Don Li

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Don Li 2012 in the Orbital Garden in Bern

Don Li (born April 7, 1971 in Bern, bourgeois Don Li von Arx ) is a Swiss composer, musician (clarinet, saxophone) and music producer in the field of reductive music.

Live and act

Growing up in a family of graphic artists and draftsmen, he played drums, piano and saxophone as a child and wrote his first own compositions at the age of 16. As a young saxophonist he played a. a. with George Gruntz , Christy Doran , Harald Haerter or Joseph Bowie .

With his sextet "Tonus" 1993–2002, which the musicians Mich Gerber (1997–1998), Nik Bärtsch (1996–2002), Björn Meyer (1998–2002), Werner Hasler (1995–2002), Marco Agovino (1993–2002) 2002) and Patrick Lerjen (1993–2002), he performed most of his compositions. The album Gen , published in 1999 , which dispenses with any solo contribution and thus condenses into a hypnotizing 27-minute suite, received particular attention from the critics. Gen presents rhythmically, tonally and conceptually almost all elements that characterized the term Tonus-Music .

In 1999 Don Li founded the Tonus Music Records label and publishes recordings by various musicians. In 2000 he founded the Tonus Music Laboratory in Bern (renamed as Orbital Garden since 2012), which is available as a recording studio, public rehearsal laboratory, workshop and teaching facility and as a performance location mostly interdisciplinary and unorthodox performance methods - u. a. a drum beat played for 48 hours - serves. He worked there a. a. with Jojo Mayer , Skúli Sverrisson , Pierre-Yves Borgeaud, Peter Scherer, Ania Losinger, Mats Eser, Christian Zehnder , Vidya Shah, Milind Raikar, Sanju Sahai, Kaspar Rast , Asita Hamidi, Björn Meyer, Andi Pupato , Norbert Pfammatter , Wolfgang Zwiauer , Nik Bärtsch , Sha or Zimoun and organized various concerts, exhibitions, lectures and installations. He also recorded in the groups of Fabian Kuratli (Fab Four), Asita Hamidi, Bänz Oester , Nik Bärtsch (Mobile) and Christian Zehnder .

His concept Tonus-Music combines a reductively disciplined, almost graphic-architectural composition process with components of classical Indian music, jazz, minimal electronics or funk. He is interested in elements of metrics, the interlocking and the balance of rhythmic structures in combination with musical asceticism. Since then he has been numbering his compositions (parts), which often consist of a single formula, comparing them with Japanese haikus and referring to them as musical sculptures.

Since 2003, his works have been concerned with the conscious, chronological structuring of time and, synchronized with the computer, last exactly 60 minutes (Orbital Garden).

Prizes and awards

In 2001 Don Li received a composition commission from Pro Helvetia and in 2006 a "priority label funding" from the same funding institution. After a New York scholarship from the City of Bern (2002), he was given the opportunity to do the “City of Bern Work Year” in 2004. In 2008 he was awarded the German Record Critics' Prize.

Discographic notes

  • Don Li Gen (Tonus-Music-Records) 1999
  • Don Li Trigon (Tonus-Music-Records) 2000
  • Don Li Kun (Tonus-Music-Records) 2001
  • Nik Bärtsch Mobile: Ritual Groove Music (Ronin Rhythm 2001)
  • Don Li Live Vol. 1 (Tonus-Music-Records) 2002
  • Don Li Live Vol. 2 (Tonus-Music-Records) 2002
  • Don Li 15 Squared (Tonus-Music-Records) 2005
  • Don Li Out of Body Experience (Tonus-Music-Records) 2006
  • Don Li A Portrait of Edith Piaf (Tonus-Music-Records) 2008
  • Katryn Hasler 11.58 (Tonus-Music-Records) 2009 (composition)
  • Don Li / Peter Scherer That Land (Tonus-Music-Records) 2010

literature

  • Bruno Spoerri (Ed.): Biographical Lexicon of Swiss Jazz. CD supplement to: Bruno Spoerri (Ed.): Jazz in Switzerland. History and stories. Chronos-Verlag, Zurich 2005; ISBN 3-0340-0739-6 .
  • Berner Almanach Musik, Volume 4 (Gabriela Kaegi, Doris Lanz, Christina Omlin, eds. :) Stämpfli Verlag 2001 ISBN 3-7272-1161-X

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "It's been seven years since the saxophonist, clarinetist, composer, bandleader and organizer Don Li ... released the CD" Gen ", the twenty-six and a half minute long prelude to a phenomenon that breaks purely musical categories." Georg Modestin, the Bund 2006
personal data
SURNAME Li, Don
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pfäffli, Don (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss composer and jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH April 7th 1971
PLACE OF BIRTH Bern