Dror Feiler -> work, -> bio , -> web and Gunilla Skoeld -> work, -> bio , -> web

 

EVEN THE BLOOD MUST SLEEP and WILD LIFE

Two Installations by Dror Feiler and Gunilla Sköld

Nani, nani, they are not at home,
they are in the fields, picking up roses.
Picking up roses and violets
and red carnations...

Lull me gently into this unsecure place of changing worlds of sounds and space...
Between dream and reality, between consciousness and sleep; a gliding continuous movement, a
place between.

Life in it´s constraints and fixed conditions: like the butterfly against the sheet of glass; again and again
leaving traces of sounds and impressions. Is it me that is insisting? Insisting a touch. A touch of me
against the sheet of glass.

The same old story, the same old song? Can we escape from the circles? Smash the sheet of glass
without hurrting ourselves? Or are we tied on a string to the mechanics? Safeness and constriction.
Allowing us to move only in wide circles. A song from a butterfly.

But not even the remains are peacefully sleeping. Familiar voices are continously singing: A monotone
rhythm. Dust of ashes is spread in the wind. Spots of ashes on a butterfly wing. And the song goes:

Nani, Nani the little dream is complaining
that it can not talk to you
my dear the dream is calling you ,
calling you...

But if the child isn´t falling asleep the dream has no reciever.

Three butterflies are flying in circles making a sound we are familiar with - a fluttering against a sheet of
glass. The glass has soot on it. The repeated friction from the butterfly wing is scratching lines in the
soot. Each butterfly has it´s own speed and rythm and is also drawing it´s own image against the sheet
of glass.
The work is dealing with slow processes, repetitions and frictions of movements and synthetic sounds
that suddenly between a five minutes- intermission break through. As if the intermission between the
synthetic sounds questions wether there is a connection to the repeted natural sound part: as if a
certain amount of friction could create this sudden synthetic sound or if it just "turns up" for no logical
reason.
In the next room eight telephone receivers are hanging down from the ceiling. They emit a faint
humming sound. Small beds made of glass covered with ashes are connected to the telephones
through the telephone cables that have been spun around the beds in the room. If you take any of the
recievers you will here a lullaby. Four of them are Croatian, two are Swedish and two Israeli. The
choice of the songs is built on getting a connection to specific places. Getting some sense of the area
for the installation through the working process and bringing it closer to the audience by recognition of
language, sound and rythm. (Gunilla Skoeld)

Music & noise
Music is more than the reproduction of tones, it is a process of creating and producing sounds and
forces. The tone is first of all just a noise that is bound in a canon of rules - and only becomes a tone in
these circumstances. The music of the whole occident builds a system, creates models that filter the
noise, the "rauschen" (a german word for rustle (leaves, silk, radio), rush (flowing water, wind), roar
(storm, waves); rausch - intoxication, drunkenness; rauscshend - rustling etc., orgiastic (party) swelling
(music)). Here the word is used to describe the electrical noise and alludes to the other meanings of the
words) and the currents of sound. The computer, the sampler and the synthesizer are machines that
through varied possibilities of sound synthesis and calculations not only make new sounds audible and
new structure possible but also restructure the process of the production itself. It is the musical work
with structures and sound material itself that allows new energies and intensities to be captured. My
music is a flow of sounds, noises, forces, it develops to a point where it goes beyond itself. The speed
with which different sound elements follow each other, and the density with which they superimpose
vertically, are so great that a sort of overload occurs, one which transcends the restlessness of arousal,
like a film run through at too high a speed. The occasional passages with tones, harmonies and sounds
in a more "normal" rate can, in context, seem almost banal-a measure of the distance we have travelled
in the music. The intuitive molten metal brutality of the music brings the player into the energy of a hot
improvisation. A new music is created, a new speed of thinking and feeling where the intellect meets
the manic raver. We experience an energy born of rapid movement, sound, noise, flow and expression.
The music does something palpable to its listeners, or at least incites them to a form of action, of
awakening.
The most immediate audible characteristic of my music is its noisiness. Abrasive, loud, fast. The
textures and rhythms are never sweet or satisfying in the conventional sense; one has only to hear the
primal screams of "Pig iron" (The celestial fire CD/ANKARSTRÖM-Ö10 (Dror Feiler Solo) for tenor
saxophone & live electronics)), the punk-free improvised thrash of "Tio Stupor" (Saxophone con forza
PSCD 81 (for alto saxophone & live electronics)) or the new composition "Ember" (for symphonic
orchestra & electronics (1997 Donau Eschingen festival commission) to realize that neither a pathetic
World music prettiness, a pretentious new romantic resolution, nor new music academism has any
place in those works of music, except as an antagonistic element. Nor do these compositions allow the
conventions of modern and contemporary music unproblematically. My music uses "noise" that is
"noise in itself; but noise, in this connotation, is not simply a haphazard or natural sound, the audible
"background" that encroaches on a work such as Cage's 4'33", as the audience is forced by the tacit
piano to listen to its own shufflings, or to the urban soundscapes that emerge through an open window.
It is a noise that is always impure, tainted, derivative and, in the Romantic sense of the term, beautiful
like in Alka, OpFor & DiaMat ((FYCD 1007) By the Too Much Too Soon Orchestra). Noise, in the widest
possible sense, is one of the central elements in my music as for its more popular "musical cousin" the
Noise music. The abrasive raucousness, in the music is an attempt to alter the way people hear. Noise,
as sound out of its familiar context, is confrontational, affective and transformative. It has shock value,
and defamiliarizes the listener who expects from music an easy fluency, a secure familiarity (it can be a
"modern" one), or any sort of mollification. Noise, that is, politicizes the aural environment.

