I’m Dead And I’m In Feldman’s Heaven

Dejan Berden – piano

Jaka Berger – prepared snare, string objects, modular synthesizer

Composition by Jaka Berger

Dedicated to life and work of Morton Feldman

“Morton Feldmans music always takes me to another place, another world,
very non-earthly place full of calm and serenity. This album is about how this place sounds to me.”
Jaka Berger

“Jaka Berger’s highly personal take – is there any other way to experience the music of Feldman? – is to stress the “other-wordly” and “non-earthly” dimensions of it, and how he finds that listening to Feldman never fails to transport him to this “place full of calm and serenity”. Now, in music and sound, he attempts to describe what this place is like. This is a good thing to be doing. Despite the piano dominating this work, it’s not explicitly intended to be a pastiche or copy of Feldman (many of whose most famous and important works are indeed scored for that instrument), but rather serves as a framework, into which Berger can gradually unpack and unfold his ideas. One of them is silence, for sure; he uses silence in this composition in a very imaginative and effective manner (more so, dare I say it, than the highly contrived and stern silences we often get from the Wandelweiser composers). Another element is the electronic music, subdued tones and trills dotted around the space from Berger’s modular synth. Plus of course the eerie plucking sounds from the prepared snare. Everything is just so, positioned perfectly in this imaginary space which the musicians succeed very well in creating; yet it doesn’t feel pre-programmed, or artificial, each element exists or is created in an extremely intuitive manner.” Ed Pinsent – Sound Projector review

“Metafora smrti oziroma posmrtnega življenja, ki jo implicira naslov tokrat obravnavanega dela, se nanaša predvsem na Bergerjevo interpretacijo Feldmanove glasbe, ki jo spelje v postopno razgradnjo tonske materije. Vendarle jo je prav tako mogoče intuitivno povezati s počasnim tekom kompozicije, suspenzom časa in tonskimi fragmenti, ki ne dovolijo harmonske razrešitve ali melodične zveznosti. Tonski materiji, ki jo določa uglasitev klavirja, se pridružijo plehnati potegi po čineli in drugi, morda bolj nerazpoznavni prijemi s tolkali, zvočnost pa enakovredno, a pravzaprav minimalno in subtilno podaljšujejo živi elektronski posegi, ki so večinoma težko razločljivi od tradicionalnejše instrumentalne opreme. Nekakšen dialog s tišino, ki spremlja lebdečo zvočno strukturo, predstavlja mejo zvoka, v reducirani rabi instrumentov, tako akustičnih kot elektronskega, pa sta oba igralca skrajno previdna in poskrbita za redkost ter neobloženost posameznih vstopov.” Aleš Rojc – recenzija za Radio Študent

I’m dead and i’m in Feldman’s heaven in Godbeni Imperializem radio show by Luka Zagoričnik on Radio Študent