Reinhold Friedl’s string quartets do not pretend to be string quartets: they are anti-Goethe. There is no sophisticated conversation of four elder gentlemen, sitting in arm chairs. The music is physical work for the performers and intended to be physical pleasure for the listeners. All three quartets are based on the same idea: smooth transformations from a given texture into another one. The random-driven details vary between the pieces and the parts of the pieces. Meanwhile Reinhold Friedl developed a software in the frame of a PHD project at Goldsmiths University London to help him modeling these texture transpositions.
String quartet no 1 is focused on a ghostly sound choreography, made possible by a strange choreography: instruments are only bowed in circles. These simple movements combined in an asymmetric rhythmical structure causes complex soundscapes, that tend to develop to a certain final state, and they do, driven by a hypnotic force. commissioned by Ensemble Apartment House and the BBC
Premiered at BBC Studios London, May 20, 2007, Apartment House
String quartet no 3 can be listened to as a reference to some modern string quartet sound. Famous chords and melodies are quoted and hidden in their pure quantity. Sweet sugar music. An essay how to compose a decrescendo without a culmination point. Slowly and precisely slip away, ending nowhere. Composed for Quatuor Diotima, dedicated to Pierre Morlet. Commissioned by G((o))ing Tomorrow Festival, Copenhagen Denmark.
String quartet no 2 is a sportive piece. After a charming beginning, it becomes more and more a physical challenge for the performers, playing tremolo almost without break, to get the music to the final grooving rhythmical end: get out of my face! Commission by Festival Les Musiques, GMEM Marseille, commande d’état, premiered by Quatuor Diotima, Recorded by Radio France, interpreted by Ensemble 2e2m, Paris 5/2014, CD on La Muse en Circuit, Paris with Diotima Quartet.
A collection of tracks from the singer and multi-disciplinary artist's 111 collaboration series, featuring KMRU, Laraaji, and others. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 25, 2024
