Gal
relive
| Audio CD, Gromoga Records, Austria 2008 | ||
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In addition to his work as a composer and installation
artist, Bernhard Gal also performs live,
using a laptop computer along with additional electronic devices. Gal's
solo concerts are comprised of elements from recent music and art projects
as well as new field recordings, which he takes apart and reassembles
in a quasi-improvised, live context. In many cases, the performances also
reflect the respective concert venue, with its distinctive acoustic and
sociocultural characteristics. Since 2002, Gal
has performed over 150 concerts on four continents. This is his first
live-cd, featuring excerpts from concerts recorded between autumn 2007
and summer 2008. No sounds were added or edited afterwards, so that the
live character of the original recordings would be maintained. |
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relive |
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| audio
CD, gro 10801;
Gromoga
Records, 2008
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1. meu nome é gal também 2. konzerthauskeller 3. velvet green 4. schulterblatt 5. ordinary love 6. pierce 7. uhudler 8. hungover total time: 77.50 |
[florianópolis
04/08] [vienna 02/08] [washington, dc 12/07] [hamburg 02/08] [guangzhou 11/07] [richmond 12/07] [st. johann i. s. 07/08] [washington, dc 12/07] |
06.00 09.19 10.33 14.13 15.33 07.17 08.29 06.22 |
mp3
excpt mp3 excpt mp3 excpt mp3 excpt mp3 excpt mp3 excpt mp3 excpt mp3 excpt |
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relive
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reviews | |
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Bernhard
Gáls CD relive enthält die Mitschnitte
einiger Laptop-Performances des Komponisten aus den Jahren 2007 und 2008.
Dokumentiert sind höchst unterschiedliche Ansätze des elektronischen
Umgangs mit Klängen. Meist dienen als Ausgangspunkt einfache Ereignisse,
die konsequent in eine bestimmte Richtungen verfolgt, verändert und
in mitunter sehr sparsamen Klangsituationen entfaltet werden. Die Behutsamkeit,
mit der Gál hierbei zu Werke geht, verdeutlicht,
dass er sich der Suche nach Effekten verweigert und stattdessen seine Aufmerksamkeit
auf den Wahrnehmungsprozess und die Intensität der Hörerfahrung
richtet. Die elektronische Ausweitung von Klangräumen des Klaviers
in meu nome é gal também, das Abtasten sich wandelnder
Dichtezustände in konzerthauskeller und ordinary love
oder auch die Dissoziation semantischer Einheiten in velvet green,
immer verbunden mit dem Versuch, die Klänge von ihren möglichen
Konnotationen zu lösen, gewinnen hier installative Qualitäten. [Stefan Drees, Positionen, Germany, 05/2010] |
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Werkschau
des umtriebigen Wiener Klang- und Installationsmusikers: Gáls
achte Solo- und erste Live-VÖ umfasst in neun Stücken acht Locations
in China, USA, Deutschland und Österreich. Wie bei Gál
üblich, erweist sich das akustische Ambiente der Aufführungsorte
als forschungs -und handlungsleitend, in präzise auf einander abgestimmten
Settings aus Fieldrecordings und teils reicht frei assoziierten Klangkaskaden
werden Soundcluster aufgezogen, die oft nur wenig überhalb der Hörgrenze
liegen. Immer wieder pendeln die Stücke zwischen hochkonzentrierten,
präzisen Klangauslotungen, schier hinterfotzigen Konzepten und zufälligen
Gegebenheiten. Bei dem Konzert in Washington wollte das Publikum nicht
ruhig sein, weshalb Gál Stimmaufnahmen
so laut hochfuhr, bis sie ordentlich Verwirrung stifteten. Für die
Session in Hamburg diente ein Teekessel als Klanggenerator. Und beim Konzert
in Richmond vermengen sich Zirpenklänge mit dem Nadelsurren aus dem
benachbarten Tatoo-Laden. “Uhudler“ erscheint symptomatisch
für „relive“: Aufnahmen aus einem steirischen Weingarten,
und bevor es zu gemütlich wird, geht die akustische Reise per Nebelhorn
und Didgeridoo-artigen Sounds in die elektrische Abflusspumpe. Spannendes
Teil.
