Have you ever Claudia Molitor
Out on Thu 26 May 2022 | CD + DL
Sound artist and composer Claudia Molitor’s new 13-track solo album Have you ever brings together influences ranging from techno and jazz to Ivor Cutler and Nico, for which she has recorded her own field recordings as well as playing a variety of instruments and singing. It features poetry by Graham Mackenzie and Brian Patten alongside Molitor’s own text in both English and German.
“Each little song is like a world in itself … I thought it was really fun making these short little ideas, and to try and encapsulate something in just three or four minutes.”
Finding a freedom in creating for herself rather than for a brief or commission, Molitor began creating songs and miniatures in early 2020. Her process began with a simple element – a field recording, some words, a fragment of melody – which would then go through an organic transformation of collage and manipulation before arriving at the resulting track. The result is a diverse collection of tracks showcasing the breadth of the composers’ practice.
Molitor has recorded everything on the album, collaging self-made sounds with field recordings and electronic manipulation – she sings and plays piano, cello and accordion. Poet Brian Patten is the only other collaborator who can be heard on the album, reading his poem ‘I caught a train’ in the track of the same name.
The 13 tracks on this album encompass a diverse range of styles: dark brooding electronics lie in stark contrast with simple piano chords, Molitor’s delicate untrained voice sitting atop and amid each song. The composer moves from delicate and simple textures to a complex haze of electronic manipulation. Although these tracks were not originally conceived as an album, Molitor’s unconventional style and distinctive vocals are present throughout and binds together the unusual collection.
Many of the field recordings which feature on the album were taken spontaneously using basic equipment or even just a smartphone – in the title track ‘Have you ever’, sounds of the Thames can be heard, recorded during a walk with her daughter.
The composer highlights accidental sound blemishes rather than hide them, charmed by their authentic quality and the way they capture the unplanned nature of the field recordings.
Molitor sings poetry and words by Graham Mackenzie (writer and director of Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival) and Brian Patten (poet) as well as her own words in German and English. The album features two ‘Interludes’ which each serve as a kind of ‘palate cleanser’: short bursts of contrasting material without any text or vocals.
Track Listing
Change
Can I get
Ein kleines Lied an Dich
Interlude 1
You Crawl
I caught a train
Abendlied
Interlude 2
Das Gefühl
Have you ever
On London Bridge Concourse
What feeds a Listen
I am chilled
CLAUDIA MOLITOR
Claudia Molitor is a composer, artist and performer whose work draws on traditions of music and sound art, and also extends to video, performance and fine art practices. Exploring the relationships between listening and seeing as well as embracing collaboration as compositional practice is central to her work.
Claudia’s work is regularly commissioned, performed and broadcast throughout Europe, working with festivals such as Wien Modern, hcmf//, Spor, BBC Proms and Sonica and organisations such as Tate Britain, NMC Recordings and the Science Museum. Recent work includes Sonorama with Electra Productions, Turner Contemporary and the British Library, Vast White Stillness for Spitalfields Festival and Brighton Festival and The Singing Bridge, installed at Somerset House during Totally Thames 2016.
