Michael Obst – Metal Drops
July 24th, 2008
Michael Obst (1955) is a young German composer and successful concert pianist “specializing in contemporary music” who has also been working in the electronic realm since 1979. This 1992 CD is a reissue of an LP from the early ’80s. The 25-minute “Inside (Infinite Chambers)” lives up to it’s beautiful title by successfully hovering a very spare and austere sound-realm into your view, only to occasionally bust out with large heating duct or jet engine-like bursts. The sound sources—violin, violoncello, piano—are electronically altered, mostly beyond recognition. “The manipulation of the single sounds in the motif groups at the beginning of the work leads in the course of the piece—and especially toward the end—to sound surfaces and ‘walls’ and thus to the development of a special feeling of space and time.”
While the overall feel of “Metal Drop Music” is similar to “Inside,” the piece is less of an epic (at only one third the length) and is more outright outbursting. Also, unlike the former—which uses concrète sounds as the source—the latter is composed entirely of sine tones produced by the ARP synthesizer. “The point of departure for this piece was the attempt to produce very rapid complex sound groups which consist of pointedly articulated single sounds. The desired sound-occurences were intended to have a random quality comparable to the acoustical result of glass beads striking a flat surface.” Produced on a EMS Synthi 100, “‘Ya-Na-Je’ uses three distinct musical materials: motif groups, surfaces and apparently endless streams of sounds. These ‘themes’ are varied so that the initial assertion of their characteristics dissolves, giving way to a more meditative quality. In this way, the piece gradually achieves more space and depth.”—Michael Obst
Label: Wergo Catalog Number: SM 1043-2 Format: CD Packaging: Jewel case Tracks: 3 Total Time: 48:55 Country: Germany Released: 1992 Related Artists: Karlheinz Stockhausen More Discogs
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