[Heinrich Deisl, Skug, Austria, 07/2009] |
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Suggestive
Live-Performances zwischen ätherischen Klaviertönen, Sprachfragmenten,
Lauten aus Natur und Technik sowie harten, aber differenzierten Noise-Attacken:
„bernhard gal: relive“, die bei Gromoga erschienene neue CD des
international renommierten Wiener Komponisten und Klangkünstlers Bernhard
Gál, dokumentiert jüngere, in Europa,
den USA und Fernost präsentierte Arbeiten ohne nachträgliche Zutat
und lässt dadurch immer auch den originalen Raum mitklingen: Diese
Hörthriller bringen Assoziationen zum Sprudeln. [Walter Weidringer, Die Presse, Austria, 04/2009] |
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Presso
i musicisti elettro-elettronici dell’ultima generazione, in particolare
quelli che utilizzano il calcolatore portatile, le registrazioni effettuate
in concerto non sembrano avere un ruolo particolarmente significativo
né essere particolarmente stimolanti. È così che
questo disco di Bernhard Gál, contenente
brani registrati nel biennio 07/08 in vari angoli del pianeta, assume
un significato affatto particolare, fin dalla scelta di lasciare le registrazioni
al loro stato originario, senza aggiunta successiva di materiali, a inversione
di un modo di procedere che sembra ormai essere diventato la norma. Accanto
ai brani costruiti con il solo portatile, e utilizzando sia un parco base
di registrazioni concrete sia semplici frequenze sonore, ve ne sono altri
nei quali il manipolatore si produce in una valida scelta di collaborazioni
che coinvolgono la pianista Xenia Hu (Meu nome è Gal
também e Schulterblatt) così come la guzhengista Yeh Jiuan-Reng
(Ordinary love e Hungover), e rispetto a quest’ultima mi preme precisare
che nel risultato non v’è affatto quell’etnicismo da
cortile che spesso ritrovo, e che quasi sempre mi lascia perplesso, in
quei musicisti che decidono di utilizzare strumentazioni non appartenenti
alla tradizione occidentale. Gal agisce sul
campo con concerti e installazioni che lo portano spesso in continenti
extraeuropei, quindi tocca con mano culture che viste dal nostro ‘piccolo’
mondo ci paiono come ‘arretrate’ mentre sempre più spesso
ci sopravvanzano per iniziativa e per grado d’evoluzione. Questo
stesso CD documenta in parte tale attività con registrazioni provenienti
da concerti tenuti a Florianópolis in Brasile (Meu nome è
Gal também) e Canton nella Repubblica
Popolare Cinese (Ordinary love). Un ultimo aspetto riguarda l’interazione
con la voce umana, un settore nel quale l’austriaco si è sempre
rivelato un maestro, fin da quella babele di lingue che fu il suo esordio
discografico (“Bestimmung New York” pubblicato nel 1999 su Durian),
e che per l’occasione viene utilizzata in tre degli otto brani (Velvet
green, Schulterblatt e Ordinary love). Ai classici motivi delle registrazioni
in pubblico, riassumibili nella volontà da parte dell’artista
di dare dimostrazione del suo reale valore, se ne aggiunge quindi uno
peculiare: attraverso “Relive” potrete avere una visione a tutto
tondo degli stimoli che animano questo musicista tanto poliedrico.
