RESONANT DOWLAND by Matthias Engelke

Resonant Dowland represents an individual and contemporary interpretation of the songs of Renaissance composer John Dowland. His songs, flying in from the past, become completely subjective by their full integration into an electronically generated world of sound where they are absorbed structurally, gesturally and sonically. This digital recomposition and the aura of Dowland`s songs meld together in a surprising, gentle and respectful, even symbiotic way. The resounding fragments from a mysterious past find their echo in the acoustic chamber of our present world, which receives them into its own digitally-processed musical space without endangering their centuries-old magical essence. Resonant Dowland connects a creative musician of the Elizabethan age, on the threshold of discovering musical individuality, with his colleague who, separated by centuries, lives in an age of digital absorption of sound, in music whose unequal layers shine iridescently through each other. The central idea of this electronic renaissance could be represented by the image of the palimpsest, the res facta of the past, that has seen several lives.

The sonic integration of analog generated sound in an electronic context is a constant field of exploration for the composer and sound artist. His method of composition is often inspired by an experienced or imagined interaction of music and sound with a physical space or a theatrical room. This can include the inseminating interplay between music/sound and dance/movement.

matthiasengelke.de