Bernhard Gál: Zwischenbrücken - Book & DVD-Video, edition sp ce / Gromoga Records, Austria, 2015

BERNARD GAL - ZWISCHENBRÜCKEN (DVD/book by Edition SP CE/Gromoga Records)

A good friend of mine always says: "get out of this silly business of records nobody wants to buy and get into art installations; that's where the money is". Maybe that's what Bernard Gal thought? He's been into the creation of multi-media installations for a long time now and with 'Zwischenbrücken' he releases his second book about his work in this directions. First time it came with a CD, this time it is a DVD, with close to two hours of music and two hours of films. This is (only?) his eleventh release, so he's not really into the silly business of CD releases I should think. His installations are presented all over the world, not just Western countries but also in Oman and Tunisia. Some of these installations are site-specific, while others can be shown in various places. In other pieces it's all about theatrical aspects of his work, and he uses players of instruments in his pieces. Light plays a big role in many of his pieces. In 'Solo' for instance he has four old telephone boots with various lights, which have music and one notices the city from a different colour. Shadow play with real musicians is also a common place. In this document we find snapshots of all of these from the last ten years. Most of them are represented by both audio and video and usually last somewhere between five and ten minutes. That perhaps has a bit of a snapshot idea to it, which is a pity. For some of these pieces I wouldn't mind to hear a longer version, whereas others didn't interest me that much, such as 'Klangschatten', but as I'm not a child so I am also not the intended audience. The book itself (144 pages, 200 photos, hardcover) contains for every installation a description (which looks like it might not have been made by Gal, but by a third party), whereas Gal himself writes more personal observations about his pieces. It all looks great, if not a bit highbrow art like, but I guess that comes with the territory. As a pure music man I can look at this and be a bit envious: simple ideas are turned, apparently, easy into great visual and musical pieces that work well - judging by the documentation. But for some of the music pieces I also had the idea that Gal is perhaps relying a bit too much on the use of laptop techniques and it seemed sometimes a bit too much time stretching and plug-ins making this into warm glitch-like music. Perhaps that is where the pure music man comes in, stripping away the rest and listening to the music? As a gesamtkunstwerk however I would say Bernard Gal's work is all top-notch.

[Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly, Netherlands, 12/2015]

Gál comments:

Hi Frans! First of all, I appreciate your rather elaborate review, knowing well that it is not exactly your cup of tea! Let me just add a few corrections and comments:
- In fact, I started creating installations way before I released any audio CD. However, stereo versions of two early installative works (bestimmung new york; Defragmentation/blue) ended up on audio CDs later on.
- Yes, money is an issue in art installations, however, it's rather about spending, not earning... producing site-specific art works requires a lot of time and money, so part of the creative process is to 'find' the needed budget in order to realize high-quality works. Sound installations are more or less impossible to 'sell' to art collectors etc, so there is no way to enter the art market (even if I would be interested which I am not).
- No, unfortunately, I did not present any installations in Tunisia and Oman, as you write, however, I did some performances and lectures there, and later on realized an audiovisual work (textur #4) based on photos made in Oman.
- In most of the compositions presented in this book, I don't use plugins much, mostly relying on the sound qualities of found sounds. I don't really understand the term 'glitch-like' in the context of my music, but I respect your perception ... (?)
A few examples of - rather specific - exceptions: Die Grüne Hölle (using 'green' sound filtering); Klangschatten (transformation of instrumental sounds through time stretching and looping); solo (Košice) (vocoder to 'musicalize' found sounds from Košice); Sterngucker (transforming vocal sounds through time stretching in order to create 'planetary frequences'); mil águas (time stretching for water drops and tea kettle sounds)
- You are right, this book focuses on audiovisual and space-related art works, therefore it is not recommended to listen to the acoustic side of the documentation without considering the rest. It would be possible - and probably rewarding - to create specific electro-acoustic compositions based on some of the presented works - the composed sound layers of many of these works show a duration of up to 50 minutes, thus, the presented audio and video excerpts can only be regarded as snapshots / samples. See p. 141 of the book for some comments about the DVD documentation).
- and by the way, I do prefer my first name written as Bernhard, with an 'h'.


