TROUM

nautical music, surreal links to unknown emotions

Our planet has been traveled extensively. We all know that it’s a globe. Everywhere the presence of humans left its marks. Never again will there be a planet without these traits. Even that which we call "natural" is affected by the total humanization and presents a new face. We can look back to nature, as its the past from which we emerged but, ‘back to nature’ is not an option anymore. In the present age of the ‘human world’ innocent nature is but a myth.

If a contemporary composer wishes to express human feelings and if he wants to sound modern in doing so, he has to pay tribute to the fact that the old naturality of feelings has been lost. The living world of humans is not nature anymore but, humans now live in their own world in which they themselves are the centre. The composer therefore has to abandon the old techniques which sought to imitate nature, those of singing about and visualizing it, and makes use of new ones. He wants to be spontaneous and subjective. The new compositional techniques are derived from his mode of living. The composer doesn’t write his material, no score is laid down. To the contrary the composer acts as a purely „technical composer" adhering to the skills he got to learn through the total humanization of the planet. These techniques are those of processing and distributing information. They are essentially techniques of the media brought about by the electronic revolution.

But even the "technical composer" has feelings. Although his emotions are under the technical spell they remain subjective; they are his own. And, in them there remains a future to be explored. It is to sense in what way we will or will not be able to cope with the new technical subjectivity. And, whether we will be able to cope with ourselves, really.

Whenever the "technical composer" plays his instruments now he is placed in his own technical living world. Listening happens in this technical space. The technical space even effects the internal condition of the composer. His inner self becomes the place for new dreams. Therein new feelings are born that mythically look back to nature and also the technical heart is there. This new heart can do nothing but hope for the future. It still is the residue for musical thoughts today. But the composer captures those thoughts and transforms them into a technical music. The emotional taking in of nature is thus replaced by a world of emotions that have become technical themselves. And it is only those technical emotions that populate the new living world of humans today.

TROUM know about all this. Their music contains thoughts which stem from the technical living world. It sounds technical because TROUM use instruments that are successors of informational technology. Their music is created under the spell of this technology. A technology that has slammed the doors to nature shut. Their music has to reflect the fate of natural emotions.

TROUM means ‘dream’. TROUM chose this Old Germanic term to be able to remember the old and to save the option of looking back even though a returning remains impossible. TROUM’s music tells us about the pain that is here to stay.

TROUM are "GLITSCH" and "BARAKA[H]" , a duo out of Bremen who search the nature of the pain of what it means to be locked in a technical living world for many years now. For their compositions they prefer to choose technical means that can be manipulated spontaneously and in a colourful way. The music is fully soaked by all aspects of the living world’s fate. It contains those thoughts, feelings and unconscious affects that the living world provokes as responses especially from young people. In return these young people - through making the music they make and no other - free themselves from all notions of a return to the mythical world of pure naturality. Their music works on that myth. It bears the marks of humans who accept their fate as a common guilt.

Music wants to be understood. Even if the music’s dark it can be precise. The listener can comprehend TROUM’s music through accepting the reality of the technical spell. Like the musicians themselves do. If the listener succeeds in doing so he will be granted access to the feelings which grow out of the completeness of the technical spell. It is the musicians’ courage and youth that enables them to explore this spell in the subjectivity of their music. Through their courage the listener can hope to reach for the unconscious feelings of which he would otherwise remain unaware of.

TROUM produce nautical music. TROUM’s music dives into the unconscious. The unconscious is not concerned about nature or about the old humanity. Today humans handle technology unconsciously; likewise their unconsciousness can be explored and revealed through technical means and devices. TROUM deliver the news about the unconsciousness of the technological living world. In a living world that drowns in information TROUM poses the chance to remember for the listener by utilizing the technical means of the flooded living world. Even if the music may appear alien at times it is not.

TROUM’s nautical music leaves marks too. The listener feels that there is a new unconscious to be discovered. Uncomfort and suspense befalls the listener. This is due to the experience of our young musicians which they can rely upon and which ignores all kitsch notions of false naturality. More and more TROUM’s music borrows from psycho-active techniques. A technical knowledge of our fate is generated. A fate which is dictated by the technical living world. This living world itself is psycho-active, it puts weight on the emotional life of its inhabitants and also on their physical condition. It is the psycho-activeness that defines the increasing distance TROUM’s music has to the New Age musics that seem to be the result of a misunderstood naturality. TROUM seek to redefine psychology and psychomusicology. The old discussion about the body and the spirit won’t suffice anymore. The stress is now on the concept of the body having lost its conceived naturality and defining humans anew through the technical spell that acts upon it.

TROUM work on the understanding of the technical human being through their music. The music tells us of nautical experiences, about humanity’s fate and that of its emotions in a living world completely governed by technique. Young musicians fully experience the spell that is emanating from this world and which no-one can escape.

Lutz Schridde, Hannover, February 1998

Thanks to Till Kniola for the english translation !

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