Moritz von Oswald will release a new album in November.
Silencio is a collaboration with the 16-voice Vocalconsort Berlin choir. Across 11 tracks, the album explores the differences and similarities between human and artificial sound, between oscillations generated by vocal cords and synthesizer voices.
It draws inspiration from composers such as Edgard Varèse, György Ligeti, and Iannis Xenakis to create a “deeply textured collection that shifts between light and ethereal and dark and dissonant.”
The compositions were written in von Oswald’s Berlin studio on classic synthesizers, and these abstract recordings were transcribed to sheet music for choir by Finnish composer and pianist Jarkko Riihimäki and performed by Vocalconsort Berlin in Ölberg church in the city’s Kreuzberg district.
The recordings of the choral versions were then incorporated into the synthesized parts of the album and brought into a new electronic context.
In Silencio, the focus is “not on using one means to imitate the other,” we’re told, “but to sonically discuss the tensions and harmonies between the two worlds and create a dialogue between them.”
The relationship between von Oswald and Tresor Records, where the album will be released, goes back 30 years, all the way to Blake Baxter’s Dream Sequence, which von Oswald engineered alongside Thomas Fehlmann.
Silencio is von Oswald’s first album since 2017’s collaboration with Kyrgyzstani outfit Ordo Sakhna.
Tracklisting
01. Silencio
02. Luminoso
03. Librarsi
04. Infinito
05. Colpo
06. Volta (Version)
07. Infinito (Version)
08. Luminoso (Version)
09. Volta
10. Opaco
11. Opaco (Version)
Silencio LP is scheduled for November 10 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Infinito” and an album teaser below, and pre-order here.
