Connected

KL-EX-Ensemble:
Claire Lecoq harpsichord
Grégory d’Hoop alto recorder
Paul Pankert violin & live electronics
Philipp Gerschlauer alto saxophone
Anne Davids flutes
Vedran Muti´C bass guitar
Achim Bill percussions

The use of live electronics has characterised my composition process over the last years. This should not be surprising, given that digitalisation is a defining element of our time in all areas of society, including art and compositional technique. It is impossible for me, however, to contemplate doing without the sound of instruments played live; for me, the performer’s expressivity will always be a central aspect of musical expression. The sounds created, however, are also fed into a computer via microphones on the instruments; they are then electronically transposed, modulated, delayed, filtered, looped... and then played back in real time via loudspeakers. The programming of the electronics is therefore a fundamental part of the composition. Several of these compositions were created in collaboration with the Studio Centre Henri Pousseur in Liège.

My close involvement with baroque music over many years has naturally also influenced my compositional style, although rarely has it done so in such a distinctive way as in my Toccata and Pavane, in which I used baroque works as a musical foundation. These works were inspired by unusual portrait photos by the Liège-based artist and photographer Sophie Langohr; her portraits were not of living people, but of the statues of the apostles in the Nikolaus-Kirche in Eupen that were created by the Cologne sculptor Jeremias Geisselbrunn during the middle years of the 17th century. Langohr created an astonishing juxtaposition of these portraits with modern images from advertising and fashion photography; I have composed new solo works based on virtuoso pieces from the early baroque in order to achieve a corresponding interaction on a musical level.

Paul Pankert studied violin at the conservatories of Liège, Düsseldorf and Maastricht. His musical activity has been primarily focused on the performance of contemporary and baroque music for over two decades; he is currently devoting more and more of his time to composition. He played and analysed hundreds of compositions, including numerous first performances, as solo violin in the Dutch contemporary music group Ensemble’88, with whom he was able to explore an equal number of compositional styles. He became artistic director of the ensemble in June 2014. Paul is a member of the Belgian Composers’ Association Forum des Compositeurs and co-founder of the KL-EX association (Klang-Experimente), based in Eastern Belgium. KL-EX was formed to promote the development, production and performance of new works in the field of experimental, contemporary and improvised music, including mixed media, electronic music and musical theatre. (www.kl-ex.com).

He also teaches violin and chamber music at the Musikakademie Ostbelgien. His first composition Spaltung (division, splitting) for two violins and harpsichord was awarded the Prix de composition de l’Académie Royale de Belgique in 2008. Pankert has since completed many other compositions, including works commissioned by Orgelpark Amsterdam, the Ars Musica Festival in Brussels, the Festival van Vlaanderen (B-Classic), the Ostbelgienfestival, and Flagey in Brussels. He was awarded the title of Künstler Ostbelgiens in 2017. This CD/LP production marks the conclusion of this 3-year period. www.paulpankert.eu

Paul Pankert:
 Connected II - for alto saxophone & live electronics (2016/2019)
 Pavane - for alto recorder & live electronics (2019)
 Quasi Rondo - for violin & live electronics (2012)
 Remote 2.0 - for flutes, bass guitar, percussion & live electronics (2018/2020)
 Toccata - for harpsichord & live electronics (2019)