Andrea Neumann
4 Questions

She took her favorite instrument, the piano, and reduced it to the essentials. Materially. Away with the keyboard, away with the pedals, away even with the hammers; what remained was the "innenklavier": the frame, the case, and - at the center of it all - the strings. The German experimenter Andrea Neumann (1968, Freiburg) is thus able to manipulate the sounds of the piano from the very start, then amplify and mix them, achieving minimalist pieces, subtly poised between abstract electronics and concrete music. Very approachable and friendly, she illustrated her poetics to us...

Where and when - during her studies of classical and jazz music - did she encounter the first spark that directed her toward the type of experimentation she is now brilliantly exploring?
During piano studies, we had a lesson called "methodik." The students, who normally spent all day practicing classical pieces, were asked to play the piano without sheet music. Playing tones, like creating images. With a strange approach: when and why do you touch a key? And what intimate imagination leads you to seek out which sound?
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it, and so I followed this approach, moving from the piano keys to its strings (more possibilities to create sounds) and then eliminating the external structure (more convenient to reach the strings).

She has worked with many different people, both in the Phosphor collective and outside of it (Toshimaru Nakamura, Lionel Marchetti, Radu Malfatti among others); and has also made music on her own. What are the differences between collaboration and solo work? Which does she prefer?
Working in collaboration with other musicians, and for extended periods, is very important to me, essential. In the type of music I operate in, we don't have well-defined rules, or hierarchies (composer-interpreter, conductor-interpreters). In collaborations, we have to find/invent our specific way of developing music. This is based on dialogue, respecting differences, making sure each voice is considered.
I also like working alone. During the process of developing the music, there are no external feedbacks or comments, there's no one to convince - only "internal feedback": being critical with oneself, communicating with different parts of one's own being, taking full responsibility for every decision. Discovering what you truly want to hear.

Avant-garde music, by definition, is not for the masses. I like to see it as a form of love, extreme and self-hypnotic, for art. What is art for her? Are there connections between her minimalism and other art forms (painting, literature)?
"Self-hypnotic" - I can understand this expression (even if it implies it might be more satisfying for the artist than for the listener): it is "necessary," first of all, that my music satisfies me; then I hope it might mean something to other people as well.
Art for me is finding a way to express one's perspective on the world. On minimalism: I like concentration. Focusing on a few sounds. If I can find concentration in playing complex and rich music, I do it too. So there is no purpose/ideal in being minimalist.

What are you currently working on and what are your future projects?
In the past year, I have thought a lot about the possibilities of going beyond the form of my instrument. Before, I had gotten used to creating a world within the music. Then came the desire to find a way to connect music to some "external world." The first attempt was with a piece by a friend (the choreographer Adeline Rosenstein), which included descriptions of sounds (I had to find the sound based on her poetic descriptions) and words/stories that I had to recite during the performance. The "external world," in this case, is the content of the words, which influences the sounds, and vice versa. Also, I am involved in a project called "Larry Peacock," a trio: two musicians and a singer/performer (Henry Fleur, Ulf Sievers, Land). Each of us crosses the specific boundaries of our roles, as musicians or performers. The performance is connected to music genres (for example, playback is a feature of pop music, not improvised music), but it's also a matter of "power" and "desire."
As for future projects, I will work with Sabine Ercklentz on new compositions (we already made a CD called "Oberflächenspannung" and worked together at the Brussels conservatory in March), and I will compose for a group called "Les Femmes Savantes," with Sabine Ercklentz, Ana M. Rodriguez, Ute Wassermann, and Hanna Hartman: we've been commissioned for a contemporary music festival in Germany, in May.