Sound & object installations
With my work in the field of sound & object installations I try to intensify the spectator/lister experience of
visual and sound objects, to give them a new or enriched perception of the space. From this point of
view the essence of the installation is expressed not only by the work itself but also through the
relationship which is established between the different visual and sound objects and the space in
which it is created.
As a composer, these concepts create a confrontation that requires a very different approach to music.
First, it means creating music in a new social enviorement and context. Removing the music from the
concert hall and then placing it in the much less formal surroundings of public spaces creates
implications for the character of the music itself and for my own basic attitude as a composer. A much
stronger emphasis has to be placed on adapting music to existing conditions and on the merging of
them within given surroundings and situations. This means that the specific needs of the exhibition and
space would be one of the most important guidelines for the creative process. This way of working with
music contrasts sharply to the traditionally isolated act of music composition, to its autonomous
conception and to its almost exclusively "concert"-oriented character of presentation. Within such a new
approach to music making, traditional musical concepts of form and structure, of register, rhythm, timbre
and so forth, seemed inadequate and unsuitable.
In the sound & object installation "EVEN THE BLOOD MUST SLEEP" I work with 8 cradle songs and
sounds that are derived from them. All the cradle songs can be heard in the space like whispering.
The music of a cradle song is emotional and so emotional and sentimental is the first part of each one
of the 8 sound objects that they can be listened to through the 8 telephone receivers in the hall. In the
second part the song developes to a point where it seems to go beyond itself. The speed with which the
words follow each other, and the density with which they superimpose vertically, are so great (each
cradle song is compresed into 1 second) that a sort of overload occurs, a "noise" is created. Than a
"random choir" in a "normal" rate is used and can, in context, seem almost banal-a measure of the
distants we have travelled in the music. A "sine tone chord", using some of the overtones of the highest
tone of each cradle song is a departure for the begining of the whole once more ....

Dror Feiler
Stockholm April 1999

Supported by : The Swedish Institute

 

 

Dror Feiler: a portrait

was born in Tel Aviv,1951. After completing his studies at an agricultural college (1965-1969) and serving his military service as a parachutist (1969-1972), he settled in Sweden 1973.

In 1977-1978 he studied musicology at Stockholm University and in 1978-1983 he studied composition at the state college of Music in Stockholm for Gunnar Bucht, S. D. Sandström and Brian Ferneyhough. Since the end of the 1970s, he has composed upwards 60 works for various combinations of instruments, ranging from orchestral music to solo pieces, from electroacoustic music to ballet music.

When speaking about his music, he shows a will to work with music that deals with the world:

I want always to deal with the grim problems in life: Shrapnel (war) ; Beat the White the red wedge (Revolution) ; Schlafbrand (Second World War) ; Let the Millionaires go Naked (Revenge of the poor); Intifada (Israeli-Palestinian conflict). Aesthetics per se do not interest me. More than that it is dangerous. When I compose or play I do not look for beauty,
but for truth.

He often depicts, fortissimo and at great length, a violent struggle, but concerning Maavak (struggle, 1981) he says:

Maavak does not describe the struggle. Maavak is the struggle.

His thoughts about his music can sound like this:

The origin of all music is the ritual, the conjuration. The "new modern serious music" has lost almost all its blood and all its ritual suggestive powers. Rock, Noise, Trash & Techno music have preserved much of its ritual suggestive powers, but on the way lost most of its musicality. I want my music to be emotional and to develop to a point where it seems to go beyond itself. I want my music to have the suggestive powers, the aggressivity and the volume of Rock, Noise, Trash and Techno-Music and the refinement and skills of New music. The intuitive molten metal brutality of the music brings the player into the energy of a hot improvisation. A new music is created, a new speed of thinking and feeling where the intellect meets manic raver. We experience an energy born of rapid movement and expression. The music does something palpable to its listeners, or at least incites them to a form of action, of awakening; it activates the listener.

