SABA (1979/80)

SABA is for me a composition of transition and emancipation as well. My own concept of musical ideas which originated in experimental pop-music, for some years in the late 70s had been in a strong conflict with a more academic, historically-orientated tradition or apporach in structural composing.

Therefore I needed the personal experiences in Bali to overcome the paralysing dichotomy, and SABA was the most important starting point.

That is it why SABA is still slightly signified by a „naive euphory“ which I do not neglect (or even consider anachronistic) but accept as an important consciousness in human life (as far as this consciousness does not reject anything that is different).

On the other hand, in SABA I had started for the first time to realise my idea of a „contemporary ritual“. It is significant that I still use a pre-recorded tape which after the final editing could in fact exist for itself. This was never intended during the compositorical process but it could be explained perhaps because of my situation at that time (fear of the musicians?). Nevertheless the singers play an important role in the sense of „animating“ the sounds from the tape.

In the composition I use almost exclusively sounds which I had recorded in 1978 during my first stay in Bali. There are no musical quotations of Balinese music but only environmental sounds. The electronic transformation and the editing created a kind of „jungle-like“ atmosphere which was later treated with defined pitch-filtering, rhythmical accents etc. to achieve a clear structure as a whole.

SABA for me is a way of artificial transformation of my own experiences in that village in Bali. The stylisation in the compositorical process allows the listener to find his own world apart from my personal one. This seems to me an important aspect of every artistic production.