[Mario Biserni, Sands-Zine, Italy, 04/2009] |
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Registrato
in varie location tra l’autunno 2007 e l’estate 2008, il primo
CD dal vivo di Bernhard Gál cattura
il musicista da solo col suo laptop e pochi altri device elettronici in
una serie di composizioni improvvisate in tempo reale prendendo a prestito
elementi sonori registrati in precedenza (sequenze di piano, rumori concreti,
voci). Ciò che interessa Gál
non è l’effetto musicale ma la collocazione spaziale del suono
e dei suoi derivati, la loro misura acustica, le tonalità che assumono
spostandosi e rimbalzando nell’aria e nel suo contesto - non a caso
la press sheet si perita di sottolineare come le performance riflettano
sia l’acustica che le caratteristiche socioculturali delle diverse
venue. Il disco è quindi una sorta di puzzle a divenire variabile
(direi che dovremmo cercare di ascoltarlo in posti diversi per vedere
l’effetto che fa) in cui le note di piano appaiono e scompaiono come
cellule che fluttuano, i rumori di una stampante ad aghi diventano d’un
tratto elementi indistinti di una ritmica metafisica, le singole sillabe
di una parola note circolanti tra le volute fumose di un anello di frequenze
pure. Emergono, per riuscita involontariamente musicale, la bellissima
Konzerthauskeller e la cupezza risonante di Schulterblatt, due brani che
da soli potrebbero giustificare l’esistenza del disco. Che probabilmente
è il miglior disco mai pubblicato da Gál. |
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Nicht
nur stilistisch ist der Wiener Komponist und Klanginstallateur Bernhard
Gál (geb. 1971) ziemlich umtriebig,
auch auf seinen Konzertreisen kommt er weit in der Welt herum. Beides
dokumentiert nun sein erstes Livealbum mit unbearbeiteten Mitschnitten
aus Wien und Hamburg, Washington, D.C., und Richmond, Florianópolis,
Guangzhou und St. Johann im Saggautal. Solokompositionen für
Klavier (mit Xenia Hu) sind darauf ebenso vertreten wie Stimmperformances,
elektronisch bearbeitete Feldaufnahmen oder Stücke für Guzheng,
eine chinesische Wölbbrettzither.
[Carsten Fastner; Falter; Austria, 02/2009] Gal's Kommentar: 'Die oben beschriebenen Klänge stellen nicht eigenständige Stücke dar, sondern dienen als akustische Ausgangsmaterialien, welche im Kontext der Konzertsituation im Laptop transformiert und zu neuen Kompositionen zusammengefügt werden.' |
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For
the last ten years, sound artist Bernhard Gal
has worked tirelessly with new strains of audio, steadily building a sizable
discography that pushes the envelope within a niche music genre, and further
with video art. His latest disc, Relive, uses excerpts from previous solo
laptop performances to thumb its nose at the hit-or-miss nature of compilations
with a nicely constructed string of tracks, on what is apparently Gal’s
first “live” recording. Gal’s
different-kind-of-live gig often includes sources fully pre-destined for
an audience, only to be spliced or improvised upon as the music is pulled
from memory in real time. The selections chosen for Relive benefit heavily
from some choice sequencing and diversity. Some esotericism is at play.
Consider “meu nome é gal também” and “schulterblatt”,
two of Gal’s own compositions performed
at prior, unrelated events by pianist Xenia Hu. Gal
included these recordings, treating them as field captures in his own live
performance, and propping them against the granularity of “konzerthauskeller”,
a fully enveloping piece which explores the very limits of reverb decay.
Relive steps further out with serrated glitchiness in explorations of timbre
and attack in everyday sounds; he’s one of the more gifted musicians
with controlling the response of contact microphones and filters. It’s
a fine, fine disc which, instead of the so fashionable tendency to re-benchmark
one’s own work with every release, encapsulates the whole of one’s
recent work cleverly, drawing upon itself as its own source material. A
shame that releases of this collective, documentary nature aren’t
more common and controlled. [Alan Jones, Bagatellen, USA, 01/2009] |
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Austrian
composer and musicologist Bernhard Gál
owns a definite place in this writer’s memory, as he was among the
very first artists reviewed in Touching Extremes back at the beginnings,
in 2001. Having lost contact with his production for several years, it
was a pleasure receiving the latest news from him and discovering that
not only the qualities found at that time haven’t vanished, but
gleam of a light of improved responsiveness to the surrounding elements
of reality.
