelten in Ludger Brümmers »Ambre Lilac«. Im Mittelpunkt von Ramón González-Arroyos Komposition steht die Balance zwischen Klangreichtum und Transparenz, während Georg Bönn in »fallout« alle Klänge von dem gesprochenen Wort »Hiroshima« ableitet.

The only sound material in this piece is the word ‚Hiroshima‘. It was spoken by friends of mine, Hidemi and Satochi Hata, an artist couple from Sapporo. The recording was subjected to extreme time-stretching with the phase vocoder SVP (a program developed at IRCAM), so that the sound of this word, in all of its transitions and modulations by the human voice, lasts longer than 15 minutes. In addition to this are word atoms, samples from which I isolated the consonants H, R, SH and M. Further processing of the material was carried out with the ISPW (IRCAM Signal Processing Work Station), on the NeXT computer. Here I primarily used variable delays, harmonizer, and an FFT-Equalizer, with which I changed the pitch and timbre according to my compositional impulses. The next phase involved composing the present version at a digital editing station. Fallout is a 2-channel loudspeaker music which I realized in the music studios of ZKM and was composed for the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Insitut Francais in Bremen and for the 50th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

Georg Bönn, was born in Krefeld, Germany. Composition studies with Jürg Baur and Krysztof Meyer at the Musikhochschule Köln until 1992. Computer music courses with Klarenz Barlow. 1993 Fellowship from the Stiftung Kunst und Kultur of Nordrhein Westfalen for a one year work/residency in Paris. Participation in the one year course for composition and computer music at IRCAM. Composition courses with Brian Ferneyhough and Klaus Huber. Computer scientist in the department of pedagody at IRCAM. Beginning in April 1995 Fellow at the Atelierhaus Worpswede and Guest Artist at ZKM Karlsruhe. Invitation to the first young Composers Forum of the Gesellschaft für Neue Musik with Ensemble Modern. Fellowship from the Foundation Royaumont for a work period with the Ensemble ‘L’ Itinerarie. Since October 1995 associate lecturer in Electronic music and Theory/Analysis at the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen where he is involved in the construction of a new electronic music studio. (from the booklet of the edition zkm cd)

Video created with Sonic Visualizer, vokoscreen and OpenShot on a Debian 10 Buster KDE Linux System.