Instrumentarium

Boris Hegenbart with: Oren Ambarchi, Fred Frith, Felix Kubin, David Grubbs, Stephan Mathieu, Christophe Charles, Michael Vorfeld, Martin Siewert, Jan Thoben, Bernhard Guenter, Sascha Demand, Hannes Strobl & Hanno Leichtmann, Marc Weiser, Martin Brandlmayr, Christophe Charles, Ed Osborn, F.S.Blumm, Boris Hauf and Ulrich Krieger. Instrumentarium is Boris Hegenbart's new focus on the formal coordinates and techniques of Dub music. It never sounds like this idiom is coming from the reggae tradition in Jamaica, but even if we leave aside the style considerations, it's the essence of Dub itself that we find here in all its transformative power. Hegenbart used the recordings of 19 invited musicians and sound artists from several tendencies of the present creative scene (improvisers, electronicists and exploratory instrumentalists), and the results are not simply a remix or a processing of the material. He dissects everything in detail and brings the more obscure components to the foreground, like in a zooming operation. The most astonishing thing is that Hegenbart goes through exactly the same process in live, real-time performances. So, what we have here are the sketches resulting from instant reactions to the musicians' input. The contradictory nature of the sound sources keeps us alert and makes us smile with intriguing surprise. Nothing is forbidden, and the consequence is an incredibly rich concept and praxis, complete with the unique Boris Hegenbart mark.