Thinking Silent Matter

As a starting point for the improvisation, silence is not treated as the absence of sound, but as part of the music, and as a way to be silent and still, a way to focus. The video describes several excercises which focus on the details of reduced sound material, changing only one parameter at a time, such as the sound’s density, timbre, pitch, dynamics etc. The first excercise asks each ensemble member to play one sound, solo, the next member to pick it up and imitate it,  leading to a short duo, where the sounds overlap, and slowly moving through the ensemble. As a second step, the sound is not imitated but varied, where each member is asked to take one parameter out of the perceived sound and change and develop it. A third step leads to a short piece from the whole ensemble, where duos can emerge relating to the two previous excercises.