Description
#nathansalsburg #vinyl #vinylrecords
Landwerk No. 2 is the second installment in a series of compositions that revolve around samples from 78-rpm phonograph records. In this volume, the samples used include two klezmer tracks, a Yiddish folk song, and a tune by a Slovak miners’ orchestra from Northeastern Pennsylvania, which happens to be the ancestral home of the Salsburg family spanning six generations.
While the first volume coincided with the early months of the peculiar year of 2020, the creation of No. 2 took place during the depths of late summer and early fall, a period marked by heavy political, social, and existential despair. These compositions serve as musical attempts to bridge the gap between the past and the present. They seek to redeem the present through the exploration of the past and to discover a “critical constellation” as described by Michael Löwy, where a fragment from the past intersects with a specific moment in the present.
These compositions are an endeavor to translate the richness of historical recordings into a contemporary context. By weaving together fragments from the past with the complexities of the present, they offer a unique perspective on the transformative power of music. They invite listeners to engage with the interplay between past and present, and to contemplate the ways in which the echoes of history can resonate with the challenges and uncertainties of our current times.
Landwerk No. 2 serves as a musical reflection on the weight of the past and its potential to shed light on our contemporary struggles. Through the use of samples from diverse musical traditions, these compositions offer a space for contemplation, exploration, and the forging of connections between different temporal realms.
