Bernhard Günter

Bernhard Günter ( * 1957 in Neuwied ) is a German composer and improviser (soprano, alto saxophone, clarinet, guitar, live electronics ). His compositions, which are assigned to lower case are influenced by Morton Feldman.

Life and work

Günther first played tabla and was influenced by free jazz. Then he switched to drums and jazz guitar. In the 1980s he studied in Paris at IRCAM with Pierre Boulez; while he turned to electronic music and expanded its access through the inclusion of sampling. Unlike, say, John Oswald, John Wall, and David Shea is not about him to the recognition of the noise. For him, what counts is the subjective perception, in which he distinguishes three states (" duration ", " here" and " now ").

His first album, Un Peu de Neige Salie (1993 ), has been listed in The Wire 's " 100 Records That Set the World on Fire (While No One Was Listening ) ". " Here An abyss of silence and emptiness is doing in front of the handset, where he is willing to adapt this experience to suspend the quietest sounds. " While his music first building on click- noise and sine wave brush strokes, it has become more complex in the coming years but is still characterized by peace. He collaborated with other sound artists such as John Duncan, Ralf Wehowsky, Asmus Tietchens, Alan Lamb and Merzbow. In recent years, he improvised with Heribert Friedl, Gary Smith or Guillaume Séguron. The musician Ingo Does he forms the Improvisationsduo broke sounded.

The mid- 1990s, he founded his own label, Trente Oiseaux. His composition the ant moves / the black and yellow carcass / a little closer was highlighted at the presentation of the Prix Ars Electronica 1999.

Disco Graphical Notes

• Buddha with the Sun Face / Buddha with the Moon Face ( 1998)
• Time, Dreaming Itself (1999)
• Crossing the River (2001)
• Redshift / Farewell (2001)
• Workshop ( Rude Awakening / Microscope 2008)