Zwischenbrücken		reviews

BERNHARD GÁL ZWISCHENBRÜCKEN Sound Installations and IntermediaArt, 2005–2015 Buch (edition sp ce, 144 Seiten) inklusive DVD-9 (Gromoga Recordsgro 21501), 25 Euro Werke der Klangkunst sind ephemer. Ihre Tendenz zu verschwinden verdankt sich einem doppelten Dilemma: Da ihre adäquate Wahrnehmung an den Ort und die Dauer ihrer «Live»-Präsentation gebunden ist und jeweils von den Rezipienten zwangsläufig individuell gestaltet wird, bietet eine Dokumentation zwar die Möglichkeit der Erinnerung, übersetzt die jeweilige Arbeit jedoch zugleich in ein anderes Medium – sei es Text, Bild, Klang- oder Videoaufnahme– und transformiert sie damit zwangsläufig in etwas Anderes. Werden die Arbeiten hingegen nicht dokumentiert, gehen sie ebenso unweigerlich verloren. Viele Klangkünstlerinnen und Klangkünstler sind deshalb bemüht, angemessene Formen der Dokumentation zu entwickeln–fast scheint es, als würden diese zum Bestandteil der Arbeiten selbst. Der österreichische Komponist, Klangkünstler und Musikwissenschaftler Bernhard Gál stellt mit Zwischenbrücken. Sound Installations and Intermedia Art eine Reihe seiner Klanginstallationen aus den Jahren 2005–2015 in einem reich bebilderten Buch vor, dem eine DVD mit Klangmitschnitten und Filmaufnahmen beigegeben ist. Dabei bemerkt er selbst in seiner Einführung, dass es sich bei dem Band nicht um einen Katalog im klassischen Sinn handelt. Es geht ihm mehr darum, seine eigenen Arbeiten in einer sehr persönlichen Weise zu reflektieren und Hintergrundinformationen zu den Entstehungsprozessen mitzuteilen – von der initialen Idee bis zur eigentlichen Realisierung. Die Beschreibungen sind stets gleich aufgebaut. Zunächst werden die Arbeit und die ihr zugrunde liegenden Ideen in einem knappen Text vorgestellt, mit der genauen Angabe von Titel, technischem Setting, Ort, Jahr und Auftraggeber. Es folgen großformatige Abbildungen, an die sich – nochmals (kleiner) bebilderte– Ausführungen zur Entstehung der Arbeit anschließen, die sich z.B. auf den spezifischen Ort, technische Fragestellungen oder besondere Probleme, die sich bei der Umsetzung ergaben, beziehen. Dem Leser erschließen sich die Werke so bereits durch das Buch aus verschiedenen Perspektiven. Ergänzt werden diese in der beiliegenden DVD durch Audiofiles und Filme, die vom Künstler selbst minutiös durchgestaltet wurden. Gerade die filmischen Aufnahmen verlangen durch die Schnitte und ihr Timing, die Wahl der Bildausschnitte usw. viele Entscheidungen und werden so selbst zu künstlerischen Arbeiten. Zumindest bieten sie dem Betrachter Impressionen der vorgestellten Arbeiten aus der subjektiven Sicht des Künstlers selbst. Viele der vorgestellten Installationen sind ortsspezifisch und beziehen sich auf Stadträume in Zürich, Košice, Donaueschingen u.a. Die filmische Bearbeitung lässt immer auch etwas von der Art der Verbindung zu den jeweiligen Orten erkennen, denn sie muss filmisch vom Künstler selbst hergestellt werden. Unbedingt erwähnenswert ist zu dem die Zusammenarbeit Gáls mit der japanischen Künstlerin und Architektin Yumi Kori, die in dem Band mit mehreren Arbeiten ebenfalls dokumentiert wird. Ein kleiner autobiografischer Essay, in dem die Zusammenarbeit mit Yumi Kori im Zentrum steht, rundet den gelungenen Band ab. [Marion Saxer, Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, Germany, 07/2016]

