Werner Durand profile picture

Werner Durand

About Me

WERNER DURAND performs his own music for saxophones, iranian ney, and self-made wind instruments since the late seventies. He studied with Ariel Kalma in Paris, Indian classical music in India and Berlin (with Kamalesh Maitra) and Iranian ney with Ali Reza Asgharia. He started to build wind instruments out of plexi-glass and PVC in the early 80s, which led to the foundation of THE THIRTEENTH TRIBE in 1990.
Foto:Sophie Schasiepen
His current projects include ASHTAYAMA with Dhrupad singer Amelia Cuni;ANCIENT TRENDS & NEW TRADITIONS IN INDO-EUROPEAN MUSIC with Amelia Cuni and percussionist Marika Falk; the group ARMCHAIR TRAVELLER with Sebastian Hilken (cello and percussion), Hella v. Ploetz (glassharp) and Silvia Ocougne(ac.guitars), a duo with australian gitar(t)ist Victor Meertens , and providing drones for Amelia Cuni..s Realisation of 18 MICROTONAL RAGAS (SOLO 58) FROM SONGBOOKS by John Cage and Fatima Miranda..s CANTOS ROBADOS. Werner Durand has also collaborated with numerous composers/performers including David Behrman, John Driscoll, Samm Bennett, Fast Forward, David Moss, Muslimgauze,Henning Christiansen, Dominique Regef, David Maranha , David Toop & Tom Recchion as well as with visual/ sound artists Michaela Kölmel, Andreas Oldörp and Rolf Julius. He was a member of Arnold Dreyblatts Orchestra of Excited Strings from 1990- 1997. In 1989 he received a grant from the city of Berlin for the Cité des Arts, Paris. He was granted a residency at Podewil (Berlin) for 1999 together with Amelia Cuni. For 2003/4 he received a grant for the Worpswede artist colony. He has collaborated in the organization of festivals of traditional as well as avant- garde music in Berlin like „Urban und Aboriginal“, „Pipeline“ , „USArts“ , „Minimalisms „ and „Intonations“.
Foto:Amelia Cuni
Performing worldwide, he participates in international festival and cultural exchange programs (also through Goethe Institut). He has composed music for theater, dance and radio features and is presently engaged in several CD productions and musical projects. Coming from the minimalist tradition, Werner Durands music has evolved into a personal style over the years. Inspired by various kinds of traditional musics and instruments, he started to create his own music and instruments reflecting this. A variety of materials and playing techniques enables him to bring out unusual sounds and with the help of digital delays he can create rich textural and rhythmic pieces, which might recall tribal music from Africa or the Pacific, but at the same time sounding experimental or even (post-)industrial.
Foto:Amelia Cuni

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 22/08/2007
Influences: Influences: too many to mention all, but certainly Terry Riley, La Monte Young, Pharoah Sanders, Ariel Kalma, Jon Gibson, Dickie Landry, Jon Hassell, Bismillah Khan & many Hindustani Vocalists, Scelsi, Feldman, traditional musics from all over the world.
Sounds Like: ..

WERNER DURAND - Remnants from paradise (Absurd) Dedicated to the memory of artist Michaela Koelmel (1956-2007), "Remnants from paradise" brings us back Werner Durand's army of self-built and exotic instruments with a vengeance. This music was conceived between 2001 and 2005, except for a 1986 Persian ney part on "Floating", the longest and probably most anguishing piece. We know that Durand has been active for decades with this kind of experimentation, the owner of an absolutely personal style highlighted both by a scarce solo work and alternative projects (does anybody remember The 13th Tribe's "Ping Pong Anthropology"? That's really a great disc). The three tracks featured here follow more or less a compatible scheme, with subsequent variations: born from silence, they grow up very slowly amidst all types of drones and superimposed repetitions (the author uses "prepared resonators" together with electronics and delays), forming a textural patchwork that absorbs the mind while at times becoming almost scary, especially when the sliding PVC neys and clarinets take centre stage, doing what is expected from them - slide. The gradual glissando coming out of this process is breathtaking to say the least. This effect reaches its deepest meaning in the last track, the above mentioned "Floating", which ends the album with an ocean of lamentations and moans, only not from human voices. No problem: when the sound touches deeply, that's all you need. A highly enjoyable release, better enjoyed through speakers due to the peculiar vocal character of Durand's wonderful plastic animals. Their refractions on the room's walls work wonders on the psyche.
Massimo Ricci- touching extremes
Record Label: No Man´s land, X- tract, Amiata, Hic Sunt Leones