TEMPO Darmstädter Ferienkurse 2021 on Pulsating Skin
In an article Darmstädter Ferienkurse 2021 from the journal TEMPO (Cambridge University Press) musicologist Max Erwin writes:
“Right next door in front of the steps leading up to the Ludwigskirche, Justina Repečkaitė’sPulsating skin began as four snare drum membranes began to vibrate from the effect of transducers placed on their underside, just as the title promised. The four percussionists here – Corentin Barro, Romane Bouffioux, Pablo Mena, and Federico Tramontana – acted not so much as traditional action-oriented drummers but more like the gardeners or doting chaperones of the sounds their instruments produced as they evolved, a task they accomplished with both surgical focus and elegant sensitivity. This piece really just worked – it adapted to the outdoor space and transformed it, creating a new environment while somehow not backsliding into sound installation territory. To underline this point, as I write this, I can’t really remember a single specific aural event from Pulsating skin (and, since this was one of the few concerts not recorded and broadcast online, I can’t refresh my memory), but the overall impression and sensation of it – inviting, constantly changing, gritty and lustrous – are fresh in my mind. It was generally agreed that, had a Kranichstein prize been awarded this year, Repečkaitė would have been a strong frontrunner.”
TEMPO exists to document the international new music scene while contributing to, and stimulating, current debates therein. Its emphasis is on musical developments in our own century, as well as on music that came to prominence in the later twentieth century that has not yet received the attention it deserves. The articles and reviews cover the new music scene in all its complexity, featuring discussions of compositional trends, performance practices, listening practices, new music contexts and reception histories. TEMPO is sympathetic both to writing about new forms of creative practice (electronic, interdisciplinary, performance-based) and to writing that employs innovative methods of enquiry that differ from the aims of traditional musicology.
