2013-2014 | 19’ | overtone singer, electronics, violin, cello, detuned piano

[...] quem lex subjungat is a quite sprawling concept piece made at a time my associativeness was in a bit of an overdrive.

In the 1970’s, Karlheinz Stockhausen proclaimed serialism the ultimate egalitarian, democratic system. But ultimately, it was a system trying to control what had already spiralled out of control. […] quem lex subjungat mimics how a rigid system can come undone when confronted by elements that are not present in its logic.

The comfort of the system at the beginning, the pandiatonic, serially organized world of the classical piano trio, is soon intruded by the intruding harmonic language of the overtone singer backed by electronics, and the mutual strife for adaptation derails the system into mayhem, until the system tries to take back control - thereby erasing any life that might have been left in there.

Premiere performance by Christopher Klassen, overtone singing, Kilian van Rooij, violin, Ragnhild Wesenberg, cello and Jelena Popovic, detuned electronic piano.