Das Ensemble Ohne Eigenschaften loves to introduce themselves as ‘Music as not Music’ or ‘Playing as not Playing’. Having a rotating pool of The Hague-based musicians, the ensemble invited a selection of artists to perform awork for open instrumentation, called ‘… in nobis sine nobis … [Metamorphose I]‘. Theinvitedmusicians include Lauge Dideriksen (DEN, Violin), Abel Fazekas (HU, Clarinet), Peter van Bergen (NL, Reeds), Orestis Willemen (GR, Guitar), Leo Svirsky (USA, Keyboard), Emil Erten (TUR, Keyboard) and Ivan Renqvist Babinchak (SWE, Percussion).

… in nobis sine nobis … [Metamorphose I]

This work by Cornelis de Bondt, translated as [… in us without us …], is written for open instrumentation,played byleast five instruments of which at least one should be a keyboard instrument. It is based on a four part strict canonic writing (in rhythmical sense), playing around a slow progressing harmony. The keyboard tries to play as much of the total of the canon as possible, a reference to the early baroque ‘bastard a style’. The work consists of a series of over a hundred ‘blocks’. Every time a block is played, it should be played with the energy of starting the piece over again. Yet in every block one thing is changed. So after over half an hour the block will sound very different from the initial one.