composition

HYPER HEIMAT Remix (2022)

Pictures:

Gedanken, ungesagt, verhallen (2019)

for a vocal ensemble, electronics and suspended sheets of various metals

Each material possesses its own poetry, even industrial metal sheets. Such suspended sheets are connected to vocal microphones and are used as a kind of speaker. The brittle metals and the intimacy of the vocals lead to an odd combination of distance and closeness. Like a muted scream going unheard.

Downloads (Flyer, concepts etc... download with right click and "Save as"):

Gedanken, ungesagt, verhallen – score.pdf
verhallen – Arpeggios.pdf
verhallen – U-Vokale.pdf
Gedanken, ungesagt, verhallen – grafische Partitur.pdf

Der Hauch des Parmenides (2019)

installative performance for any number of vocal performers with drinking glasses and recording-playback devices

Drinking glasses are a sort of small chambers, each shape sounds different. The performers are singing at and/or into the glasses, looking for resonating frequencies. Once they found one, they record it onto a simple recording-playback device (like a dictaphone) and play it back in a loop. They mount the device's speaker on top of the glass and carry it, very carefully and delicately, like a newborn fragile entity, into the world.

Downloads (Flyer, concepts etc... download with right click and "Save as"):

Der Hauch des Parmenides – score.pdf

Erinnerungen, in Farben (2019)

for 6 vocalists and electronics

Memories are as private and individual as voices. The vocalists narrate stories from their own experiences in their native languages and dialects.  More and more their voices get stripped of all but their most characteristic frequencies of their voices timbres. At some point in this process the semantics get lost and what stays are fragments of sound spectra and pitches. If the vocalists sing one of these pitches, that specific pitch is going to get filtered out of these sound fragments. That means, the sound of timbres gets more and more fragmented until the very last sound grain dissolved into silence.

Downloads (Flyer, concepts etc... download with right click and "Save as"):

Erinnerungen, in Farben – score.pdf

Radio Piece (2017)

Audio:

weben (2018)

Downloads (Flyer, concepts etc... download with right click and "Save as"):

weben.pdf

Audio:

Elektroakustische Intermezzi (2018)

Commissioned by the Camerata Zurich on occasion of their 60th anniversary,
funded by the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung
Dedicated to the musicians of the Camerata Zurich

The four electroacoustic Intermezzi are combining the anniversary compostitions by Thomas Demenga, Jürg Wyttenbach, Alfred Zimmerlin und Stephanie Haensler to form one single oeuvre of about 40 minutes duration.
Therefore, they are only to be played together with those for pieces. The order of the total oeuvre is:

- Elektroakustisches Intermezzo: ausufernde Kammern (Lim)
- Dramoletto (Zimmerlin)
- Elektroakustisches Intermezzo: aufgreifende Reduktion (Lim)
- RE DO oder? oder: DO RE (Wyttenbach)
- Elektroakustisches Intermezzo: auslotende Erinnerungen (Lim)
- durch streifen (Haensler)
- Elektroakustisches Intermezzo: auflösende Enthüllung (Lim)
- Pezzo (Demenga)

The Intermezzi were specifically composed for the concert on 23th June 2018 at the Aula of the University Zurich. There are no breaks or interruptions between the pieces, the Intermezzi and the anniversary compositions intertwine and overlap slightly.
The electronics are played live.

Downloads (Flyer, concepts etc... download with right click and "Save as"):

Elektroakustische Intermezzi.pdf

Bruchstücke aus Alabaster (2017)

By the use of an elaborate feedback system, characteristics, nuances and facets of the harps' timbres are discovered and explored. This surgical filtering of frequencies is repeated until the filtered sounds of the resonance bodies get freezed and remain as an installative sculpture. That way, the performative process transforms into a static form.

Concert:
23.9.2017 Basel Historical Museum – Barfuesserkirche, 19.30h

Downloads (Flyer, concepts etc... download with right click and "Save as"):

Lim_Werkkommentar.pdf
Bruchstücke aus Alabaster_en.pdf
Bruchstücke aus Alabaster.pdf

Audio:

Pictures:

Interludes (Hyper Fuzz, 2017)

A Hyper Duo project with Julien Mégroz and Gilles Grimaître, with pieces by John Psathas, Nicolas von Ritter-Zahony, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Julien Mégroz, Gilles Grimaître and Frank Zappa.
Interludes and electronics by Cyrill Lim

Still remnants of moving and reappearing sounds (2016)

resonating chamber music for harp, violin and electronics with a reasonable number of speakers and microphones
Cyrill Lim, 2016
Written and dedicated to Sofiia Suldina and Estelle Costanzo

Downloads (Flyer, concepts etc... download with right click and "Save as"):

Still remnants of moving and reappearing sounds score.pdf

Pictures:

Videos:

Crests & troughs of travelling melodies (2015)

By Cyrill Lim for accordion and vibraphone with prepared motors.
For the project Metalliseos of Sofia Ahjoniemi and Julien Mégroz.

