SPEED - Tesla vs.Hermes
Music for DUO - AMERICAN GODS series
Ensemble KNM
Konzerthaus Berlin

AMERICAN  GODS  series  -  Musik für DUO

SPEED – Tesla vs. Hermes

for Contrabass Clarinet and bass Flute 

Concert video

Freely associative – a sonic race. Two symbols confront each other. At first playfully, like children, just for fun, overconfident—ignoring that their game reaches into the deepest registers of the instruments and makes the ground tremble. A new god and an old god. Trademark and mythology. A sleek car showroom and a temple ruin. Nervously hissing torque and swiftly beating wings. Acceleration, curves, evasive maneuvers. Along photogenic coastal roads.

The instruments scrape against their extremes; breath falters in the curves, valves tumble over one another. The longer they race side by side, the more they begin to realize how deeply intertwined they are. Their bodies, their materials, touch more and more often.

After all, Hermes is also the protector of traffic, the messenger of dreams and wealth, the god of alchemy. He translates the messages of the gods, understands all the laws of the world; his language is compatible upwards and downwards, sideways and across. After a moment of respectful equilibrium—where material and sound mutually enrich one another—the situation shifts.

Technology increasingly withdraws material from mythology by imitating it, dissolving it in the process. Divine material can exist only once in this world. The alchemy of Hermes is turned against him; his batteries are drained. The opposing pair rushes toward reification—Hermes appears to be assimilated.

Yet, shortly before the end, a dramatic turn begins to emerge >>> after the commercial break…

Speed – Tesla vs. Hermes is part of a series of duo works in which brand icons engage in associative competitions with ancient deities.

YW, AK – March 30, 2022

Atonale, September 8, 2023, Bauhaus Berlin
bass Flute: Rebecca Lento,
Contrabass Clarinet : Theo Nabicht