Monochrome White by Bernhard Günter
Richard Chartier’s LINE label released two 2 CD sets of my work in 2001 and 2002. The first release combined Monochrome White, and Polychrome w/Neon Nails, the second Monochrome Rust and Differential. Each of these pieces is exactly 44’00” minutes long, and they are all derived from the same material. You will find more information about the creation process in the original liner notes that follow my introduction.
The four pieces have accompanied me ever since. I used them for four, six and eight channel sound installations in various countries, did an 8-channel live mix of them in Stockholm—that was only 8-channel during sound check, one channel stopped working before the performance (documented on my album Oto Dake) started.
Last year, on 27 March 2015, I used three of the pieces for a 6-channel sound installation in the City Church in Koblenz, Germany, next door to where I live. The installation was open to the public during the afternoon, and in the evening I used it as the basis of an improvised performance on clarinet and soprano saxophone. This performance is documented on my album Preparation / Performance [Locus Solus], released on trente oiseaux in September 2016.
The original two 2CD sets on LINE have long been sold out, and so I decided to re-release them on trente oiseaux. I re-mastered the four pieces in order to make more of the original material perceptible for the listener—digital mastering tools have come a long way since 2001, and the new masters definitely reflect this.
Due to the almost exclusively high frequency content of the four pieces, they can really make a room or space come alive, and I recommend listening to them on speakers. They will sound different in every location, and even simply moving your head may change what you perceive—a good way to get an idea of how bats navigate.
The softer they are played, the more transparent they sound; the louder they are played, the more of their astonishingly dense and complex content you are able to hear. Played softly, they are also closer to how the original release sounded...
I hope you enjoy the music!
Bernhard Günter, October 2016
