Based on a live recording made on October 20, 2001 @ the Ölbergkirche, Berlin-Kreuzberg.
The extracts from ´Tristan and Isolde´ by Richard Wagner (# 1) were taken from a recording made on December 16, 1949, with the Orchester des Norddeutschen Rundfunks conducted by Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt. The mezzo-sprano voice in ´Zarathustra´s Midnight Song´(# 1) is taken from the fourth movement of the Symphony No. 3 in d minor by Gustav Mahler.

Concept, composition and choice of texts: Joachim Gies, Thomas Böhm-Christl
Music by T. Böhm-Christl, J. Gies (all GEMA)
Published by Alissa Publishing/PRS
except # 3, 6, 9 published by Herman Löffler Musikverlag, Berlin 2002
Recorded and mixed by Christian Feldgen (Schalloran Tonstudio, Berlin)
Cover design: Anna Dzendzel
Photo: Hans Wittersheim
Produced by Thomas Böhm-Christl & Joachim Gies
Executive producer: Leo Feigin
Booklet language version: German & English

F. Nietzsche quoted from: Friedrich Nietzsche, Kritische Studienausgabe in 15 Bänden; ed. by Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari, new edition Berlin/New York 1999,
translated by Detlef Dudziak

Excerpt from the booklet

"One hears only those questions for which one is able to find answers." (F. Nietzsche)

(…) Nietzsches assessment of music as the most significant art form grew out of his critique of language. Language implies a truth which never coincides with reality. For Nietzsche, the essentially open and associative nature of music provided a way of freeing language from its traditional structures.

´Gay Avantgarde´ picks up from this modern linguistic critique by confronting different levels of language with contemporary music. Speaker and double bassist Matthias Bauer reads aphorisms and extracts from the work of Friedrich Nietzsche. Vocal virtuoso Alex Nowitz reveals the depths of the text using collage techniques, fragmentation and electronic alienation effects. Mezzo-soprano Ute Döring draws on the spirit of the 20th century to impart the lyrically ambiguous nature of song. (…)

´Gay Avantgarde´ reveals the subtle psychological and ironic side to Nietzsche. This most musical 19th century philosopher sets everything in motion, standing at the rim of the volcano, and laughing.

Darkness and Music
The ear - the organ of fear - could only develop, as it has developed, in the darkness and twilight of dense forests and caves, that means according to the conditions of life in the fearful age, which is the longest of all ages of mankind ever existing: The ear is less necessary in brightness. That is why music is the art of darkness and twilight.
F.N.