Monthly Archives: November 2020

In search of my inner sounds.

This blog is meant to reflect my work, which is part of my master studies at the Maastricht Conservatory.
I have been involved in writing music for a few years now and I consider the music of Esperanza Spalding a very important source of inspiration and motivation. It is magical to me, how she moves through the sound-worlds of the most diverse musical styles and always bring it together in an own unique sound.Her latest work „12 little spells“ also included an interesting album concept:

„FIRST, AN IDEA STRUCK: 12 LITTLE SPELLS… I WANTED TO RELEASE ONE MORE SONG-EY ALBUM/TOUR PROJECT TO TIDE US OVER BEFORE I DISAPPEAR INTO THE BELLY OF DEVELOPING THE NEXT FULL THING*… THEN, ALL THE SUDDEN, THIS 12 LITTLE SPELLS IDEA JUST STARTED TAKING SHAPE IN MY IMAGINATION ALL QUICK-LIKE… AND MADE VARIOUS PARTS OF MY BODY TINGLE: HANDS, LEGS, SOLAR-PLEXUS, EARS, FEET, ARMS… (NO I DON’T USE DRUGS)… THIS TINGLING HAD A KIND OF HEALING SENSATION, AND I WONDERED: CAN I HARNESS THESE 12 LITTLE SENSATION-REVELATIONS INTO SOUNDS, WORDS, IMAGERY, AND PERFORMANCE THAT ACTIVATES THIS HEALING, TINGLING EFFECT IN OTHERS? ”

(from http://www.esperanzaspalding.com/#new-page-1)

So I thought about taking a more conceptual approach to my composing, that helps me finding new ways to the music that is within me, but that cannot yet be put into notes. Based on the compositions and musical concepts of Esperanza Spalding, I want to work out a collection of special features and tools that fascinate me about her music and music in general. I want to try to transfer these worked out aspects to a superordinate concept, that leads to new compositional freedom and „open-earness“. You could describe it as the creation of a „get-into-a-flow-system“.

This blog is meant to be a virtual place of inspiration, a kind of logbook in which I document the important steps of my way to (or away from?) this compositional flow-system.It’s there to sort my thoughts, to record results and it can also contain musical impressions, lyric excerpts and inspirations that might be of interest to some visitors of this site as well…

This study uses a self-experiment to investigate the extent to which creative processes and compositional development can be fostered by focussing on a visual stimulus. 

In the course of my existence as an artist, I have noticed that in my case the development of new song ideas often emerge from a system of „try and error“ or by contrast is based on a very theoretically, heady approach.

This study aims to give a methodical approach to generating new ideas in order to take away a certain arbitrariness from it, but at the same time intends to provide a foundation to an intuitive way of working.

At its core, this work documents the transformation process of an acoustic stimulus into its visual illustration, on which the creation of new music is based.

In summary, this Master Research Project produced 7 paintings and two videos, a series of improvisations, 6 completed composition, as well as an additional lyrical sketch and a pedagogical improvisation concept. The majority of this outcome occurred within a period of a few months.