In Memory of Helmut Schäfer (1969 - 2007)

by lawrence

In his final word to the world, titled ‘Noise as a language’, the late Austrian musician Helmut Schäfer wrote:

‘So the point is that so much words existing, and we get better and better to use them for hiding the truth. You can use sound in the same way, stimulating some nice and warm feeling in middle of chaos, but from time to time we all should stimulate strictness, clearness, intensity, directness, set free some anger to bring up the basic truth of our present. Noise can be seen as the chance to go into the back of things, as a therapy which is able to confront ourselves with others lesser good looking sides of life without getting frustrated by this. See it as a source of very special energies, it gives power to see more clear and swim against.’

Helmut Schäfer is the embodiment of that energy. My first impression of the man came from a GIF animation made with the video footage of his live performance at the Mills College Chapel. I found myself dumbfounded by the sheer power manifested: here’s a man operating a laptop in the way Rock guitarists playing their instrument. His hands were fixed steadily on the MIDI controller, serving as a pivot to support his dramatic physical gesture. Although in a sitting position, it seems that his chair has morphed from a supporting structure that holds him from falling to the ground to something dispensable that happens to attach to his constantly twisting body. Think of the twenty-something Glenn Gould playing his piano and add a portion of roughness to it and you’ll get the idea. I can’t help worrying about the poor slides and knobs on the controller.

As GIF animation - the standard of web animation in the archaic days of web 1.0 - comes with no sound, one would have to complete the audio part of the experience with imagination, a potentially damaging practice as imagination tends to transcend reality. The best music lives only in one’s head, and any attempt to materialise it only dilutes the experience.

That’s why I was so deeply moved when later listening to Isolated Irritation, the album containing the live recording of that very concert. The cover design, a highly-manipulated image of Helmut’s stage presence, gracefully captures the feverish emotional power of his music, which totally lives up to, if not surpasses, the promise of my imagination.

I guess Helmut has never been part of the ‘international sound art scene’. He was, however, very well-received in China. In November, 2003, he was invited by Dajuin Yao to play at “Sounding Beijing,” the first-ever large scale experimental music festival in mainland China. That fifteen minutes of intoxicating noise construction still ranks as one of my most mind-blowing live experiences. The professionalism demonstrated in his highly concentrated sound checking process - something not as common among sound artists as you would imagine , believe it or not - and the artistic nobleness expressed in his sublimely elegant bow to the audience (which ‘felt like a proud prince’, borrowing critic Yan Jun’s phrase) have served as a timely reminder on what does it mean to be a true artist. His legacy, I believe, will last longer in China than in any other part of the world.

May peace be with you Helmut, wherever you are.

http://www.post-concrete.com/helmutschafer

See also what others said about Helmut:




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