Bernhard Günter / Heribert Friedl – TRANS~

Edition of 300.

The most striking characteristic of TRANS~ is the use of a field recording of a group of three small power transformers I conceived as a kind of improvised piece, changing microphone positions to cull different sounds and overtone spectra from the transformers' intense hum. The field recording became our basis track for TRANS~, and is exceptionally well and seamlessly embedded in the piece.
Heribert plays his amplified Hackbrett (cymbalon or hammered dulcimer), I play my electric cellotar, a self-made bamboo flute, and three harmonicas (two vintage Hohner BluesHarps bought in the 70's and a Hopf 'Golden Hit'). Unlike on Ataraxia, the flute took the back seat this time because the harmonicas' overtone spectrum blended so well with that of the transformers, and helped creating the harmonic richness of the piece.
When asked to describe the piece, the first expression that came to my mind was 'music like weather' – a series of changes and transformations, a myriad of details that unfold according to their own intrinsic logic, but to no intended purpose, and invite the listener to follow their constant becoming and vanishing.

bernhard günter, 2006