SCRAP >
Video (3min) SCRAP begins with the rudiment of the concert grand piano, a piano frame with strings, devoid of keys, mechanism and wood panelling. In order to extend the tonal possibilities of this quasi-naked, deconstructed instrument, Andrea Neumann added new elements such as shelves, preparations, a mixing desk, microphones and pick-ups. With Ana Maria Rodriguez (computer) and Steffi Weismann (video), this expansion, which was already underway, was raised to a higher power by the addition of two further media. The three work together to create a spatially extended visual-acoustic portrait of the Inside Piano. The piece’s course is shaped by equal individual voices, which relate to each other in various modes: synchronic, one voice/several voices (deviating in tempo, texture, structure and colour) soloist/accompanist, following each other/setting their own tone. In this sense, connecting the instrument to Ana Maria Rodriguez’s computer made possible transformations and acoustic distortions in the subtlest shadings and bewildering displacements of musical time. Steffi Weismann’s pictorial level expands the instrument and focuses or distorts the details of sound production. Thus one can see on two screens in close-up how a metal broom or a propeller sets the strings vibrating. The alternation between the live camera and pre-recorded film material exists in close connection to the live musical performance. Temporal structures and pictorial rhythms that deviate from synchronicity make us aware of the autonomy of the visual voice.
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