Ulrich Müller (Interview Part 2) – A Long Tradition of Skeptics and Inventors

[This is a continuation of an interview - read part one here.]

Cape and the Eternity: 48nord - Ulrich Müller (e-guit, laptop, devices) & Sigi Rössert (e-bass, laptop, devices) with Patrick Schimanski (drums, voice, laptop, devices) pic Franz Kimmel

Part 2 – A Long Tradition of Skeptics and Inventors
In which Ulrich describes the technological development of his practice as well as the future of music.

BB: I’m most intrigued by the evolution of your performance set up. I find it interesting that set ups ‘settle down’ after much change and experimentation into something which feels like a complete ‘system’ or instrument. Being that this isn’t the first setup you’ve worked with, what would you regard as the elements crucial to a useful setup?

UM: It was constant change over many years that led me to the point at which I now consider my setup as a complex instrument which I constantly develop.

A journey from guitar and back
It all began when I was a rock musician. This meant heavy amplification, a set of nice guitars and a couple of standard stomp boxes such as phaser, flanger, vibrato, wah wah… and a great sound. Then I stepped into this strange world of experimental music which actually brought me far away from playing guitar for a couple of years.

A Man and a Man and a Double Bass

Last night I had the privilege of being (besides management and co) an audience of one. Not so great for the performers, who deserved much more – John Cartwright (voice) and Leroy Cowie (bass) performing their utterly unique two man, one double bass show at the New Africa Theatre. The programme included ‘The Last Double-bass Player on the Titanic’ (Haresnape/Hardy/Helman/Burle) and TS Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’.

(My apologies in advance for the following incident report)

A Man and a Man and a Double Bass

Left a narrator
Right a bassist
(known to each other)

Bassist partially hidden by music
(playing not hidden)

Narrator with acutely bent music stand

Scattered music on floor
(played and to be played)

Noises mesh despite

 

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Ulrich Müller (Interview Part 1) – A Wonderful Contradiction

Munich based musician and composer Ulrich Müller recently visited Cape Town. I bumped into him last December at an As Is gig – the free improv group I play with. Not heard of him? Well that’s probably because, despite his being well established as a composer of music for dance (with 48nord), his work as a performer inhabits the territory broadly known as ‘Electroacoustic music’, subcategory ‘Free Improvisation’. Which would no doubt make him anonymous for South African and certainly many other audiences – an unfortunate state of affairs.

Well this time here for a holiday with his partner Tanja, we managed to work in some very enjoyable jam time and also time to talk, which led to an interview. Here follows part 1 of the interview (part 2 to be posted shortly)….

Ulrich Müller

Part 1 – A Wonderful Contradiction.
In which Ulrich speaks about his musical interventions in Munich and his performance and composition philosophy.

How to make a Wind Harp on a Sunday

It’s spring here in Cape Town, so the wind is back  (winter wind normally means freezing rain as well!). So recently we headed to the Rondebosch common to play with wind harps amongst the flowering fynbos.

This year I’ve been experimenting with using disposable bottles to make simple plucked harps based on Congolese harps. Recently I discovered that they sound great when played by the wind and listened to whilst being held like  an 80′s radio cassette boom box

Jessica listening to and jamming on a portable boombox harp

These harps sing with a high pitched and ethereal voice. And if you feel inspired you can add rhythms by plucking as well. (I’ll soon be posting DIY instructions on how to make one of these).

Justin at the helm with (from left), Trevor, Jessica and myself.

We also made a long string harp. Read on for pics, diy instructions and a recording….

If Walls Could Talk Would They Sing?

In June this year I was approached by Renée Holleman to collaborate on a soundtrack for her upcoming show ‘A Novel in Parts’ at WhatIfTheWorld’s new premises in Woodstock, Cape Town.

The brief she gave me proved to be a great opportunity to explore Woodstock, the neighbourhood Masha and I had just moved into, as well as a useful challenge for my compositional techniques.

This is the final soundtrack:

Woodstock  is today primarily a Moslem community with a growing immigrant population from other parts of Africa, but up until the 1940′s it was a Jewish neighbourhood of Lithuanian decent. Renee explained that the show would touch on specific and tangential references to this context, especially as the exhibition was to take place in the old Woodstock Salt River Synagogue complex – the Hebrew Community Hall having been converted into the new gallery premises.

A detail from a work on the show 'A Novel In Parts'

[See more images from the show here.]

She also explained that the soundtrack would need to have a clear link to the current context but also in some way evoke the past – and use sound to achieve this.  The starting point would be the location of the exhibition – the Synagogue complex, which had been de-consecrated in the late 1950′s, and had seen a number of other occupants, including a bicycle repair shop and a furniture manufacturer.

