The Squid's Ear Magazine

Hein, Nicola L.

The Oxymothastic Objectar

Hein, Nicola L. : The Oxymothastic Objectar (Shhpuma)

Using an electric guitar, preparations, and objects as a tool of reflection, Nicola L. Hein presents an album of philosophical bent, about the question of skepticism in music, or a skeptical form of improvisation, through tumultuous playing of impressive technique caught live at Spectrum in NYC, as each track title presents observations or questions that Hein seeks to resolve.
 

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Nicola L. Hein-guitar, objects


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UPC: 5609063800487

Label: Shhpuma
Catalog ID: SHH048
Squidco Product Code: 27351

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2019
Country: Portugal
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded live at Spectrum, in New York City, on March 11th 2018, by Lester St. Louis and Mark Ballyk.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"A philosopher, besides being a musician and a sound artist, German guitarist Nicola L. Hein continues to find different ways of integrating philosophical ideas into music and to create music as a form of philosophy with his solo project The Oxymothastic Objectar. With a guitar, either prepared or unprepared and with or without some electronic effects, he follows a process of philosophically questioning the possibility of scepticism in music, an aesthetic of idiosyncratic skepticism.

The process is directed towards riding along the impossibility of a globally skeptic improvisation, which philosopher Jacques Derrida talked about when he said "And so I believe in improvisation and I fight for improvisation. But always with the belief that it's impossible.", or Ludwig Wittgenstein: "If you are not certain of any fact, you cannot be certain of the meaning of your words either [...] If you tried to doubt everything you would not get as far as doubting anything.

The game of doubting itself presupposes certainty". The impossibility of a global skepsis becomes the pushing and pulling other of the musical process, forcing the music to revolve around its own impossibility. And yet in this scenario of impossibility the music realises itself as a non-concludable process of the self inquiring dialog of musical voices, which generate an exciting and unpredictable musical journey, driving the performer into a situation of the biggest musical and logical challenges: Music as a selfaccomplishing Skepticism."-Shhpuma



This album has been reviewed on our magazine:

The Squid
The Squid's Ear!

Artist Biographies

"Nicola L. Hein (Born 1988 in Düsseldorf) is a guitarist, composer and soundartist. As a guitarist he is mainly concerned about the search for new sounds on his instrument. He plays electric and acoustic guitar with or without preperations and tries to find new ways of playing the guitar within the context of Free Improvised Music and Jazz. He plays the guitar with his hands and plectrum but also with a lot of different objects: screws, rulers, iron wool, violin bow, abrasive paper, magnets and many other objects which are part of his musical vocabulary. The result is his very own world of sounds, which is using the rich potential of the guitar as a creator of sounds. The manual creation is a very important character of this sound world, which never gets distorted by the use of electronic effects. As a composer he finds different ways of integrating philosophical ideas into music and to play music as a form of philosophy. In order to actualize itself the compositional work is always aimed at the improvising musician as a dialectic partner of the composition. From the interplay of these partners an ästhetic emerges that is based on the spontanity of the performance and the setting of aesthetic action spaces alike. As a soundartist he is developing different ways to project the musical ontology of Improvised Music onto different aesthetic rooms. This is done by creating instruments, installations and other ways of using the guitar, which use the musical ontology of Improvised Music as the center of the sonic practise but generate a lot of different sense structures that differ from the usual practise of Improvised Music (for example by creating a scenic sense layer etc.). He also creates sound installations which involve the recipient as a part of the work. The works encourage the recipient to make a special aesthetic experience with different sounds. The aesthetic of these sounds is inspired by the aesthetics of Free Improvised Music.

He studied Jazzguitar, Soundart/Composition, Philosophy and German philology at the Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität Bonn and the Gutenberg-Universität Mainz. Projects with the support of: Initiative Musik, Staatsministerium für Kultur und Medien, Kunststiftung NRW, Deutscher Musikrat, Akademie der Künste der Welt, Kultursekretariat NRW, Ministerium für Familie, Kinder, Jugend, Kultur und Sport des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Landesmusikrat NRW, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatstheater Mainz, Staatstheater Hannover, ON Neue Musik Cologne, RheinEnergieStiftung Kultur, Kulturamt der Stadt Köln, Kulturamt der Stadt Düsseldorf, Kulturamt der Stadt Essen, Kulturbehörde Hamburg, Hamburgische Kulturstiftung, Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln, Köln Musik, Acht Brücken, RWE Stiftung für Energie & Gesellschaft, Second Floor e.V., Jazz Offensive Essen, ZKM Karlsruhe etc. He has worked with: Evan Parker, Phil Minton, John Russell, Paul Lytton, Frank Gratkwoski, Michael Vorfeld, Rudi Mahall, Tobias Delius, Liz Allbee, Christian Lillinger, Ute Wassermann, John Butcher, Axel Dörner, Thomas Lehn, Wilbert de Joode, Tristan Honsinger, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Michael Thieke, Sofia Jernberg, Audrey Chen, Peter Jacquemyn, Carl Ludwig Hübsch, Robert Landfermann, Jon Rose, Sebastian Gramss, Tomomi Adachi, Alfred Zimmerlin, DJ Illvibe etc."

-Nicola L. Hein Website (https://nicolahein.com/blemishes/about/)
3/27/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. If you do know that here is one hand, we'll grant you all the rest 8:26

2. I cannot say that I have good grounds for the opinion that cats do not grow on trees or that I had a father and a mother 5:22

3. "This fellow isn't insane. We are only doing philosophy." 6:37

4. I am sure, that my friend hasn't sawdust in his body or in his head, even though I have no direct evidence of my senses to the contrary 6:49

5. Why is it not possible for me to doubt that I have never been on the moon? And how could I try to doubt it? 2:07

6. If you tried to doubt everything you would not get as far as doubting anything. The game of doubting itself presupposes certainty 6:08

7. I have arrived at the rock bottom of my convictions. And one might almost say that these foundation-walls are carried by the whole house 11:15

Related Categories of Interest:


Clean Feed
Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Electro-Acoustic
Electro-Acoustic Improv
Guitarists, &c.
Objects and Home-made Instruments
Sound, Noise, &c.
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Solo Artist Recordings
New in Experimental & Electronic Music

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Shhpuma.


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