Silence Is the Only Music

It was in the combination of East Asian and Western sound worlds where Klaus Hinrich Stahmer found a novel tonal language imbued with the depth and symbolic power of Far Eastern music which, however, never questions its provenance from the European cultural area. In his scores, renowned artists from the Far East meet virtuosos of the New Music scene and make typical values of each culture more apparent in the composed-out ensemble playing. Juxtaposed with accordion, flute and violoncello, the koto and shakuhachi, sheng and guzheng as well as kayagum and changgu develop a subtle, yet at the same time strange poetry which makes the listener experience a little of the charm and the wealth of Eastern traditions. With his works, Stahmer speaks out in an intercultural dialogue, pointing out a joint path which is characterized by the respect for the unfamiliar and the responsibility for one's own heritage.