by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

For his latest musical project, Moritz von Oswald is studying the voice. He is doing so through two contrasting generators of sound, the human vocal cord and the synthesizer – and is stripping the music right back to basics.

With vocal works from composers such as Ligeti, Varèse and Xenakis in mind, he takes a very minimal approach, stripping the textures back to the bare minimum. Where electronics are involved, he has used specific models, listing the EMS VCS3 & AKS, Prophet V, Oberheim 4-Voice and the Moog Model 15. Where vocals are involved, he has also used specific models – 16 of them in fact, the singers of Vocalconsort Berlin, recorded in Ölberg church.

In the words of the accompanying text for the album, “the recordings of the choral versions were then incorporated into the synthesized parts of the album and brought into a new electronic context; in Silencio, the focus is not on using one means to imitate the other, but to sonically discuss the tensions and harmonies between the two worlds and create a dialogue between them.”

What’s the music like?

In a word, striking. This is very much a case of less is more in a musical sense, and although the album’s concept suggests quite a mechanical and unfeeling approach, the results could not be more different.

What von Oswald has achieved here is remarkable, a set of music that moves between extremely restful, consonant drones and much more dissonant, darker passages. Here he is helped beyond measure by the Vocalconsort Berlin, whose virtuosity was clearly key in getting the required results. The synthesizers, of course, are capable of hitting every note required of them, so it should not be taken for granted that humans can do the same. When they do, and the vocal capabilities are stretched by high, low or extremely sustained notes, that extra effort comes across here in an emotional sense, depicting stress and disquiet.

The long, sustained nature of much of the writing means this is an album in which the listener can fully immerse themselves, and we move between sections easily and instinctively. Silencio may be quite a long album, but it doesn’t feel that way with music of this intensity.

Does it all work?

It does – provided the listener can invest a number of repeat listens. Then the enormity of von Oswald’s achievement can be fully grasped. A word, too, for the outstanding members of Vocalconsort Berlin, whose virtuosity knows no bounds.

Is it recommended?

It is, enthusiastically, providing a reminder that von Oswald is a composer of depth, imagination and craft. Silencio is a remarkable and intensely rewarding achievement.

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Published post no.2,028 – Sunday 3 December 2023