Florian Wittenburg – 17 Clips

FlorianWittemburg

CD + DVD – NurNichtNur

17 Clips is an interesting and rigorous project developed for CD and DVD by Florian Wittenburg and released by German sound art label NurNichtNur. The album takes its name from the third track and is based on sound fragments of cello and accordion provided by Stephan Froleyks, a colleague and co-author of these micro-scores. The individual scores, which had not been previously juxtaposed, now find themselves orchestrated in a grandiose and refined manner. From the first track “1st Patch for Steve Reich” the sound is very iterative and mellow, following the minimalist wave and the circular structures. This approach, with more ambient and “tintinnabuli” shades, is also present in “Für Alina”, a piano work originally conceived in 1976 and now performed by Florian Wittenburg at the vibraphone. The album ends with “2nd patch for Steve Reich”: the technique employed is the same as the first track, based on “phasing” and controlled by an oscillator. But here the “crossfading” is performed using different sound sources, giving life to different rhythms and tonal variations. Even though Wittenburg has used different elements as source material, he has clearly tried to maintain a similar methodology through the album (although he suggests that this technique will not be used tout court in future projects) A special mention should be made about the DVD: the refined and elegant geometrical visuals in black and white refer only to the title track and were created by Marcel Wierck and mastered by Roel Verbek.