EFIM
EFIM
Daniel Hoffmann – trumpet/flugelhorn
Matthias von Hintzenstern – violoncello/overtone singing
Hans Tutschku – live electronics
Michael von Hintzenstern – piano/harmonium/synthesizer
The “Ensemble for Intuitive Music Weimar” (EFIM) was founded in 1980/81.
“Sound Journey” was the title of numerous concerts it gave in the first years of its existence. This began in an illegal gallery in Erfurt, led to numerous churches and after years even to the (East) Berlin “Palast der Republik”. In the meantime, it has made guest appearances in 30 countries.
In GDR times, the musicians found it necessary and appealing to enter tabooed and undesirable territory. The listeners, whose longing and curiosity were almost insatiable, followed these excursions spellbound. The name Karlheinz Stockhausen proved to be a magnet – people came in droves. By the “October Spring of 1989”, over 100 concerts of his music had taken place in the GDR.
After the opening of the border, the ensemble was able to play for Stockhausen for the first time in 1990, who wrote in a letter: “…it was good to finally see you in concert. I would like to thank you all: You have kept Intuitive Music alive. We will certainly continue to develop this unique form of music together.” Following an intensive rehearsal phase in May 1991, he wrote to Weimar: “THANK YOU for the Whitsun days: they were also extremely instructive for me, and you are simply four angels! Whenever I get a chance, I will help you to go further in the discovery and clarification of intuitive music.” In May 2005, after rehearsing together with Stockhausen, the ensemble recorded six pieces from his cycle FÜR KOMMENDE ZEITEN (1968-1970) on CD for the first time, with the composer taking over the sound direction.
Characteristic of the ensemble is the close interaction between instruments and live electronics, which not only creates a wealth of new timbres, but also triggers communicative processes that were previously almost unimaginable. The mobile studio in the computer is used as a musical instrument. Technology no longer functions as a supplementary accessory, but as a component of the instrumental interplay. In addition, the movement of the sounds in the room plays an essential role (8-channel sound system).
Since the beginning of the 1990s, the EFIM has mainly devoted itself to its own projects.
It is always on the lookout for “special places” whose charisma inspires performers and listeners alike. These can be parks or quarries that are mysteriously illuminated at night.
One of his formative experiences was a concert in a lava field in Mexico City in 1993, where – under a full moon! – a work about the four elements was performed in front of 2000 enthusiastic people: ERUPCION DE SONIDOS – ERUPTION OF SOUNDS.
In 2000, it was a concert hall milled 670 meters underground into the salt that provided the setting for the work KLANGSCHACHT SONDERSHAUSEN.
Based on Bauhaus traditions, numerous synaesthetic projects have been realized since 1987. In 1989/90, for example, “abstract color variations in the cosmos” were created in the Zeiss planetariums in Jena and Berlin under the title VOM KLANG DER STERNE. In 2009, the POLYVISION project conceived by Hans Tutschku for dance, multidimensional projection and ensemble was premiered.
One of the most elaborate creations to date was FLAMMENKLANG MEININGEN (1996) for 16 hot air balloon burners, dancers, choir, ensemble and band by Hans Tutschku. In this full-length work, the various configurations of six-metre-high flames corresponded with the musical and scenic events in the English Garden of the city.
Whether at the EXPO 2000 in Hanover, at the festivals in Porto (2001), Warsaw (2002), Rome (2003), Vienna (2004) or Brussels (2006), the EFIM is always on a sound journey that aims to open up new dimensions of listening. For concerts with 192 loudspeakers, it used the IOSONO wave field synthesis system from the Fraunhofer Institute (Ilmenau) for the first time in a concert hall in 2005. In 2006, during a tour of the USA, the ensemble followed in the footsteps of Lászlo Moholy-Nagy from the Weimar Bauhaus to John Cage. In 2008, the ensemble performed in Buffalo, Santiago de Chile and Lithuania and in 2009 in Austria. Since 2010, it has led annual seminars on the interpretation of intuitive music at the Stockhausen courses in Kürten.
One of the special features of its work is that it not only presents music with new sounds, but also records so-called “soundscapes” from distant cities and landscapes in order to process them further and integrate them into later performances.