Philipp Wachsmann
“One of the finest violinists working in improvised music today, Wachsmann’s technique and musicality are a perfect fit, giving full reign to his creative imagination in any of the many situations in which he has worked. Constantly inventive and sensitive to his musical …… what promises to be an aural treat!” [The Vortex London]
“John Corbett notes that Philipp Wachsmann came to free improvisation from a predominantly classical background, particularly via the contemporary experiments of “indeterminacy, graphic and prose-based scores, conceptualism and electroacoustics, listening to Webern, Partch, Ives, Berio and Varèse, reading ‘Die Reihe’ and interrogating the rhythmic, harmonic and melodic preoccupations of Western art music. Starting in 1969, Wachsmann was a member of Yggdrasil, an ensemble performing works by Cage, Cardew, Feldman, Ashley and others and in this group he used contact mikes on the violin and made his own electronic instruments, ring modulators and routing devices. Ironically, his studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris …. pushed him hard in the direction of free music. He recalls: ‘Despite her neoclassical orientation, her insistence that composition is about the imagination of performance and its realisation, the live moment, and her stunning ability to make this happen was a powerful influence on me, steering towards ‘performance’ and therefore ‘improvisation’.
Philipp
Wachsmann (b Kampala 1944). He studied violin with the international artist
Isolde Menges, and music at Durham University, received scholarships to study
violin and composition at Indiana University, Bloomington USA, and composition
with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in 1968/9 where he also attended courses in
modern music given by Henri Pousseur, and, by Pierre Boulez in Basel. He
subsequently lectured at Durham University 1969/70 and then moved to London to
start a performing career.
He pioneered new sounds using the violin and electronics and can be heard on
over 100 LPs/CDs on different labels including ECM, and plays worldwide. He
performs with most of the musicians working in modern improvisation related
music. Ensembles and recordings include the London Jazz Composer’s Orchestra,
the late Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Barry Guy, and the Belgian pianist Fred van
Hove. Recent ensembles are the Stellari String Quartet, The Imaginary String
Trio but he often works as a soloist alone or with other groups. He regularly
conducts his own pieces with the London Improvisation Orchestra. Compositions
include ‘Three Draft Pistons’ for violin and electro-acoustic tape, a work for
Chamber Orchestra. Performances include a tour with the video artist Kjell
Bjorgeengen and musician Keith Rowe in the ‘Kill Your Timid Notion’ festival
tour, with Ken Vandemark and Paul Lytton, and with the artist Sarah Eckel at
the FMP Festival in Berlin.
He also works with film, dance and architecture. For many years he was Director
of the Electronic Music Studio at Morley College and currently teaches courses
in composition at the City Literary Institute.
He was much influenced by the music of Uganda heard since childhood and by
discussions with his Father Klaus Wachsmann over the years, and by
ethno-musicological thinking, though he has developed his own musical language
as a performer and music making musician. Recently he delivered a now published
paper on the “Changeability of Musical Experience – influences on my music
making”.
Starting in 1972 he has given regular workshops in improvised music at various
places and which have been a starting place for many of today’s performers.
Philippwachsmann.com
http://www.efi.group.shef.ac.uk/mwachs.html
http://www.efi.group.shef.ac.uk/mwachs.html
www.beadrecordssp.com
CHATHUNA was performed in Germany in collaboration with Sarah Eckel’s installation about a Jewish wedding. It included apile of slat chrystals, and took place in an art gallery that had originally been a synagogue. The village had ensured the safety abroad of its Jewish population just before the 2nd world war.
https://soundcloud.com/philipp-wachsmann/sets/some-other-season
This work was based on the Note Book of Marcel Duchamp for his ‘Glass’. It is called ‘Three Draft Pistons” and involved live improvisation, pre-recorded electronic sounds and a visual image. In 1980 the original used a motorised mobile,: in recent performances, drawings by PW were projected onto a sculpture / instalation.