By means of marginal glissandi, natural resonances of instruments and architectural space, the played tones of the accordion and the vibraphone intertwine to create landscapes of sounds traversed by crests & throughs of travelling melodies:

valleys and hills
mountains and canyons
plains and rivers

forests and fields

dunes in deserts

waves and white horses
glaciers

jungles

atolls

plantations

rocks

tundras

fjords

...

Concert recording from January 30th 2016 at l'Orientale Vevey
Julien Mégroz: Vibraphone
Sofia Ahjoniemi: Accordion

Downloads (Flyer, concepts etc... download with right click and "Save as"):

Crests & troughs of travelling melodies score.pdf

Audio:

equalize (2010/2012)

by Cyrill Lim for two or three sound engineers, PA and several microphones

equalize is dedicated to all sound engineers.

SETTING
Several (different) microphones are placed on a stage.
The signals of all microphones are sent to the sound regie, where each of the sound engineers handles a digital EQ and one sub group volume fader.
The main output is routed directly to the PA. The PA should be at least stereo but can also consist of several discrete speakers situated on stage.
During the whole duration of the performance the sound engineers stay at the mixing desk and do not enter the stage.

INSTRUCTION (1st possibility)
The frequency spectrum is divided in three (or two, depending on the number of engineers) parts. Each engineer is responsible for one of the parts (e.g. 20Hz to 600Hz, 600Hzto  1.2kHz and 1.2 to 20kHz).
The microphone inputs are hard split by an audio crossover and therefore divided and routed to three (or two) sub groups.
In the beginning, the mic gains should be cranked open as much as possible, the sub group faders completely closed.
Now each of the engineers starts to carefully and slowly increase the volume of his sub group.
As soon as a feedback occurs the responsible frequency has to be taken out as narrow-banded as possible.
This process is being repeated until every sub group volume fader is at maximum and the EQ's have taken out the complete spectrum, so no feedback can occur.

INSCTRUCTION (2. 2nd possibility)
Each of the engineers is responsible for a part of the microphones.
In the beginning, the mic gains should be cranked open as much as possible, the sub group faders completely closed.
Now each of the engineers starts to carefully and slowly increase the volume of his sub group.
As soon as a feedback occurs the responsible frequency has to be taken out as narrow-banded as possible.
This process is being repeated until every sub group volume fader is at maximum and the EQ's have taken out the complete spectrum, so no feedback can occur.

Weg (2011)

In 2011 the Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik Bern (Association for new music) announced an international competition for electronic music on the subject of "Escape" whose prizewinner is the Swiss sound artist, composer and musician Cyrill Lim (*1984) .
His composition "Weg" (a German word with the double meaning of "path" and "away") premiered at the Musikfestival Bern in cooperation with the Dampfzentrale Bern. As instrumentation the piece asks for "a reasonable number of speakers and microphones" and evokes the perspective of escaping persons:
As a persecutees they stay under enormous physical and psychical perssure, their objectives are safety, protection and peace. An escape is a process of withdrawal, its course of events and its end are not predictable. Escape may be a painful experience, but also a liberating one.

Cyrill Lim's composition convinced the jury because of the conclusiveness of its core concept as well as the simplicity of the used media:
Starting with powerful noise created by the addition of all audible pitches, the noise will get weaker during a protracted process, as pitch by pitch single notes will be filtered out of the noise; Compared to the power of the noise one single pitch sounds extremely faint. The more pitches get filtered out, the fainter the overall sound. What you hear near the end is a barely audible trickling of the sounds.
The piece has to adapt to the site specific parameters of the space which determines the volume at the beginning as well as the audibility of the evading sound grains at the end.

Cyrill Lim's musical survey of perception reflects in an impressive manner the experience of escape.

Thanks go to Roman Lim for  his support, programming and patience

Recording by Gerald Hahnefeld / SRF 2

Downloads (Flyer, concepts etc... download with right click and "Save as"):

Konzept.pdf

Audio:

tanzende Kontrabassistin (2010)

by Cyrill Lim for a dancing double bass player with her double bass and electronics

On a stage performs a double bass player with one arm looping around the neck of her double bass. Her playing movements become dance. How does her movements during the performance sound from her point of view? Not the audience is (physically) moved along but the synthetically generated acoustic space surrounding it. This acoustic space is created through a multichannel speaker setting, surrounding the audience. The sounds of the double bass, the spatial and musical processing of them by the performer playing the electronics and the dancing movements of the double bass player are in close connection and refer to each other.

