Dance for Nerds (2020)

Dance for Nerds is one of my compositional processes that places aesthetics from subcultures, such as club music or hip hop in chamber music contexts. The acoustic instruments here are faced with the task of imitating concepts and playing techniques from electronic music. Imitation is not understood here as mere imitation, but always as a transformation into something new. Thus, techniques that were originally achieved by electronic effects such as frequency filters or so-called "sidechain" procedures are performed purely acoustically to generate an aesthetic of their own.
Rhythm plays an important role in Dance for Nerds. Since electronic and acoustic music influence each other, an acoustically generated rhythm can be technoid and an electronic rhythm can lag heavily. This in-between state between nodding one's head and not being able to dance along is provided here with a playing field that wants to take on the physical. How does "corporeality" and "connection" emerge without losing the reflexive level? Between thinking and dancing there seems to be a larger area that is trying to be illuminated.
© Ketan Bhatti