		Die Produktionen von Bernhard Gál habe ich schon früh wie zufällig entdeckt. Frank Hilberg hatte die ersten vier CDs aus Kyra Stratmanns Label Because Tomorrow Comes positiv in der ZEIT rezensiert. Dazu gehörte Gáls Soundwalk über den Nachtmarkt in Taipeh, ohne Nachbearbeitung, in realtime wie erlebt. 'Tong-Hua Yie-Shi', schon der Titel ist Klang. Später besuchte uns der Künstler im WDR-Studio für Klangdesign und erzählte vom Oral History -Projekt Austrian Heritage Collection am Leo Baeck Institut in New York und ersten Installationen. Viel später habe ich von seinem inter-universitärem Doktoratsstudium zwischen Mozarteum und der Universität Salzburg gelesen: ein Projekt, in einer Gruppe von DoktorandInnen, wo Gál über Raum- und Öffentlichkeitsaspekte von Klanginstallationen forscht. Jetzt erhielt ich von ihm eine reich bebilderte Publikation mit DVD zu Installationen, Performances und intermedialen Projekten aus den letzten zehn Jahren, mit Dialogpartnern aus vielen Kulturen. Ich dachte an den Slogan eines anderen Wieners, Friedrich Gulda, der vor Jahrzehnten eine 10er LP-Box herausgab mit Rollen als Klassiker, Bänkelsänger und Jazzer Midlife Harvest. Gáls intermediales Buch wirkt ähnlich; durch auto-ethnographische Erfahrungsberichte und den Einblick in weniger bekannte Stücke. Diese Sammlung von Arbeiten aus Klang, Zeit, Raum und Bewegtbild nennt er Zwischenbrücken und basiert auf einer weltweiten Kooperation zwischen Kunst, Wissenschaft und Kultur. Bodenständig verweist dies aber auch auf ein Wiener Viertel, nicht weit von da, wo der Klangkünstler herkommt. Ähnlich wirken seine Installationen und Performances miteinander verbunden, als ob sie benachbart sind, hinüberrufend in verwandte Formen. So weit der Kosmos von Gáls Arbeit ist, so zugänglich ist sie für Hörer. Alsógál (2014 in Budapest) zum Beispiel ist ein Netz von Elementen im Unterbewussten. In Schichten wird ein mythischer Vogel beschworen, der Alltagsgegenstand eines Wasserkessels, ja einer Wasserkultur mit chinesisch-instrumentaler Anspielung, im Kontrast zu realen Soundscapes von São Paulo und aus Salzburg. Die zwei Performances Klangschatten richten sich an ein jüngeres Publikum, sind ein Mix aus akustischen Instrumente aus China und Österreich, mit ‚elektroakustischen Schatten‘. Dem antworten mit kompaktem Volumen die farbig inszenierten Telefonzellen von Košice (solo, 2012); aber auch Klangzellen mit Texten in anderen Sprachen oder die Klangbojen im Wasser der Brigach von Donaueschingen (2007). An weiteren Orten begegnen sich große Räume, wie in einer von Belma Bešlić-Gál programmierten Planetariumsprojektion (Sterngucker, 2011) aus Myriaden von Einzelbildern. Ihre eigenen Arbeiten als Komponistin sind demnächst auch in einer CD-Produktion zu hören. Die Texturen, Hörfelder aus gefundenen Klängen zu Bildern von Wasser, Sand oder Geräuschen der Medien, wurden an mehreren Klangorten immer wieder neu installiert. Die Stromlinien wirken dagegen als akustische Interpretation von visuellen Mustern, das Konzept und die Erscheinungsweise werden sich ähnlich. Airport in Berlin von 2006 schließlich ist ein ‚Hafen der Klänge‘, über 12 Tonkanäle im Eingangsbereich des Musikinstrumenten-Museums. Eine besondere Bedeutung haben schließlich die Audio-Architektur-Installationen mit Yumi Kori, schon weil sie seit 1997 in immer neuen Variationen umgesetzt sind. Die Künstlerin wirkt von ihrer Biographie und Eigenart her wie ein Alter Ego Gáls; sie haben zusammen in Japan, USA, São Paulo und Berlin gearbeitet. Gerade solche Übergänge zwischen Künsten und Künstlern sind ein besonderes Merkmal von Gáls Arbeiten. Arrangements werden dabei anteilig oder komplett überarbeitet, als ‚Transformation räumlicher Erfahrung durch Klang und Licht‘. So verbindet sich in Defragmentation die Raumgestalt von Hörbarem in der New Yorker Galerie hin zur audio-visuellen Dimension von Acrylsäulen und transparenten Ballons in der Minoritenkirche von Krems. Der Aufenthalt in New York, die Arbeit in der Austrian Heritage Collection und die Begegnung mit Yumi Kori vertiefen also seit 1997 Gáls Katalyse von künstlerischem Wachstum generell und auch familiär. — eben wie eine Art Midlife Harvest. [Hans-Ulrich Werner, Positionen, Germany, 02/2016]