Relive is both innovation and a look at the long-ago in that sense: as a matter of fact Gál – who usually performs equipped with no more than a laptop in his live activity – gathered eight excerpts from sets dating from 2007 and 2008, recorded in various locations of the world, using fragments and samples from past installations and CDs and combining them in all-new compositions, the large part remarkable when not outright riveting. What distances this man from the average manipulator is a highly skilled, refined logic of placement of the event, whatever the initial plan; he’s essentially able to devise pieces where the juxtaposition of electronically treated birds, a motorized movement such as a subway train’s shutting door and a “voice sculpture” (“Velvet Green”) weigh exactly the same in the psychology of the listeners, who remain at once surprised and graciously embraced by the reasonably hospitable atmosphere that the (supposedly) improbable concoction generates. In “Schulterblatt” we find ourselves perking up the ears towards the subtle whisper of a series of hissing tea kettles until vocal splinters, feedback resonance and sparse touches of piano slightly alter the dynamics of the piece. “Uhudler” - perhaps the best chapter in terms of pure aural gratification, a modified ship horn and an electric shower drain pump contrasting an enticing mesmerism - is the track which will mostly satisfy the craving of those who wonder if drones have a role in this music. They do, indeed. Yet it’s just one of the many hues utilized by a half-architect, half-chiaroscuro painter whose musical conception still privileges the probing of silence as a crucial starting point for investigation.[Massimo Ricci, Brain Dead Eternity, Italy, 01/2009] |
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(...) one of five cds that has actually remained in my disc changer since that time. It's been played numerous times. It's something that's become part of my personal environment, and has even survived its place given that I have even relocated in the process. It's sparse and awkward, environmental and somehow perfectly complements things I do in my personal space. [TJ Norris, USA, 01/2009] |
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Austrian
sound artist Bernhard Gal is an “ear
camera.” His listening is so acute, so sensitive that the field recordings
that form the basis of many of his pieces are rendered with the precision
and attention to detail one expects from a Leica or Hasselblad in an expert’s
hands. Relive is a compilation of recordings from a number of his diverse
live performances over the last two years. A composer of particular depth,
Gal applies his deep listening skills to
the clusters of overtones on his piano piece “Meu Nome Gal Também,”
where he feeds back frequencies into the projection of the pre-recorded
piano part. “Konzerthauskeller” rings with eerie, throbbing
tones, susurrating sibilances and delicate chiming. It takes an extraordinary
mind to find inspiration in the commonplace, and Gal
finds it in ordinary sounds like a word (“Velvet Green”), the
beeping in a checkout line or the clicking of pool balls. He also knows
how to use the rhythms of machines to fascinating effect, looping bits
over the basic pulsations of modern life. Gal
is a singular talent. (Gromoga)
[Glen Hall, Exclaim, Canada, 12/2008] |
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For
whatever reason I am not sure of, the work of Bernard Gal
was never much reviewed in these pages, despite his past seven releases,
a book and a DVD. It's perhaps a name you see more in the announcement
section. Since 2002, he has played over 150 concerts on four continents,
armed with his laptop and devices, and through a mixture of on the spot
improvisation and through the use of pre-recorded sounds from his previous
work (audio, installations), he plays almost every night something new,
it seems. So it's perhaps a more than wise decision to release an album
of various pieces, as recorded in concert. The press texts gives a detailed
description of each of the eight pieces, and its a pity that this is not
on the cover, as it is a pretty interest read. The sounds he uses, the
spaces he played in, and, in some cases, the people he has played with
(pianist Xenia Hu, Guzhengplayer Yeh Jiuan-Reng and the voices of Mandy,
Marianthi and Vivian). Gal's selection of
his concert recordings is a great one - at least as far as I can judge,
as I never saw him play live. Its almost possible to say that these are
hardly 'live' pieces at all. They make a coherent whole. Gal
shows himself an excellent player on the microsound scene, taking
bits of his work and presenting new contexts for them. The spaces play
a role in his work in as far that when the audience is super quiet, he
is super quiet too, such as in the near silent 'Schulterblatt'. Things
buzz, hum, crack in a highly intelligent way and never leap into boredom,
despite the ominous length of this release. A very fine release altogether. |
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'Top
List'
[Susanna Bolle, WZBC, USA, 10/2008] |
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(...)
Fascinating! |
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