Space

Marco Stroppa views composition as musical research and is constantly aware of the dual nature of artistic thought, "the discourse about the thought and the thought itself." On this release, the Ensemble KNM Berlin explores the topological qualities of the sound worlds in three of Stroppa's chamber music works. All three pieces demonstrate Marco Stroppa's highly sensitive experimentation with sounds at the threshold of audibility. As a philosopher of sound, all sonorities are for him instruments of epistemology; as a musical poet, he tells stories with sensual, tactile, dynamic, and constantly changing sounds, the interpretation of which is always left up to the individual listener. The string quartet "Un Segno nello Spazio" (1994) deals with the idea of a sign in space that undergoes an intense increase of density, making the three-dimensionality of the space palpable. In the seven miniature movements of "Hommage à Gy. K." for clarinet, viola, and piano (1997-2003), Stroppa honors the Hungarian composer György Kurtág. The performers repeatedly change their positions on the stage, creating differing effects which can be experienced purely acoustically thanks to skillfully managed microphone placement and audio mastering. In "Osja, Sieben Strophen für eine literarische Drohne" (2005/2013) for violin, violoncello, and piano, Stroppa reflects on the life of the Russian poet Joseph Brodsky through two of his poems.