BERNARD GAL - ZWISCHENBRÜCKEN (DVD/book by Edition SP CE/Gromoga Records) A good friend of mine always says: "get out of this silly business of records nobody wants to buy and get into art installations; that's where the money is". Maybe that's what Bernard Gal thought? He's been into the creation of multi-media installations for a long time now and with 'Zwischenbrücken' he releases his second book about his work in this directions. First time it came with a CD, this time it is a DVD, with close to two hours of music and two hours of films. This is (only?) his eleventh release, so he's not really into the silly business of CD releases I should think. His installations are presented all over the world, not just Western countries but also in Oman and Tunisia. Some of these installations are site-specific, while others can be shown in various places. In other pieces it's all about theatrical aspects of his work, and he uses players of instruments in his pieces. Light plays a big role in many of his pieces. In 'Solo' for instance he has four old telephone boots with various lights, which have music and one notices the city from a different colour. Shadow play with real musicians is also a common place. In this document we find snapshots of all of these from the last ten years. Most of them are represented by both audio and video and usually last somewhere between five and ten minutes. That perhaps has a bit of a snapshot idea to it, which is a pity. For some of these pieces I wouldn't mind to hear a longer version, whereas others didn't interest me that much, such as 'Klangschatten', but as I'm not a child so I am also not the intended audience. The book itself (144 pages, 200 photos, hardcover) contains for every installation a description (which looks like it might not have been made by Gal, but by a third party), whereas Gal himself writes more personal observations about his pieces. It all looks great, if not a bit highbrow art like, but I guess that comes with the territory. As a pure music man I can look at this and be a bit envious: simple ideas are turned, apparently, easy into great visual and musical pieces that work well - judging by the documentation. But for some of the music pieces I also had the idea that Gal is perhaps relying a bit too much on the use of laptop techniques and it seemed sometimes a bit too much time stretching and plug-ins making this into warm glitch-like music. Perhaps that is where the pure music man comes in, stripping away the rest and listening to the music? As a gesamtkunstwerk however I would say Bernard Gal's work is all top-notch. [Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly, Netherlands, 12/2015] Gál comments: Hi Frans! First of all, I appreciate your rather elaborate review, knowing well that it is not exactly your cup of tea! Let me just add a few corrections and comments: - In fact, I started creating installations way before I released any audio CD. However, stereo versions of two early installative works (bestimmung new york; Defragmentation/blue) ended up on audio CDs later on. - Yes, money is an issue in art installations, however, it's rather about spending, not earning... producing site-specific art works requires a lot of time and money, so part of the creative process is to 'find' the needed budget in order to realize high-quality works. Sound installations are more or less impossible to 'sell' to art collectors etc, so there is no way to enter the art market (even if I would be interested which I am not). - No, unfortunately, I did not present any installations in Tunisia and Oman, as you write, however, I did some performances and lectures there, and later on realized an audiovisual work (textur #4) based on photos made in Oman. - In most of the compositions presented in this book, I don't use plugins much, mostly relying on the sound qualities of found sounds. I don't really understand the term 'glitch-like' in the context of my music, but I respect your perception ... (?) A few examples of - rather specific - exceptions: Die Grüne Hölle (using 'green' sound filtering); Klangschatten (transformation of instrumental sounds through time stretching and looping); solo (Košice) (vocoder to 'musicalize' found sounds from Košice); Sterngucker (transforming vocal sounds through time stretching in order to create 'planetary frequences'); mil águas (time stretching for water drops and tea kettle sounds) - You are right, this book focuses on audiovisual and space-related art works, therefore it is not recommended to listen to the acoustic side of the documentation without considering the rest. It would be possible - and probably rewarding - to create specific electro-acoustic compositions based on some of the presented works - the composed sound layers of many of these works show a duration of up to 50 minutes, thus, the presented audio and video excerpts can only be regarded as snapshots / samples. See p. 141 of the book for some comments about the DVD documentation). - and by the way, I do prefer my first name written as Bernhard, with an 'h'.

