In Bernhard Living‘s works, there’s almost always a straightforward title to express the context behind each one, and there is always a description paired with the record to fully elaborate on its concept. That ends up making music as minimalistic as this far more interesting to me.
The future builds upon the past
I‘m keen on listening to and reviewing Bernhard Living‘s output. It is a way for me to check out music I generally would not pay much attention to; the reason I’m drawn to Living‘s releases more than someone else’s is mainly because of the ideas behind the music. Though every composition, in any style or genre, has an idea behind it, rarely do I find those ideas expressed so openly. The context behind why the final work sounds the way it does is—well—the reason why the music is the way it is in the end, and I find that extremely important. Even the simplest inspirations can lead to a wonderful piece of music, but you’ll never know that unless the artist states it—and, most of the time, that won’t happen. In Living‘s works, there’s almost always a straightforward title to express the context behind each one, and there is always a description paired with the record to fully elaborate on its concept. That ends up making music as minimalistic as this far more interesting to me.
This all may sound pretty vague, but if you listen to one of Living‘s releases, you will realize that the context will indeed help you. Don’t interpret that the wrong way; that is not to say the music itself is not interesting, but, as I was saying, it is so minimalistic that one does come to ask why that is. This record’s title, and its intentions along with it, are explained in its description, which you can find on the album’s Bandcamp page. The three compositions presented only consist of notes, with no overlaying of any kind. I do not know whether it was intentional, but I do find that the music and the concept collide in an interesting way.
The three tracks solely consist of notes varying in pitch at specific intervals, which I’m not going to put here in the review, as that would be redundant to what you can already read on Bandcamp. The one point I’d like to highlight is how each piece evolves as it proceeds; that happens with most of Living‘s works, and it is also the case in pop music in general, but in this instance the chords latch onto what’s presented at the start. The three tracks begin with a differing number of notes, and the chords that follow make one of those notes their root; this essentially makes the beginning of each piece the base upon which the rest will then develop, offering no motifs but rather opting to constantly morph.
What I particularly like about the record as a whole is how the tracks subsequently present more notes as their foundation, meaning each track has more variation in pitch than the previous one. In addition, the first piece presents series of trichords, the second presents tetrachords, and the third presents pentachords, so every track not only has more variety but also simply more notes in each phrase. I would also like to point out that each piece doesn’t just have more notes, but rather a higher density of them, because the parts in which sound is present are always 16 bars in length. Taking the last piece as an example, the pentachords play out in 16 bars just like the trichords do in the first piece, then are followed by silence. Assuming the tempo is the same for each piece, which I believe to be the case since the silence has the same duration in all three, then that means the chords are also displayed faster in each track.
Taking these three qualities into account, the second piece will then have more variety in pitch than the first, will have broader chords than the first, and such chords will also be quicker because they display more notes in the same amount of time. The same then applies when looking at track three compared to track two. This results in an album that does evolve as it progresses, in the sense of adding more. The identical intervals in each track also make it hard to determine when one ends and another begins, almost as if it were one long, continuous process.
To now finally tie it back to the album’s title and concept, I find that the music plays out similarly to what the record’s description alludes to. The idea that history is not a finite process and that it keeps developing is kind of what these three pieces make me think of, with the fact that there isn’t a clear distinction between them when grouped together, yet there is a constant change happening, both within them and between them. Living also states that the future builds upon the past, and that is reflected in the music as well, as each piece, as stated earlier, builds upon what it presents at the beginning. Even if it may seem like a very minimalistic work, in its simplicity it conceals lots of detail that make the music as appropriate as it is for conveying the concept.
To go back to what I stated at the beginning of this—I guess we can call it a think piece—the reason why I’m so interested in Living‘s sound is because they offer me something to think about while listening. Had the artist himself not proposed a matter or topic for me to think about and relate to the music, it’d be easy to discard it altogether. That’s the reason why I’m drawn to his works specifically: they offer me context through which to think about a type of music that I may not have much to latch onto otherwise. It could also be the case that everything I wrote here is totally worthless and “wrong” in a sense, but I do think that works like these either fall into the category of pure experimentation that’s maybe not even intended to be fully appreciated by the listener, or into the category of actively requiring the listener to put their own input and ideas into the music. I think that is the case for Living‘s music; otherwise, they may not even be published in the first place, or would not have such concepts behind them.
I do suggest you do the same and challenge yourself with music that’s not necessarily your thing, because even then you may find something new to think about and open yourself up to. With Living‘s works, you can also think about the specific question he poses in almost every single one, so I suggest you give it a try—specifically with one of his records.
The Future is Not the End of History is available on Donemus.
