Name: Lorenz Dangel

Nationality: German

Occupation: Composer
Current event: Lorenz Dangel Lorenz Dangel's new piece for 300 musicians, "Phon," will receive its world premiere at the Symphonische Hoagascht by the BRSO under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle July 7th 2024.For more information, visit the BRSO website.
Recommendations: Yesterday I visited Rebecca Horn at Haus der Kunst in Munich. There is one work I have seen years ago in London and was so happy to meet again, it´s called “Concert for Anarchy”.
And maybe in a good relationship to that, one of my all time favourite orchestral works I would love to recommend is “Amériques” by Edgar Varèse.
 
If you enjoyed this Lorenz Dangel interview and would like to stay up to date with his music, visit his official homepage.



For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

Mostly it starts with little motifs, atmospheres or interest in certain instrumentations. But this is only a collection of elements I know I want to use in that composition. Before I really start writing I always need an approximate idea of the form, the development.

Mostly I draw it on paper but in lines, dots, abstract figures and so on. It rather looks like a drawing than a piece of music.

Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do ‘research’ or create ‘early versions’?

It helps when my work space is cleaned up because otherwise I use the mess to procrastinate during the moments I get stuck in the thinking process …

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

Over the years one learns to understand the needs of the creative brain in order to have the expected output. In my case it´s not so much rituals but a constant support of these needs.

Having said that I like to have a coffee and a croissant in the morning. I'll go to the coffee place right downstairs in the house I am living in, to watch some people on the street, and chat with the barista before entering my creative solitude.

What do you start with? And, to quote a question by the great Bruce Duffie: When you come up with a musical idea, have you created the idea or have you discovered the idea?

Definitely discovering. It´s all there. The artist just decides, selects, picks.

This image often helps me, an idea is not an unstabile spark in my head (although it can be, but that´s my brain) but it´s there, it waits for me, almost in a patient way, waits to hopefully be discovered by me.

Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?

This definitely happens to me. And I welcome these ideas and roads – under the premise that I do know where I am heading to.

As as long as I feel sure about the overall idea and direction, I love to go down these roads and I am curious and willing to change details in the initial form.

When you're in the studio to record a piece, how important is the actual performance and the moment of performing the song still in an age where so much can be “done and fixed in post?“

“Fixing in post” is just procrastination and avoidance of the effort to know what you really want. There will be enough things to be fixed in post but you can only work on things that are there already.

Even recording a solo piece is usually a collaborative process. Tell me about the importance of trust between the participants, personal relationships between musicians and engineers and the freedom to perform and try things – rather than gear, technique or “chops” - for creating a great piece of music.

Talking about recording and mixing film music in my case, the trustful collaboration with long time partners like my engineers who record and mix my film scores is crucial to me. This connection is far more than job related, it is a kind of professional friendship and agreement over a lot of artistical views, processes and reflexes, we learned together.

Even when working with musicians in a classical context I always choose the approach of working together to achieve something over a hierarchical top-to-bottom atmosphere.

I truly believe that the way of personal communication is mirrored in the musical result of a performance or a recording.


Lorenz Dangel Interview Image by Severin Vogl

After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

When I was younger this moment hit me hard. Not sure why it changed. I guess I learned better to let go and to trust that the music will find its way.

Funny detail, in quite some cases I like some other music of mine better than the pieces which became successful or well known.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

When I watch my barista friend in my morning's coffee place I am fascinated by the perfection and routine in a positive way he shows when making coffee. And I am jealous because he doesn’t have to decide every time which colour his coffee should have, which cup, wether he should try to add beer or maybe he should serve it in a plastic bag.

As a composer one has the freedom and the burden to have every possibility. Which note, how long, which instrument, how loud, how fast, which playing technique. And that´s one note … – I love the art of a good cup of coffee.