It is important to listen to consider and absorb the music of our time. For some hat means a post-Modern construct; which can be relatively easy on the ear; for others (I remember, notably in Berlin!) the music of the avant-garde is important.
No surprise it is a German label at the forefront of this: Wergo, a company with a long-sanding history of integrity in this field.
Today, on their Podium Gegenwart series, we have a disc of music by Sergej Maingardt (born 1981). It was released in Germany in 2022. Thinkking of contemporary streams of thought, it is significant that Maingardt himself says:
I have the feeling I’ve got my finger on the pulse of the age and can help shape the sonic universe of the present. That gives me lots and lots of energy and drives me forward
As well as in performances in Germany and Europe ,including at the Donaueschinger Musiktage, IRCAM ManiFeste and the Darmstadt Summer Courses, among others, Maugardt’s pieces ave traveled globally, Canada, Panama and Mexico to Russia, Pakistan, Vietnam, Laos and South-Africa.
Maingardt studied composition with Prof. Michael Beil at the Cologne Hochschule für Musik und Tanz (HfMT) and media and cultural analysis at the Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf. He received several scholarships, i.e. from Deutsche Akademie Rom Villa Massimo in Casa Baldi. Since 2021 he holds a guest professorship for transdigital composition at the HfMT Cologne.
The music is certainly uncompromising: first, Rush. All works were composed between 2012 and 2020; all foreground electronics., and all include, to varying degree, the use of noise.
Rush is Maingardt’s only orchestral work so far; but here he also includes an elecytronic element. The music’s surface is void and, causally, dynamic. Thee is an interior energy. The notes posit a depiction of (political) protest of the individual against the (tutti) collective Inside an industrial landscape that does not want to keep still there re “windows” of calm, oppotuniis for reflection.. It’s fascinating: an accordion features as part of the soundscape, too (Kirszrin Pálagyi); solely electronic passages sm to speak of a post-industrial winter. Blah, challenging, this music is all of these things. But it is also artfully constructed and beautifully perfumed. There are hints of a Modernist Wintereise, perhaps: but also of a discoed view of the wold, herd most starkly inane electroicallyadjusted, distorted orchestral statement towards the end of the piece.
Th performance is outstanding: I did not realise this was a youth orchestra, but it is, the bundesjugendocheste under the experiences Lothar Zagosek. Joining Pálágyi is Kai Botviik on guitar.
The “initial point” of this portrait is actually found online (there are some linked videos: see below), the piece SMOG, performed below by the ensemble hand werk. SMOG‘s sonic material is generated from electromagnetic fields of computers scanned and selected with solenoids.
(the same video is accessed via the product on a QR code which takes you to this Vimeo link).
The next piece on the disc is flower’s silence in empty guns, a piece that focuses on terrorism:
My starting point was studies on the increase of terrorist attacks reported since the onset of the new millennium. In musical terms, I’ve transferred the growth of politically motivated violence to the factor of acceleration..
To realise this, Mainhardt uses sensors to cure the movement of pianissimo Polo Álvares; that data is fed into a computer where manipulations main they can be translated into sound. The music dually expand via what he notes call a “nagging” dynamic, a sot of torment quibble with the isn of terrorism. Álvares is superb pianist, and the whole experience is quite overwhelming:. Liten out fofor the Stockhausen-like glissandos, almost like electronic gestures on an acoustic piano:
You can access Álvares’ sound-only YouTube of the performance here; or there’s a video taken in Cologne, Germany, below:
The final piece is declare independence, for rock and (electric guitar, electric bass, synthesizer and percussion) and electronics. The composer speaks:
I’ve experimented a lot over the last ten years, and a lot has happened. The same spirit is reflected in this CD/online project. Moreover, declare independence is a rebellion and is meant to show that above all I am curious, always on the lookout and ready to embark for new shores
The piece is certainly excusing, at its th vibrant nrgy of guy bass enhanced by manic electronics.
The music of Sergej Maingardt is at the pulse of time. He draws inspiration from socio-political topics and the effects of the digitized and globalized world on our perception and thought processes. The use of modern technologies, pop cultural influences and “noise”-elements form a sonic connection in his works. The pieces of the album “straight run” interrelate, complement, and comment on each other. “SMOG” is the initial point of this portrait. Its sonic material is generated from electromagnetic fields of computers scanned and selected with solenoids. “The noise inherent to SMOG leads subtly to a continuum spanning all nine pieces. The sonic noise is partly joined by ‘pictorial noise’”, as Egbert Hiller points out in the booklet’s essay. Six audio-visual works were created in productive interaction with video artist Jens Standke. The musical journey leads from distorted (self-)perception in social networks (“Construct ¬– deconstruct”) to the splitting up of features and patterns of pop and rock music (“It’s Britney, bitch!“ and “HeroIn“) and ends with a declaration of the own artistic independence of the composer in the last work of the album: ‘Moreover, Declare Independence is a rebellion and is meant to show that above all I am curious, always on the lookout and ready to embark for new shores.’
The disc performance (sound-only) is available here; although there is also a video video taster below:
There are six videos available through QR code (or, indeed, though clicks are!): SMOG (2012, performed by hand werk), Construct-deconsruct (2018, ), It’s Britney. bitch! (2014, Sebastian Berweck, piano), Heroin (2017, Cologe Guita Quartet), Blur Paralyzed (2018, Paolo Álvarez, piano), Kurzschluss (2015, (Ensemble Garage).
There is so much to explore her, especially when one considers the “bonuses”. As always, Wergo offers rewards for those who dare.
The disc is available at Amazon here; streaming below.
