pulsating sound abstractions

[…] Two attitudes are then possible: Either the spectator will try to reconstitute some ‘Cartesian’ scheme—the most linear, the most rational they can devise—and this spectator will certainly find the work difficult if not incomprehensible; or else the spectator will let themselves be carried along by the extraordinary [perceptual qualities] in front of them […] and to this spectator, the work will seem the easiest they have ever seen: A work addressed exclusively to their sensibility, to their faculties of hearing, sight, feeling.
~Alain Robbe-Grillet

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The artistic practice of Nicholas Reimann (occasional alias bādmarien) explores the liminal space between electroacoustic composition and abstract techno, as well as the performance conditions for contemplative aesthetic engagement with such music.

A co-founder of the interdisciplinary 'aurora experiments' collective alongside brother Jonathan, a professional contemporary dancer, the aesthetic tenets that ground Nicholas’ approach to musical expression have been shaped by a diverse and forward-thinking musical and academic background. The experience of growing up in the post-industrial Ruhr around contemporary-minded professional organ, choral, and orchestral musicians proved formative in developing artistic sensibilities that centre on musical features connected to form and abstract timbre while eschewing the familiar emotive framework associated with tonality. Nicholas’ sonic obsessions are further refracted in a reciprocal dialogue with interdisciplinary academic perspectives on aesthetic experience and aesthetic value; Nicholas holds a research doctorate in analytic philosophy of art and cognitive psychology that was fully funded by UK Research and Innovation via a Global Challenge Doctoral Scholarship.

Currently, Nicholas is being mentored in acousmatic and electroacoustic composition by composer Julien Tarride while ceaselessly refining an intricate approach to mixing that is guided by the idea of a continuous, slowly evolving intermediate state, weaving together records—be they experimental electroacoustic, disorientating techno, or contemporary classical music—in such a way that from this a collage emerges that is in itself coherent and compelling.

nicholas reimann {} bādmarien