Sound Portraits Radio {EP16} Conrad Schnitzler

CONRAD SCHNITZLER

EPISODE 16

Conrad Schnitzler, composer and conceptual artist, is one of the most important representatives of Germany’s electronic music avant-garde. He studied sculpture with Joseph Beuys, before leaving Düsseldorf Kunstakademie to focus on experiments with synthesizer and tape. In 1967 he co-founded the radical Zodiak Free Arts Lab in West Berlin, which became the center for kosmische music. A founder of Kluster and an early member of Tangerine Dream, Schnitzler’s experimental, industrial soundscapes defined the early releases of these seminal groups. Always moving forward, he embarked on a solo career that spanned five decades of invention, with a vision remarkably ahead of its time. This episode of Sound Portraits Radio is hosted by Doron Sadja.

“Schnitzler was a real madman. He wanted to destroy everything.”
Klaus Schultze
“If lots of people make noises, it becomes an orchestra… If you do it alone – for example the sound of a stone on linoleum – that’s a solo-track. If you play these sounds and record them onto different tracks, it becomes a composition… Make horrible noises with instruments and microphones and echo-machines. Just do it and produce as much noise as you want. If you organize this noise it’s not just pure chaos… it can grow into music. This noise-making was meant as a way to express and explore your inner self. It wasn’t meant to create music in a traditional way at all. Basically, the idea was to create sounds for communication, to let others experience your own philosophy.”
Conrad Schnitzler
“I had kids, and I had only one job as a janitor, so I had to think about earning a living by making music. I took my bicycle, and drove to the Kurfürstendamm. Right in front of the Cafe Kranzler, I started to turn on the tape-recorders. Then I strolled up and down the Kurfürstendamm. People were coming after me and I said ‘Whoever likes this can give me some money.’ Well, the best thing was that people even wanted to buy tapes! After one hour and a half, I jumped back on my bike and had 50 marks in my pocket.”
Conrad Schnitzler
“I never leave my hometown. I do l’art pour l’art. I don’t need popularity. I don’t like to answer questions.”
Conrad Schnitzler
“Global living, in short……………. Since some time, I globalize me. Why just living in one country, why just sleeping in one country, why just being buried only in one country, now that we think and live globally. I would like to be at beautiful places in the world, without to move me from my place here. I send my DNA (my hair) to different places in the world. This means I’m all over the world. I’m everywhere, even when I’ll be dead. Nobody must come to my grave in Berlin. My friends can visit me in the whole world now. So if friends want to give me a place…., welcome. I’ll send a DNA sample to bury me. I am in the whole world at home now. I love this feeling.”
Conrad Schnitzler

Sound Portraits is a series of lectures/listening sessions, curated by Doron Sadja, focusing on the work of iconic composers who have paved the way for contemporary electronic music. Started in 2015 as a live event at Spektrum in Berlin, the series quickly grew and exists now as both a live lecture series and a radio show on Cashmere Radio. After an introduction of each artist’s life and work, we listen to a selection of excerpts and complete works from the artist’s repertoire. Besides providing an opportunity to introduce these seminal artists to a new audience, the Sound Portraits series also offers an open forum to engage in group listening in a quiet atmosphere.

Doron Sadja is an American artist, composer, and curator whose work explores modes of perception and the experience of sound, light, and space. Find out more at www.doron.sadja.com

SOUND PORTRAITS CONRAD SCHNITZLER

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