Hard Boiled Variations (2021)
(for ensemble and dance)

In Hard Boiled Variations, a cycle of five parts is repeated fifteen (and a half) times. The first run lasts five minutes, the shortest just three seconds, and finally there is only a single beat left. The speed is thus increased more than one hundred-fold. The piece is concerned with two main ideas: Firstly, the different facets of acceleration and the different ways of conveying the impression of acceleration to an audience. On the other hand, it is also a game of closeness and distance, or sharpness and blurriness. The reference to visual perception or the fine arts is deliberate: Comparable to gradually stepping back from a canvas, the details fade with increasing distance (or acceleration) – and the superordinate contours come to the fore until finally only the overall impression of the picture remains recognisable. All details disappear in favour of a global impression. At the end point, the frenetic speed tips into its opposite: It stands still. The movement solidifies into an image, and experience congeals into contemplation and time literally becomes space.