Manfred Werder

2006 release **

"'ein(e) ausführende(r) seiten 218 - 226' is Manfred Werder's composition from 2002, realized by Antoine Beuger's electronic sound and released by Edition Wandelweiser in 2006. The 72-minute piece consists of a very quiet single electronic sound from Beuger, and short silences alternately appearing between electronic sounds. Beuger's minimal electronic sound, which evokes in me a chirr of a small cricket on a quiet autumn night, contains an absolute purity that seems to reject any kind of excessive noise and discord, seemingly purifying the air to create a peaceful, harmonious world. While sustaining this absolute purity, Beuger's sound never contains obstinacy or insistence, and instead, it contains a humility and flexibility that perfectly integrates with nature. Everything in this room – a low, almost inaudible continuous noise from my CD player, various sounds jumping outside of the window, silences between sounds, and the movement of my mind – are gradually drawn toward the humble gravity of Beuger's quiet electronic sound that exists in the room as a core. Even when the sound is alternated with silence, there is no feel of suspension. In the silence of this piece, the music is still moving forward. With Beuger's electronic sound as the axis, the discretely scattered environmental sounds and my mind are now all connected as one to equally become essential parts of the world of Werder's music. Werder's tranquil, profound and introspective world, which contains some sort of enlightenment that all the phenomena in this universe are connected in some way, seems to direct a listener's mind toward all the phenomena in the external world, while directing his/her mind toward his/her inner world at the same time. After the music ends, Werder's world still exists in this room. I am still listening to the music that remains in the air of the room, in the midst of the blend of the remaining sounds from the environment, silence, and my deep contemplation."