Joachim Heintz
Pan.Sori!

for Buk and Electronics

The Corean Pansori is a fascinating performance of one singer-actor, and one drummer of Buk. Fascinating is not only the music and the performance, but also the interaction between both parts.

We live in a time where the question "what is Pansori" is often answered by "I show you on YouTube". We live in a time of a second reality, we live in a time of "intelligent machines": machines that are being programmed. The programs, however, are written by humans. So all we experience as presence of machines, all we may suffer from what machines do, it is not really because of the machines, but it is because of "us". It is like a mirror of what "we" do and want to see as a "world". If we want to have stupidity and repetitions of the ever same, we will get it. If we wanted to have other machines, we could get them, too.

What happens when the living singer-actor of Pansori is replaced by a loud speaker? This piece explores some of the actions and reactions. This can be seen as a study about "man-machine-interaction". But if so, the machine is not per se stupid and evil, and the human does not per se represent the living and creative part. The interaction which is the game here, in this piece, is much more complex and controversial. Perhaps the human is very much willing to become a machine himself. Perhaps something in the machine changes and reminds the human of something he has forgotten?

As long as there are surprises, we are alive.

This piece is dedicated to Sori Choi who not only acts as interpreter, but actually as co-composer here.

(Program note for first performance, 21 august 2015, Panicale, Italy)