Dedicated to Jocelyne Rudasigwa

Videos:

no way of knowing (2009)

by Cyrill Lim for speaker, performance space and performer

The message "no way of knowing" is at the same time title and conclusion of a poem written by Robert Lax. The poet's philosophical openness is related to John Cage's to whose piece 4'33" the questions about "nothing" and the involvement with silence in no way of knowing are referring to.
Unlike in 4'33" nothingness, "silence" in this piece consists of a complex, artificially generated sound structure and brings the validity of our perception in constant question.
Which sounds are "real", which "virtual" and how can we be certain that the real sounds exist? We have no way of knowing…


No way of knowing is a live performed piece for speakers and is adapted specifically to its concert space. During the performance sounds that are present in the space are played back. Sounds like the humming of the light dimmers, the noise of the ventilation, church bells from outdoors, steps from the hallway and more. In the beginning, the sounds are played back in a manner, they can't be perceived as added played back sounds. Gradually, the artificial ambient noise will be revealed. For example by getting a far away sound very close, by moving sounds around or making them louder and vice versa. For that purpose a reasonable number of speakers shall be positioned in and around the concert space.

Gänseblümchenkette (2008)

by Cyrill Lim

Every transformation of sound, from digital to analogue and back, every building block in the chain of playback and recording, be it a microphone, an amp or a speaker, all of this intervenes in the original material and alters it. Excessively repetitive playbacks an recordings made with diverse equipment are used to add harmonic structures and noises to an initially pure tone, a tone with a sinusoidal waveshape. It is only by means of media that this initial pure tone can be shaped musically to become sound. The issues addressed here are those of how media distorts a copy and the self reflection of the used medium.

Listen with headphones!

Audio:

Pictures:

Dshamilja (2007)

by Cyrill Lim for accordion (Laura Endres) and electronics

A state of flux, a revolution, tradition and the modern era, nomades and sedentary people, Dshamilja and Danijar, electronics and accordion; the sociocultural evolution in "world's most beautiful love story" (Louis Aragon).

"There were hardly any words to [the song], but without words it revealed a big human heart. [...] This was a song of the mountains and steppes [...] it was a tremendous love of life, of the earth. [...] There was no need to talk, for words cannot always express all one feels."

Photos © Timo Loosli und Regula Bearth

Pictures:

Videos:

Loango – Zerstörung eines Paradieses (2007)

By Cyrill Lim for tenor trombone, bass trombone and live-electronics

Loango, last paradise situated at Africa's west coast, is being destroyed by human greed. A musical triptych.

tenor trombone & live-electronics: Roland Dahinden
bass trombone & live-electronics: Cyrill Lim

Videos:

three minutes of no way of knowing (2005)

An invention in two parts by Cyrill Lim

three minutes of no way of knowing is the compositional transformation of a segment of Robert Lax's poem 21 pages.
In order to use the most inherent sound source, Lax' voice itself, taken from the film Poet Robert Lax by Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzel, has been utilised.
The ambient noises are recordings taken in and around Lax's house in Patmos where he has lived for almost 40 years.
They are used as soundscapes, as an insight to Lax's environment.

Lax's philosophical open-mindedness is related to John Cage's. Thus, in three minutes of know way of knowing relations to the American composer are present as well:
The pauses between the words the questions about nothingness and the involvement with silence are in itself a reference to Cage's silence.
After the first two words "no sound" a contradiction is posed already: silence – no silence. The statement "waiting – not waiting – waiting" seems to be equally contradictory. Finally Lax's voice poses the questions: "Silence? Waiting?" which lead directly to the conclusion: "I have no way of knowing".
This transformation to a poésie sonor refers a second time to John Cage. The statement "no way of knowing" is added to the composition as a rhythmical bass pattern and relates that way to the percussion part of Cage's Ryoanji.
The conclusion "no way of knowing" has been semantically depleted by filtering away necessary frequencies to decode the voice (above 150 Hz) in order to condensate the poem's message.
What remains is the sound. This semantically depleted bass pattern in turn refers to the subtitle "invention in two parts" through the two voices of Robert Lax which are used contrapuntally.
The spatial and dynamical shifts add a third layer. Through their partly abstract relocations of the voice's source they imply timelessness, the zero of time or a possible movement of the nothingness, the darkness and the silence.

Audio:

36 Quadrate (2005)

By Cyrill Lim for six instruments

Composition on occasion of the reopening of the music school Neustadt Zug.

Downloads (Flyer, concepts etc... download with right click and "Save as"):

36 Quadrate.pdf

Pictures:

Unkamplet (2005)

By Cyrill Lim for two trombones and percussion

Unkamplet ('misshapen' in dialect of Zug, CH) is dedicated to the victims of the tsunami disaster in December 2004. The composition is based on a seismographic record of the initial earthquake.

Trombones: Maurus Twerenbold, Cyrill Lim
Percussion: Patrick Forny

Downloads (Flyer, concepts etc... download with right click and "Save as"):

Unkamplet.pdf

Audio:

Pictures: