Franz Koglmann: Fear Death by Water
Artikel: BTL 034
Musicians: Franz Koglmann tp, fl-h, Tony Coe ts, cl, Martin Siewert g, electronics, Peter Herbert b, Wolfgang Reisinger dr, Ensemble xx Jahundert
Recording date: 18. March 2003
Recording place: Museumsquartier, Wien
Tracks:
- Introduction
Part I - Die Heimkehr der Toten - Ich habe mich schön gemacht für dich
- Hey
- Welche Tage auch immer
- So wird es gestern sein
- Was bleibt von den Bildern
Part II - Tod im Wasser - So muß es immer sein
Part III - Die Feuerpredigt - Und sah mich um
- Mit kleine Stichen...
- With My Hair Fill the Pillow
- Burning, burning, burning
- Nichts passt zu nichts
- Siehst
du, es geht ja
Part IV - Der Donner spricht - Wie viele Wörter es gibt
- Es schwillt der Knebel mir im Mund
- Aber nicht wirklich
- Leb wohl Strand, leb wohl Meer
Franz Koglmann’s ‘Beach Opera “Fear Death by Water” had its greatly acclaimed premiere under the direction of Michael Scheidl at the Museumsquartier in Vienna in March this year. The “Süddeutsche Zeitung” described it as a “bold undertaking” and the “Frankfurter Allgemeine” billed it as an “acoustic and visual provocation”.
The live recording of the world premiere has now been released on CD by between the lines.
This opus, which was inspired by T.S. Eliot's extraordinary poem “The Waste Land”, continues the successful cooperation which started in 1998 with the Ezra Pound cantata “O Moon My Pin-Up”, between composer and jazz performer Franz Koglmann and writer Christian Baier. They have developed a gloomy yet whimsical conundrum of changing visual and musical perspectives in which slight shifts in perception open up vistas of tragicomic abysses of banality. Laughter dies in the throats of the “fun-and-games society” Hope is turned into a joke without a punch line.
In Koglmann’s brilliant mixture of styles, in his “sure-footed tight-rope walk between swing and amorphous sounds, apprehension chokes off the merrymaking”. (“Profil”) He enjoys the support of a great cast including splendid soloists such as Morenike Fadayomi and Walter Raffeiner, and the Monoblue Quartet with the outstanding Tony Coe and drummer Wolfgang Reisinger, as well as the excellent exxj ensemble directed by Peter Burwik.