Ergo sum "pf "maschinenie (1990)
for violin, synthesiser/sampler
Duration: 9 min.
ensemble intrors:
Susanne Schulz - violin, Iris ter Schiphorst - synthesiser/sampler
Performance material available from the composer
'Ergo sum-pf-maschinerie' was created on the basis of improvisation.
Technical set-up for the keyboard equipment of the original version
Two Casio samplers (each with only 2 MB!), one with keyboard, the other as a rack, Roland D 50 synthesiser, yamaha 16-channel mixing console, yamaha spx 90 effects unit.
CD Liebesgeschwüre im Schneckenhaus - electroacoustic compositions by Iris ter Schiphorst
Ensemble intrors: Gisburg Smialek - voice/flute, Susanne Schulz, Barbara Buchberger - violins, Iris ter Schiphorst - synthesiser/sampler in SO-36, prod. 1992
Audio: youtube
From the programme booklet:
My work follows the following procedure: Firstly, I go in search of sound material that stimulates me, that sets something in me in motion. It is a phase of collecting (= memorising) and trying things out.
It is followed by a more 'receptive' phase in which I try to follow the movement that the sound elements make in me: i.e. I endeavour to hear what composition the selected sound elements require. Often a very specific conception of the piece emerges in this way, but sometimes it remains a desire to roam the material again and again in new and different ways.
The choice of players, i.e. their instruments, is made in the same way. Sometimes the material demands the specific sound colour of a certain instrument and a certain way of playing it. Sometimes, however, it remains only a rough idea of a possible encounter...(ItS, 1990)
Reviews
Homa musica by Eckhard Smialek, 6 February 1991
Iris ter Schiphorst, all-electronic composer, plays music of subterranean beauty. She is an academic angel, Brahms and Brahma in the classical underground.
Her sound magic is cool-psychedelic: blonde music for dramatic listeners.
She is a hypervirtuoso keyboardist.She does hand and foot experiments with an enthusiasm for things that definitely work.
She plays to the earth.Venus rises from the lost violin of a violinist...
You will hear...
A little high-tech night music NWZ, No. 108, 11.05.1991
...An astonishing number of people turned up for the night concert with the two musicians Iris ter Schiphorst (synthesiser, sampler) and Susanne Schulz (violin) ... and were enthusiastic about this peculiar serenade.
The material of the compositions, all by Iris ter Schiphorst, consisted of electrically amplified and/or processed sounds that corresponded with the electrically amplified violin. The pieces bore titles such as "Ballad for a Bulldozer" or "...ergo sum-'pf'-maschinerie" and, although constructed with the utmost precision, had the effect of meticulous noise collages, an experimental "film music without film".
In the concentrated interplay between the two musicians, sensitively supported by a light show, "the desire to explore the material again and again in new and different ways" was clearly audible and perceptible. Although electronic sounds always have something abstract and incorporeal about them, these compositions did not exhaust themselves in surreal sound aestheticism or high-tech gimmicks. Behind them, a strong, even playful desire for expression emerged, to explore levels that cannot be grasped with words... Susanne Olbrich