Land of the Underneath

After seeing our performance workshop at Out The Box, Caroline Calburn approached Jori Snell and myself to present a full length version of Land of the Underneath at the Inside Out festival(4-8 Oct in Observatory Cape Town). We agreed and Caroline also offered to help us a little by casting a critical directorial eye  (which turned out to be a real life saver!).

So after many late nights and bumping into tin cans (intentionally and unintentionally), Baba Yaga Theatre and Brendon Bussy are proud to present the new, fully enhanced, deliciously noisy and sensory adventure:

Land of the Underneath!

Suitable for 3 years to 100

Jori's crown is played in Land of the Underneath

In ´Land of the Underneath’ a girl wakes up in a land where nothing is as it appears to be. In this land the not quite ordinary Noise Maker plays his instruments made of what we call ‘trash’, but for him they are magical objects. Together they discover a room full of delicious imagination where stories are born through objects and sounds come alive through playful movement. An interactive play inviting children of all ages to join the two characters on a journey of discovery.

Performance details

Strange Neighbours at House of Joy

Some time back I approached Kolade and Emma, to have a house concert at their home (the House of Joy) in Observatory, Cape Town. They very generously agreed. It went well and since then they’ve hosted at least one such event a month. It’s really grown with some high profile acts and good support. Well this month I’m back, this time supporting Masha in an evening of story telling using voice and sound this coming Sunday 25 September.

Antjie Donder - One of Masha's Strange Neighbours

Masha will dip into her new short story collection “Strange Neighbours”, bringing its menagerie of unexpected Capetonians to life. These include trolls with a taste for pepper spray, mermaids and mysterious roast chicken eating backyard dwellers. Brendon will provide the live soundtrack using his perishable and astoni…shing instrument inventions – Gourmet Harps and other noise makers made from the bits we normally throw away.

There’ll also be tales from other parts of the world, including the beautiful world of Inuit (Eskimo) legend. But beware: these are grown up stories. Dark secrets will be revealed in these stories with and without words.
Here are the details:

How We Made Noise at Out The Box

Noise was prevalent at last week’s Out the Box festival, and I made some of it.

I created original music and sound design using a table lamp amongst things, for Ubom! Theater’s Door and sound design for Kim Kerfoot’s hilariously dark Guillotine – part of Iqonga, Handspring Puppet Company’s experimental platform at the festival.

And I also found ample opportunity to test drive one of my new instruments, a perishable harp made from a 5 litre bottle and bamboo rod. Nicknamed ‘the Stick Insect’ I played it at the festival launch and garnered some favourable astonished responses (“What’s That?”). Then I used it as part of a performance workshop which Jori Snell and I ran called ‘Land of the Underneath‘.  Here’s a dramatic picture:

Playing the Stick Insect

And here’s a close up:

Children’s Theater – Not Only for Children

So the Out the Box festival is over. A huge selection of performances, but I managed to get a taste of some of the best, much of which was high class children’s theatre.

I’ve realised the challenge of children’s theatre – how do you keep a highly energetic and perceptive audience enthralled for the duration?

I saw The Sand Boy, a simple story – a boy on a beach fashions a boy out of sand who then comes to life, has many adventures (including an epic fight with a lobster), then falls for a mermaid. It sounds light and it was, however the story was a vehicle for a sensual feast utilising complex lighting, a dramatic and detailed instrumental score, not to speak of the smoke and bubbles (!). I was really impressed at Omar Alvarez’s skilful control of all aspects of the production, including of course, the puppet manipulation, an impressive demonstration of an Argentinian tradition of puppet theatre where the manipulator does everything on stage.

The Sand Boy with his Mermaid

Another highlight was Bye Moon presented by the Belgium based Pantalone company. At only 10mins long, many avoided it thinking it wouldn’t be worth the ticket fee.

How to Create Noise Makers with Personality

In early September Cape Town’s Out The Box festival comes to life. Its focus is ‘puppetry and visual theatre’ and presents quite an eclectic mix of performance media – the traditional plus all of the newer stuff (video, installation etc).

I’ll be presenting two workshops, one with Jori Snell – which explores sound and movement (read more about it here). And one solo which focuses on the nitty gritty of building and playing unusual string instruments, or more broadly speaking, ‘noise makers’ for use in theatre and life.  See below for the detailed info.  And if you need to know more, you can contact me directly.

Water Bottle & Sardine Can Segankuru (Zulu fiddle)

How to Create Noise Makers with Personality
Date: Sunday 11 September
Time: 10h00 to 16h00 (6 hours)
Venue: Cape Town, venue to be confirmed
Price: R250

This workshop focuses on making and using unique and quirky musical instruments.