Gregory Büttner
Schwebende Lasten
GERMANY 1000FÜSSLER 032 CD (2024)
Another fine set of experimental process-art from this Hamburg composer. If you heard this “blind”, you’d be sorely tested to identify anything or understand what’s happening; it’s still hard to believe that each of these ten pieces began life as analogue synth sounds, mostly made on the trusty Buchla though some were produced with a Serge.
Büttner made these original recordings when he had a residency at EMS Stockholm in 2013, a hub of creativity that has drawn many musical moths to its bright flame. What he did next was replay the recordings through a variety of loudspeakers, all of which have been “prepared” in old-school John Cage fashion – bits of metal, wood, ceramic and paper, and all manner of small objects are involved in the setup. All of this produces the fascinating percussive and rattle effects we hear on the finished record, which I have to assume are being created by familiar household objects being made to dance about on the platform by the vibrations caused by the electronic music. This is what I mean by “hard to believe” above. But more to the point, it shows Gregory Büttner’s allegiance to one of the precepts of electronic music composition, privileging the role of the loudspeaker.
When I spoke to Robert Worby in 2022, he said “We tend to overlook the fact that the loudspeaker turns electricity into sound, that’s what it does, and a microphone does the reverse of that. It turns sound into electricity, and once it’s electricity, there’s all kinds of things that can be done with the sound – it can be stored on tape, they can be processed using electronics and stuff, it can be filtered, all kinds of things can be done with it. And then the loudspeaker turns the electricity back into sound. We haven’t really moved on from that; there’s no other way.” This was his answer to me wondering out loud if there was any commonality between the numerous experimental music studios across the world; the simple answer is “loudspeakers”. The term “Schwebende Lasten” may have something to do with heavy loads suspended in space (for instance, a grand piano on the end of a derrick), which adds another layer of possibility to the work. (18/04/2024)