Die Gedanken sind frei // Thoughts are free

A reflection on the freedom of speech in the past present and future.

The song “Die Gedanken sind frei” is a traditional music piece from the South of Germany, written in the 18th century. The exact origin is unclear. Since then, it was an important song for the german culture within political fights for the rights of the people. An important expression for the need of liberty and freedom.

A reflexive journey towards the future and a critical examination of the freedom of speech.

In my work, I aim to contextualise and reuse old political songs which are concerned with the freedom of speech and the limitation from the peoples liberty by oppressive states.

 The piece is divided into four chapters/ phases and the structure oriented itself on the development of a political event. The listener is invited to reflect on the structure and his personal experiences with and knowledge about political structures and the influence on societies in several levels.

Time, power, balance, action. All in a bilateral relation.
The musical re-arrangement of the piece utilizes all kinds of effects and influences on the original material. It is getting manipulated and affected sometimes in small ways and sometimes beyond recognition. These manipulations playing different roles in the whole entity and they manifest themselves in various influences. The listener is only able to hear the symptom, but not the cause.

The whole track is stretched out to a time of eleven minutes as this work is not meant to have a standard musical structure but more to give the listener the feeling of a journey through an event with its ups and downs. The song is in a constant build up and cutback at the same time.

In representing our diverse ways of communication, you can hear the message “The thoughts are free” written by a pen on paper, hear it as a morse-code, typed with a old typewriter then with a modern keyboard.
In a later chapter this message is spelled via the phonetic alphabet, which is used to transport important codes or messages through radio units to make sure that these messages are received without errors and miscommunications.

 In the last chapter, the lyrics were processed in spoken word. They are embedded in a dark atmosphere as this song is usually used in times of oppression and constraint for the society. Even though the song in its original version seems very happy.
A frequency shifter is used to create an effect that when you listen to the track on headphones the voice is moving around in your head. The voice is heavily pitched and effected - it is deliberately incomprehensible.

The question was, if the listener is really listening. Is there still the will to take the effort from the listener to understand things, which may not easy to be understood. Is there the will to keep up with the ever changing system that gets more complex and confusing with the modernisation of our society.

Are you really listening to the things that are happening around you?


Foxtrott // Romeo // Echo // Echo

Transformations "Effekt!"

This track is built from two short percussive samples. These samples are from a gong, which was hit with a stick and they were recorded in the anechoic chamber at the BRE in London. 

Through manipulation in the post production and utilisation of effects a complete track was developed with these samples.

schallgeber