HM <–> B is a short composition for Robert Normandeau’s 70th birthday

One special thing that Robert and I have in common is an interest in the late E. German playwright, Heiner Müller (HM). Robert created a marvellous adaptation of Müller’s ‘Hamlet Machine’ (HM, 1977, Normandeau, 2001 – theatre enthusiasts continue to discuss the coincidence). I worked closely with Mülller for the decade running up to the fall of the Berlin Wall. One piece for which I made a sound design for its premiere was ‘Bildbeschreibung’ (1984, description of an image), an even more experimental work than HM as it is just a description, no characters, no play text, in short, a reduction of theatre. I further reduced the work and created ‘B’ (1986), a three-channel piece with live voice (including HM’s voice on the recording) cutting up and recomposing ‘Bildbeschreibung’. ‘HM <-> B’ is 70 seconds (happy birthday, Robert) of both pieces superimposed with the final ‘B’ sample taken from later in the piece, ‘die Willkür der Komposition’ (the randomness of composition).