neumann, andrea

pappelallee 5

Label: Absinth Records Country: Germany

"Pappelallee 5 arose by accident during work on a record that required absolute silence in my flat. It was a complicated undertaking, considering that my apartment is located in a house which is mostly occupied with musicians. As a result, I was inspired to place those adversities, from the outset, into the focus of the work and to integrate the sounds of the building into my composition.

The music coming from the surrounding flats was recorded from within my apartment. I therefore needed to set a maximum recording level in order to capture the quiet input signals, resulting in an increase in the noise level. Some inside piano sounds have a very low input signal, which entailed bringing up the input channels on the mixing board, causing a further elevation of the noise level.

The relationship between digital silence and sounds with noise are - especially when the sounds strike or fade away, when one 'listens in on' what is hidden inside a noise, or when one listens to the interspersion between the sound qualities of the inside piano recordings and those of the music in the house - intentionally part and parcel of the composition."-Andrea Neumann, Absinthe Records