To be released on various streaming platforms on June 9, 2025

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LVLXXIV
for gongs, cymbals, percussion and gasometer

In September 2005, the duo pURelistening and I met at the Gasometer Oberhausen to make recordings of gong meditations. With this music, Ursula Reinhard and Hans-Werner Schneider take their listeners on a contemplative journey through soundscapes of calm and relaxation, but also of tension and activity. In a flow of dialectical transitions, they explore at the same time the enormous tonal possibilities of the instruments in composition and improvisation.

With a height of 117.5 m and a diameter of 67.6 m the Oberhausen gasometer (completed in 1929, shut down in 1988, exhibition and event venue since 1993) is the largest gasometer in Europe and Oberhausen's landmark. The acoustics of this huge barrel-shaped interior paired with its inherent noise is a serious obstacle for „normal“ music performances, but in the case of an extensive ensemble of gongs, cymbals and other percussion instruments, this space becomes a musical player itself.

LVLXXIV („Level 24“) is a retrospective reflection / recomposition of the sound of pURelistening in the Gasometer.

Various ideas are incorporated here:

The flow of dialectical transitions (see above) is continued in a different (electronic-digital) medium. This actually began with the microphone recording and continues in techniques such as cutting, rearranging, collaging, looping, filtering, etc.

Corresponding to the idea of a mandala (view of the gasometer ceiling from below), certain numbers and proportions play a role. The ratio of the building's height to its diameter is almost exactly the golden ratio, which is approximated by the Fibonacci series. The 12^th element of this series is 144 (12 x 12); the base of the gasometer is a regular 24-corner polygon (12 + 12).

24 minutes are subdivided further and further down to the rhythmic level with the help of the golden ratio, sounds are obtained in a similar way and so on. The only element that was not recorded in the Gasometer and further processed as described is a continuous bass voice generated with a Yamaha MU90R tone generator.

The piece thus translates the gasometer into an abstracted and re-concretized compositional mantra, in which the sounds created by pURelistening can unfold anew over a basso continuo.


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