		'monumentale' Coloro che seguono questo artista sonoro e compositore austriaco, e anche coloro che seguono con più attenzione la nostra no-zine, ricorderanno il lungo articolo che gli dedicammo qualche anno fa (sopra c'è il link per chi intende rinfrescarsi la memoria). In quell'occasione facevamo cenno a un libro, con allegato un CD, che forniva un sunto delle sue attività installatorie svolte fino al 2005. A integrazione di quel catalogo illustrato giunge oggi questo nuovo e monumentale lavoro che in 144 pagine più un DVD con 39 piste (alcune video e alcune solo sonore) fa il punto sull'attività di Bernhard Gál a partire dal 2005 fino al 2015. Se da una parte "Zwischenbrücken" conferma le difficoltà e le inadeguatezze nel riproporre questo tipo di attività estrapolate dall'ambiente nel quale si svolgono, dall'altra devo riconoscere che si tratta di uno dei migliori tentativi effettuati in merito. La combinazione di vari elementi - parti scritte, video, foto, sonoro - pur non ricreando la magia originaria riescono comunque a darne un'idea piuttosto precisa. Mancano, certamente, le ambientazioni, e per queste dovrete arrangiarvi col far viaggiare la fantasia. Per chi intende avventurarsi fra le meraviglie proposte dal libro, operazione comunque consigliata, sarebbe buona cosa iniziare l'approccio da pagina 134 dove a una breve biografia fa seguito una catalogazione selezionata delle esibizioni e/o dei progetti multimediali di Gál. Scoprirete così un'attività piuttosto consistente che ha portato l'autore a lavorare in innumerevoli approdi del pianeta, da Budapest a Montreal, da San Paolo a Sofia, da New York a Pechino, da Berlino a Tokyo, da Seattle a Rio de Janeiro e da Reykjavík a Opava (nella Repubblica Ceka), solo per citarne alcuni e dai quali manca significativamente l'Italia (a conferma della decadenza culturale che sta attanagliando il nostro paese). La conoscenza e l'esperienza fanno la scienza, come sappiamo, e tutto il resto è una conseguenza di ciò. Resta da dire dell'influenza esercitata da Gál, sicuramente nulla in riferimento al mondo dell'alta moda ma significativa se invece ci immergiamo in quell'universo al quale fa riferimento anche sands-zine (un universo piccolo ma quanto più vero dell'altro!). Posso assicurarvi che nel castello di Chaumont-sur-Loire, nell'anno 2013, ho assistito a un festival con numerose installazioni, e ce n'era una che riproponeva l'idea utilizzata da Gál in Klangbojen (installazione presentata per la prima volta in Austria nel 2003). È bello vedere come le idee circolano indipendentemente dai confini e dalle barriere. [Mario Biserni, SandsZine, Italy, 03/2016] Google translalalates: 'Monumental' Those who follow this Austrian composer and sound artist, and even those who follow more closely our no-zine, remember the long article that we dedicated a few years ago (above is the link for those who wish to refresh your memory). On that occasion, we mentioned a book, with an attached CD, which provided a summary of his installation activities until 2005. As a complement to that illustrated catalog arrives today this new and monumental work in 144 pages plus a DVD with 39 slopes (some video and some sound only) makes the point of Bernhard Gál activity from 2005 until 2015. While "Zwischenbrücken" confirms the difficulties and inadequacies in proposing this type of activity extracted from the environment in which they take place, on the other I have to recognize that it is one of the best attempts made about. The combination of various elements - written parts, videos, photos, sound - while not recreating the original magic manage to give a pretty good idea. Lacking, certainly, settings, and for these you'll have to make do with the imagination to travel. For those who want to venture among the wonders proposals from the book, however, recommended operation, it would be good to start from Page 134 approach where a short biography follows a catalog of selected performances and / or the Gál multimedia projects. You will discover quite substantial activity that led the author to work in countless landings on the planet, from Budapest to Montreal, from Sao Paulo to Sofia, from New York to Beijing, from Berlin to Tokyo, from Seattle to Rio de Janeiro and from Reykjavík in Opava (the Czech Republic), to name a few, from which significantly missing Italy (confirming the cultural decadence that is gripping our country). Knowledge and experience make science, as we know, and everything else is a consequence. It remains to speak of the influence exerted by Gál, certainly nothing about the world of high fashion but significant but if we immerse ourselves in that universe which also refers sands-zine (a small universe but how much more true than the other! ). I can assure you that in the castle of Chaumont-sur-Loire, in the year 2013, I attended a festival with numerous installations, and there was one which proposed the idea used by Gál in Klangbojen (installation presented for the first time in Austria in 2003). It's great to see how ideas circulate regardless of frontiers and barriers.

Book & DVD-Video, edition sp ce / Gromoga Records, Austria, 2015 [ containing 144 pages and abundant colour photography, plus 4 hours of audio / video materials ]


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