Impulsive Lieder is the portrait CD of Benjamin Scheuer, new music that does not hide its entertainment value. On the surface it surprises with humorous, crazy sounds and playful ideas. Underneath, the pieces, often made of many miniatures, are built with great precision and complexity. The disc holds three ensemble works and two solo pieces, the solos also available as video.
The title cycle is performed by Andreas Fischer (voice and sampler), Delphine Grataloup (flute), Margit Kern (accordion) and Pedro Pablo Cámara (saxophones). The percussionist Vanessa Porter and the pianist Nikolai Rosenberg play the solo works. Schola Heidelberg, six voices conducted by Walter Nußbaum, sings Vier Attrappen, and ensemble risonanze erranti plays Regal under Peter Tilling. The booklet text is by Gordon Kampe. Scheuer studied in Hamburg and Karlsruhe with Dieter Mack, Fredrik Schwenk and Wolfgang Rihm. In 2023 he completed a dissertation in Freiburg on the théâtre musical of Georges Aperghis.
Impulsive Lieder, for voice and sampler, flute, tenor saxophone and accordion, is a song cycle in ten parts. Each song lights up one idea, one sound or one process, then dissects and exaggerates it. The simplest electronic means give the pieces a lo-fi aesthetic and often lead the listener astray. Vier Attrappen (Four Dummies), for six voices with samples and objects, has movements made of glass, wood, syllables and screams. Regal, for eleven players and sampler, unfolds in seven short sections. Sprachmaschine (Speech Machine) is a percussion solo. Impulsive Lieder dates from 2015-16 and won the Pfalz-Preis Musik for young artists. Regal is from 2017, Sprachmaschine from 2021 and Vier Attrappen from 2023.
Scheuer draws on a wide palette of sounds. A rubber pig, a kazoo and an unrolling party horn sit next to traditional instruments. People and their voices remain at the centre, as in Lachtherapie (Laughter Therapy), a performance for a pianist, in which Rosenberg produces astonishing nuances of laughter. Kampe writes that the taste for whimsical sounds, dislocated vocals and weird gestures shows a wild sense of humour, but also an indestructible musicality and seriousness. Scheuer calls his approach live electrics: electronic sounds made with the simplest and cheapest means, because his interest lies in people, their voices and their fallibility, rather than in technology. In 2019 his orchestral piece versungen won the Basel Composition Competition.
CD, Wergo WER 6445 2, released in 2025 in the German Music Council's Edition Zeitgenössische Musik, running 76 minutes.
