TOO SIMPLE (2021)
for Alvin Lucier

FOR THREE CHURCH ORGANS & THREE AUDIO STREAMS

Alvin Lucier, known for his very reduced and at the same time very thoughtful compositions, commented on an early piece of mine as "too simple". While working on this composition I often had to think back to my time in the USA with a smile and that such a comment was just made by him. 
The piece examines corresponding acoustic phenomena that Alvin has been researching since the 1980s: beating patterns. Essentially, beats result from the additive superimposition of two vibrations that differ only slightly in frequency. Depending on the phasing [position of the oscillation], both waves strengthen or weaken, resulting in an increasing and decreasing amplitude. The greater the difference between the two tones, the faster the change in volume. 
Long lasting sounds that seem very simple, sound yet complex in such an interplay: paradoxically, very fast rhythms are created, the sounds appear more three-dimensional. 
For me, the setting of Too Simple is an ideal framework for researching the differences between church organs and their surroundings: since the pipes detune over time due to temperature fluctuations, among other things, and tuning organs is relatively complex – and even more expensive – I was suggesting, that the pipes are not perfectly in tune at all times. So what happens when the same notes in the same register [same timbre/pipes] are played together by three different church organs? It should probably be possible to perceive slight differences in frequency, color and their spatial conditions. At least that's my hope. On the basis of this assumption, I have selected four registers in combination with one tone each, which are present in all three churches. 
In every hour of During the performance, only one of these tones is performed in a register in a calculated rhythm over the three organs in such a way that the participants can perceive the tones of each church individually and together in every possible combination. Since beats change depending on the position of the participants in the church, the composition is characterized by moments of silence in which the visitors can move freely. 

These are version 2 and 4, versions 1 and 3 are available duo request.

As a rule, church organs are designed, constructed and installed for the respective church interior with regard to sound, spatial geometry, history and aesthetics. The composers Nathalie Brum, Vincent Stange and Phillip Schulze have developed a cross-locational instrument for the IDO Festival with which they are trying to find out what happens when organ sounds from one church are heard in the other and vice versa: the organs of the churches St. Peter, St. Albertus Magnus and St. Antonius form using multiple live acoustic transmissions together a sonic apparatus, the rooms are its resonators, reflectors and filters. For this transarchitectural instrument, three independent compositions were developed by the composers, which are repeatedly realized in an hourly cycle from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. by the organists Daniel(le) Muñoz Barragán, Eugene Kang and Marcel Schwarz. Visitors can move freely in the three church rooms and discover the music as well as the acoustic conditions of the churches without restrictions and autonomously. 

Venues
St. Antonius, Barbarossaplatz [Düsseldorf Oberkassel]
St. Peter, St. Peter, Kirchplatz 2a [Düsseldorf Unterbilk]
St. Albertus Magnus, Kaiserswerther Straße 211 [Düsseldorf Golzheim]

Performer
Daniel(le) Muñoz Barragán || St. Antonius 
Eugene Kang || St. Albertus Magnus 
Marcel Schwarz || St. Peter 

Live-Audio-Stream 
Harald Braun [technische Leitung, BBT Media Rent] 
Felix Hecker [Tonmischung, Audio-Streaming]
Nils Schröder [Tonmischung, Audio-Streaming]
Thorsten Runge [Tonmischung, Audio-Streaming]

The project takes place as part of the 16th IDO Festival 2021 and was funded by the Kunststiftung NRW.

Too Simple Version 04

Too Simple Version 02

Intermorphologies Stockholm 06 - Helium & Hydrogen - Species Combination #9

Intermorphologies Stockholm 05 - Persistent Adjust - Species Combination #8

Intermorphologies Stockholm 03 -  States Of Zenith & Decay - Species Combination #2

Intermorphologies Stockholm 04 - Transition

›Ambassador Duos‹ (2015) collects a selection of four duo
improvisations, that the artist and composer Phillip Schulze recorded over ten years with multi-instrumentalist and composer Anthony Braxton, the sound- and action-artist  Christian Jendreiko, the composer and ethnomusicologist Andrew Raffo Dewar, and DJ and producer Detlef Weinrich aka Toulouse Low Trax.
The album documents encounters between these musicians
and Phillip Schulzes electro-acoustic, responsive instrument, which algorithms he develops since 2001. With this instrument, he opens "a dialogue with external (analog) and internal (digital) realities". Here in ›Ambassador Duos‹ the center of Schulzes attention is a "transidiomatic, interpersonal communication, augmented with instruments“.

http://www.phillipschulze.com/ambassador.html

Ambassador Duos

Duo Detlef Weinrich & Phillip Schulze (2014)

Various excerpts from the new electroacoustic solo album "Intermorphologies" by Düsseldorfer composer Phillip Schulze.

The album comes as a beautiful gate-folded double LP & CD, in addition to comprehensive writings in German & English printed on a large folded inlay. 

Total Edition of 300 
200 with two BLACK Vinyl LPs
100 in PINK and CYAN Vinyl LPs
Published on Selbstverlag P.S.

Titles:
A1 HYDROGEN & HELIUM [+]
A2 STATES OF ZENITH & DECAY
-
B1 AS LATE AS AN AFAR SHIMMER
B2 ALL DISEMBODIED
B3 WARMTH EMANATED
-
C1 SILHOUETTES IRIDESCENT
C2 BUT IN THINGS THROUGH BODIES
-
C3 PERSISTENT ADJUSTMENT
C4 [+] HELIUM & HYDROGEN

More Infos under www.phillipschulze.com

Intermorphologies

Intermorphologies [excerpts]

Phillip Schulze: Cause Unfold Proceed I, II, III, IV, & V

Limited Edition of 500. Double Vinyl. CD. Photo Edition. Postcard. Information Material.

http://www.phillip-schulze.de/Cause
http://www.discogs.com/release/2671342

Cause Unfold Proceed IV CD

Phillip Schulze (born 1979 in Düsseldorf, Germany) is a well regarded composer, computer performer, media artist and educator, who has studied and worked with a number of major figures in contemporary music such as Anthony Braxton, Ron Kuivila and Alvin Lucier. In the past eighteen years, Schulze has explored the disciplines of composition, sound art and performance, including real-time computer processing, interactive sound installations and compositions for classical instruments, usually written for specific environments. At the same time he performs as a solo and participating music improviser, playing self-developed electroacoustic music instruments.

Phillip Schulze

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