Anything can be music

A particularly special part of the festival (Klaaspärlimäng Festival in Tartu/Estonia) was the concert ‘Sound Art’ by multi-instrumentalist Jochen Fassbender. The word ’concert’ might be misleading here, as it more resembled a powerful display of instruments or a meditative journey on overtone waves. 

It was amazing and somehow incomprehensible how all the handmade and newly developed instruments, seen and heard in the Johanniskirche late evening of July 12th, blended together so wonderfully. Looking back, I find it difficult to answer the question of how the concert was structured. The concert didn't really have a beginning, middle, climax or end. Yet, there was a lot of tension in the air! Unusual, initially inexplicable sounds from unprecedented instruments captivated the audience. The entire church, from the floorboards to the high vaults, took part in the process. The sound waves traveled through the domes of the vault. Their journey could almost be observed visually in the church. I was impressed by how much more powerful the silence is than the forte. As an attentive listener, I eventually realised that I was holding my breath because I didn't want to let the music die with my breath. 

At the end of the concert, the audience also joined in the music: the listeners were given triangular sound platelets with mallets to play. A part of the audience was invited to play the instruments on stage. Without rehearsals, an unprecedented piece of music was born spontaneously and the distance between performers and audience vanished. Perhaps even more than just at the recently concluded Song Festival, I felt like part of something important because this moment and how I play my instrument are very important. What could be a greater compliment for a festival than the fact that the audience becomes one with the music.

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19.07.2019 Estnic cultur magazine „SIRP" written by Anete Sammler, translated from Estonian, about a concert during the Klaaspärlimäng festival in Tartu/Estonia, July 2019