Fumio Yasuda - The Ninth Wave Ode to Nature

2022 release

Soundart after Ludwig van

Fumio Yasuda (composition) and Stefan Winter (sound art) compose a trilogy based on Ludwig van in the timbres "Infinite Blue", "Deep Green" and "Red Zone". Under the baton of Aarón Zapico, Ferhan & Ferzan Önder (piano), Joachim Badenhorst (clarinet), Gareth Davis (bass clarinet), Kelvin Hawthorne and Klaus-Peter Werani (viola) are performing. Mathis Nitschke and Stefan Winter create a dialogue with the narrative power of sounds.
"The Ninth Wave" is a new composition of set pieces, sounds and noises about the beauty of nature and the tragedy of man. The elements of music and noise art are created independently of each other, in order to enter into a new unity together. Nine individual nine-minute movements, self-contained but highly interrelated, form a trilogy with three main parts.
Beethoven's music adapted by Fumio Yasuda for a handpicked ensemble works together with sounds from nature. However, the sounds are not concretely recorded in the environment, but pure illusion, each sound is animation, each sound is created with hands, feet, brushes, brooms, sandpaper, foam, steel wool, canvases, scrap iron, chains, brake drums, watering cans, sanding blocks, sirens, bird whistles, wind machine, howling tubes, Good Friday rattles, etc.
"The Ninth Wave" has a specific trigger in the recent past: the tragedy on October 3, 2013 off Lampedusa.

Naoki Hayashida [ebravo.jp/harusai/archives/984] talks with Stefan Winter
Who chose the Beethoven pieces used as fragments in "The Ninth Wave"? What aspects of Beethoven's music attract you the most?
Together with the composer Fumio Yasuda I determined the selection, for me it was important to open "The Ninth Wave" with an adaptation of "Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt, op.112". It is about the calm before the storm, about standstill, no wind stirs. Goethe writes „Todesstille fürchterlich!“ [„deathly calm terrifying!“]. Other key works in the course of "The Ninth Wave" are the String Quartet No. 14, op. 131 and the Great Fugue, op. 134, as well as the Prisoners' Chorus from Fidelio and the "Ode to Joy," which is chosen as the European anthem: Expression for freedom, peace and solidarity?
Beethoven's work is shaped by the social upheavals of his time. He is filled with freedom, equality and brotherhood. But his music is often misused. Beethoven becomes over and over again unintentionally the musical mouthpiece of tyrannies, although his work is filled with the spirit of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution.
Beethoven's music exerts a great emotional effect on listeners, which can be exploited commercially, but this is not a deciding factor for me, I have always refused the music industry. In his music there is enlightenment, the key to our future. Only enlightenment and equality can prevent the self-mutilation and destruction of mankind.  

What is your intention in performing such a work that connects the tragedy of European refugees with Beethoven?
We have arrived at the age of humankind. Almost imperceptibly, infinitely slowly, but inexorably, evolution has been transforming life on earth since the beginning of time, but since the end of the 18th century - during Beethoven's lifetime - industrialization has acted like a diabolical catalyst, degenerating into the deformation of nature and self-destruction. We humans change the environment and influence nature. Beethoven was not only attached to the ideals of the French Revolution, but also to nature.
However, not only Beethoven alone is culpable for this work, but also Théodore Géricault and his painting "The Raft of the Medusa". Dante and his "Divine Comedy" are to thank, but also Caspar David Friedrich's "Monk by the Sea" [the little man and the infinite nature] and ... Katsushika Hokusai's "The Great Wave off Kanagawa". I engage with works of art to experience an insight into the inner workings of humanity. These compositions, images and stories in turn work in me, basically, it is always about a new questioning of the same. Art offers the chance to question humanity.
"The Ninth Wave" deals with the war of man against nature, man against man and in general with human behavior and its effects. The refugees in search of a habitat die in the Sahara, drown in the Mediterranean, perish in camps in Libya, Malaysia, Bangladesh... Women are raped, children starve... The destruction of nature, neo-colonialism and the hardship caused by it in the exploited countries are among the real phenomena and problems of our time. This is a global problem that concerns us all.

I know that the noise you create is generated by analog methods and not by modern computer technology. Please share with us your philosophy about noise. How should noise be in sound art?
The art of noise has always held a great fascination for me. Already in my first recording work "The Little Trumpet" from 1986 environmental sounds play the main role.
For "The Ninth Wave," all the sounds are created with the hands. I've been recording ocean waves all over the world for decades. Every coast, every swell, every spray sounds different. I love to go to the ocean to experience the sound of the ever-changing waves and capture it with a microphone, but for "The Ninth Wave" I want the movement of hands over clothes, bodies, and surfaces to create noise. The force, the momentum, the pressure of the hands determines the pitch of the wave sounds, as well as the delicacy or even aggressiveness. What we call the world of noises can just as well be called the world of our unconscious. For me, sounds are voices from within that evoke memories that may be buried deep in the subconscious.

Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" seems to be more than just an easily understood slogan. It seems to have a deeper meaning, which is not only condensed in the word "universal brotherhood". What do you think about the meaning of "Ode to Joy"?
This enthusiastic poem is an expression of happiness, love, an ode for freedom, peace and solidarity, but also for nature.
Humans have become one of the most important influencers of the earth and environment. We have reached a crossroads, Dante would say we have lost our way and are in a deep forest. Where is our path going? Into aggression, confrontation, exclusion, oppression and annihilation?  Or do we respect the path of enlightenment, equal opportunities, equality, tolerance?

Your work is characterized by a cross-genre and unique cast of musicians. What do "the musicians you want to work with" have in common?
What fascinates me is the probably foolish attempt to bring body and soul into harmony, the impossible union of desire and reason, which can never be achieved except in paradise, in Elysium, on the island of the blessed.
But that is what we are looking for, that is why we are embarking on an odyssey. This search attracts me with tremendous power. Perfect virtuosity and perfection are deadly boring, there is nothing more exciting than the imperfect, than questions that cannot be answered but rumble within us. I am looking for musicians who consciously or even unconsciously, question humanity.

Mariko Takahashi and Stefan Winter founded the non-profit Neue Klangkunst to initiate, perform and realize sound art works.
"The Ninth Wave - Ode to Nature" is the first recording work by Neue Klangkunst in co-production with Deutschlandfunk Kultur, Radiokunst.