Experimentelle und unbestimmte Lieder, Op. 9
Release: Jan 05, 2017
IGM presents Experimentelle und unbestimmte Lieder, the debut album of American soprano Rachel Hippert, featuring the world premiere recording of Julián De La Chica's cycle Op. 9.
The music of this album delves into silence and the inner life. De La Chica reflects: "We live in a world where silence has been lost, constantly seeking social acceptance as our universe revolves around social networks. How can we understand what is happening in the world today if we do not know what is happening within us?"
This work, Experimentelle und unbestimmte Lieder, Op. 9 (Experiential and Indeterminate Songs, Op. 9), is a call to silence, urging the exploration of our inner processes and the search for true fulfillment.
Listening to Experimentelle und unbestimmte Lieder Op. 9: No. 3
Track list:
Experimentelle und unbestimmte Lieder op. 9
01. Präludium: (Aufruf) Gesegnete Dunkelheit
02. No. 1: Schweigen
03. No. 2: Unvollkommenheit
04. No. 3: Freiheit
05. No. 4: Bescheidenheit
06. No. 5: Dunkle Nacht
07. No. 6: Reinigung
08. No. 7: Diskurs
09. No. 8: Bewusstsein
10. No. 9: Barmherzigkeit
11. No. 10: Erfüllung
12. Epilog: Wir sind tot
Bonus track
13. Präludium. Feat. María Clara Vargas Cullell (Harpsichord)
Intro
Experimentelle und unbestimmte Lieder Op. 9 (Experiential and Indeterminate Songs, Op. 9) is a cycle for voice, piano, and synthesizer, inspired by reflections and experiences that have shaped my spiritual interior life. It explores the sound of the inner voice that speaks to us in our daily intimacy—a voice that questions and challenges, shaped by the world and its egos. The system.
Distancing itself from a religious, apologetic, or ascetic perspective, my work is grounded in processes that I believe have contributed to self-knowledge, acceptance, and, ultimately, plenitude. It is a method rooted in Buddhist Vipassana meditation, where self—purification is achieved through self—observation.
I view the search for individualism not from a moral egotistical perspective but from one that connects us with the collective that both saturates and critiques. We come to know ourselves, recognize ourselves, and rediscover ourselves when we choose to live freely. This journey leads to a profound and raw understanding of our own suffering. In the coherence of consciousness, we define and evolve ourselves.
— Julián De La Chica
Rachel Hippert & Julián De La Chica
Photo by Hassan Malik
Album NOTES
“Minimalism means concentration.”
— Anton Batagov (2016)
“Remove, remove, and remove until only the essential is left.”
— Eduardo Chillida
How does Julián De La Chica explore the question of “being” through sound? By employing both text and music as sound material—using the German language as a philosophical tool and referencing the tradition of Lieder, where word and sound create a system of meanings in search of the essential. His works materialize this “concentration” on the essential, guided by the question of “being.”
How is this achieved? Long phrases and near—Gregorian rhythmicity revive the enunciative power of medieval liturgical chant and Buddhist mantras. The concentration of power in the words—enunciating makes real what is invoked.
Rachel Hippert & Julián De La Chica
Photo by Hassan Malik
The essence is enunciated in the concept and the construction of enunciations that form the exoskeleton of these pieces. Sound materializes the concept; it is sound that creates reality. The sound is at the eye of the congealed hurricane. A person who questions “being” halts time. Their presence is now; only the now exists. This instant is a whirlwind that, in the meditative act, pauses in front of the questioning person, reflecting on their immutable state of mortality: mortality as illumination.
Rachel Hippert & Julián De La Chica
Photo by Hassan Malik
Piano and synthesizer induce vision. The author’s compositional technique is almost sculptural, resonating with Eduardo Chillida’s idea: “Remove, remove, and remove until only the essential is left.” This approach aligns with Anton Batagov’s (2016) definition: “Minimalism means concentration.” Rachel Hippert weaves an ontological experience with her voice, understanding the underlying essence of Gregorian tradition, mantra, and Lieder at a conceptual level. Her work is rigorous, contained, and subtle. The dissonance between her voice and the sculptural piano and synthesizer can materialize fleeting glimpses of something seen only for a moment.
Rachel Hippert & Julián De La Chica
Photo by Hassan Malik
The voice serves as a hologram of Rachel Hippert’s sonic imagination and intellectual process. As Chillida wrote, “The quiet and still persists.” In an era where speed and media urgency often dictate thought and creation, Hippert pauses to reveal the density of space with her voice. She explores the quality Chillida envisioned in his sculptures: “I want my works to be still and quiet, the only way of escaping in part the influence of time.”
Susan Campos - Fonseca, PhD
Musicologist and composer
About the author
Campos-Fonseca holds a Ph.D. in music from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Spain. Master in Spanish and Latin American Philosophy from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), and graduated in Conducting by the Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR). She is a composer and musicologist whose research focuses on philosophy of culture and technology, feminism, decolonial studies, electronic art and sound studies.
Rachel Hippert & Julián De La Chica
Photo by Hassan Malik
Präludium, (Aufruf) Gesegnete Dunkelheit VIDEO