Spent the day getting initiated to the chaotic sound world of Swedish composer and saxophonist Dror Feiler. He describes himself as a music trasher, saxophone screamer and a computer terrorist.
After viewing a few video clips on youtube and listening to mp3s of his "The Return of the Real" (which can be downloaded from his site), I can defenitely say, "he's not kidding".
He describes his music this way:
My music is a flow of sounds, noises, forces, it develops to a point where it goes beyond itself. The speed with which different sound elements follow each other, and the density with which they superimpose vertically, are so great that a sort of overload occurs, one which transcends the restlessness of arousal, like a film run through at a too high speed.
The occasional passages with tones, harmonies and sounds in a more "normal" rate can, in context, seem almost banal - a measure of the distance we have travelled in the music. The intuitive molten metal brutality of the music brings the player into the energy of a hot improvisation. A new music is created, a new speed of thinking and feeling where the intellect meets the manic raver. We experience an energy born of rapid movement, sound, noise, flow and expression. The music does something palpable to its listeners, or at least incites them to a form of action, of awakening.
The most immediate audible characteristic of my music is its noisiness.
Feiler is nothing if not a provocateur. Earlier this month, his new symphony, Halat Hisar (State of Siege), which was scheduled to be premiered by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra was cancelled because the musicians in the orchestra were complaining that the music was so loud that it caused them pain and discomfort. (read this article in the Guardian)
He was also part of a controversial art installation called Snow White and The Madness of Truth which was vandalized by the Israel's ambassador to Sweden in 2004. (link to this article on CBS News, and this Wikipedia article)
Here's a glimpse of this new music revolutionary in action on youtube in a 2007 performance with Drum Ecstasy.