Many of his titles provide excellent clues to his music:
shrapnel (1978) for contrabass clarinet and two tape recorders,
Brand (Fire) (1979-81), an improvisation for orchestra,
Döds mõssa över 70-talet (Requiem for the seventies) (1979-80), for soloists and orchestra,
Stalingrad (1981-82) improvisation for soloists and orchestra,
Barrikad (1981-82) for two amplified pianos,
Written in Salt (1982-83) for ten percussionists,
Sl? en röd kil i det vita blocket (Beat the White the red wedge) (1981-86), for large orchestra,
Schlafbrand (1985) for organ and percussion ("Dedicated to all Jews and
Communists Murdered during the Second World War"),
Tõndstickorna (The Matches) (1985) for two percussionists, two electric guitars, soprano saxophone and tape.
Gola' (Diaspora) (1986) for organ ("Dedicated to all the Migrant Workers in Europe"),
L?t miljonärerna g? nakna (Let the Millionaires go Naked) (1987) for four electric guitars, two sets of drums and tenor saxophone,
Ni är döda (You're dead) (1987) for two trombones, two electric guitars, two amplified cellos and a set of drums,
Holtz Narkose (1988) for contrabass clarinet, computer and live electronics,

Intifada (Uprising) (1988) for contrabass clarinet, computer and tape ("Dedicated to the Palestinian uprising"),
Huvudet hjulet rullar (The head, the wheel are rolling) (1989) for 2 pianos ("Dedicated to the french revolution"),
Kill Guitar Kill (1990) for 4 El guitars, live electronics, percussion and machines,
Den knutna näven (The Fist) (1991) for 10 instrumentalists, computer, tape and live electronics,
A death of a dream (1991) for cello solo,
Even the blood must sleep (1991) for trombone and percussion,
Wir kommen zurück (1992) for 15 instrumentalists,
Between the two halves of the orange (1993) for piano solo,
Kaos I - III (1994) for chamber ensemble, machines and live electronics,
Sparagmos I (1994) for violin solo and electronics,
Sham Mayim (1995) for chamber orchestra (1995 Ensemble Modern commission),
Music for dead Europeans (1996) for chamber orchestra.
Restitutio in pristinum for el. violin, el. guitar, sopranino saxophone,
trombone & percussion 1996;
Sparagmos for violin solo, live electronics & chamber orchestra 1993-96;
Conatus for chamber orchestra & live electronics 1996;
I sommersi e i salvati for church organ & tape 1996;
Ember for symphonic orchestra 1996-97 ("Dedicated to the memory of Che Guevara") (1997 Donau Eschingen festival commission).

Parallel to his activities as a composer he has since 1978 been playing the saxophones, clarinets and electronics as a solo performer and in "Lokomotive Konkret" and "The Too Much Too Soon Orchestra" two music groups, of which he is the founder and artistic leader. He has taken part in radio recordings and concerts as a soloist or with his group in Europe, Asia and U.S.A.

Dror Feiler, with his ardent sense of vocation, must rank as one of Sweden's leading improvisation musicians and composers, and he campaigns for equality of status between improvised and pre-composed music.

We cannot help noticing how composing practice, with all its history, has taken us back to the origins of all music : improvisation. Improvisation can be interpreted as an instinctive act of trying to achieve emancipation in a bureaucratic, technocratic society. A society creating a body of artists which to a great extent is a body of fellow travellers and only in exceptional cases a body of resistance fighters, resistance being the most essential material for creating an art that is a self-defence which is imperative in the present day situation. My music springs from individual energy mobilized by a collective idea.

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Gunilla Sköld Feiler

Born in Norrköping 1953

Education : Royal Academy of Art (Stockholm 73-78)
Monumentalverkstan (Concrete) 96-97 Konsthögskolan

Solo exhebitions :

Arbis Linköping - 75
Galleri Nyfiken Vadstena - 79
Galleri Svenska Bilder Stockholm - 83
Galleri God Konst Linköping - 84
Konstsalongen Kavaletten Uppsala - 85
Galleri Mejan Stockholm - 85
Galleri Engström Stockholm - 88
Yad Hanna Culturehouse Israel - 88
Fylkingen Stockholm - 89
Konsthall Alka (nuvarande Rix) Linköping - 89
Forum Stockholm - 92
Interstudio Pushkin St. Petersburg - 95 (with support from
Bildkonstnärsfonden and the Swedish Institute)
Forum Stockholm - 97

Group exhebitions :

Konstnärsbolaget Stockholm - 79
"Konst på papper" Kulturhuset Stockholm - 89
Galleri Decorum Stockholm - 91
Sollentuna art fair - 92
Västerviks Kulturhus -93
"Tusen Blommor"Kulturhuset Stockholm - 93
Lunds konsthall - 93
Smart Show (art fair) Stockholm - 94
Konst på Hötorget / Hötorget i Konsten Stockholm - 94 (Kulturhuset)
Färgfabriken - 96
Vidarutbildarnas Vårutställning Monumentalverkstan - 97
"How much it takes to feel safe" - 98 Offenes KulturHaus , Linz, Austria
Carnevalecube - 98 Passagen, Linköpings Konsthall

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