Les paysages fleurissants

Georg Katzer produced his first computer composition that consisted entirely of synthetic sounds in Stockholm in 1984. In those days, programming was still truly laborious and waiting for the resulting sounds rather wearing. In the years afterwards, he built on the experience he gathered there to develop his own computer program for a self-organising composition process generating controlled aleatoric musical sequences.

The present CD covers the period from 1976 to 2010, a period which includes Georg Katzer's composition 'Bevor Ariadne kommt' of his first electro-acoustic works up to his compositions generated by the computer program developed by him.

The continuous examination of computer-assisted composition techniques becomes apparent in his works like a documentary report. Analogous and digital (instrumental) sounds are often mixed with noises and signals until the work of the composer in 'Steinelied 2' eventually consisted in choosing from the recorded sounds and com-posing them.

Memories and the assimilation of historical events as well as reactions to political events often serve Katzer as basic themes for his compositions. 'Mein 1989' is about the political changes in East Germany whereas 'Bevor Ariadne kommt' focusses on the events surrounding the Prague Spring of 1968. Katzer also takes a very prominent look at the technological progress of his 'composition instrument': '"Preußisch Blau" recalls the technology of a time long past with equipment filling a room, space-consuming loops of tape and the eternal battle with background noise.'