Music for Above the Mantelpiece

Pistol shots in the piano’s resonating chamber, passing cars, short quotations from Haydn; light music from the adjoining room, contrabass clarinet sounds recorded with microphones extremely far from the instrument and confronted with ambient noise from the environment: Hannes Seidl’s “Music for Above the Mantelpiece” is firmly rooted in the “mundane” here and now. Meant for home-listening, art music is interwoven with everyday noises; the pieces are quoting themselves, sounds are devaluated. This CD claims autonomy; it does not simulate a concert, it is not an image. The CD’s technical possibilities such as repetitions, jerky leaps in loudness, quotes, change of microphones etc. are used to broach the issue of the home-listening situation with its underlaying of urban noises such as yelling, cars, and pop music – in short: the intrusion of reality.