Reverse Projektum by Ensemble for Sound Poetry and Contemporary Music

Ensemble For Sound Poetry And Contemporary Music: Reverse Projektum
Mike Fuchs – we all know as Yellow Salamand´r – came up with the idea for a project about Reverse/Backward Music, and Volker Störtebeker aka Terbeschikkingstelling had the name for the game.

Having been enthusiastic about reverse music ever since I first heard it on the white Beatles album in the late 60s, I enjoyed very much being kind of in charge of this project, to collect the incoming tracks, to invite friends... The project was open from Jan 10 – to Feb 10, 2022, and 35 submissions came in, in such diversity and amazingly in such coherence, ranging from harsh noise to to meditative soundscapes, showcasing different approaches to reverse music, that this really is a wonderfully rich and intriguingly fascinating compilation.

There is much more to reverse music than just forward music being reversed. Gordon Way created a Palindrome which means that like the word OTTO his piece can be played both ways and sounds the same; Jaime Munárriz reversed each track of his piece seperately so they mismatch the original position. Several tracks, like the ones by Elaltitan and FutureLight, combine backward and forward elements; the original FutureLight track comes with a reversed guitar-solo. A forward drumbeat was added to the reversed version, and here of course the guitar-solo is forward. The Elaltitan – track comes with a catchy looped forward riff, the added reversed female vocals are hauntingly eery which is a fascinating contrast. The second track is a version I created especially for this compilation from my collaboration with NiCo DzEta, Nocturne, it combines forward with backward elements I combined in a new way.

I created a mix using short sequences from each track which I sent to Gordon Way who created a video with beautiful visuals.

My heartfelt thanks go out to all involved in this project. The Ensemble For Sound Poetry And Contemporary Music is a fascinating Facebook-group for innovative projects, and has proven it with this compilation once more what it stands for. It is a great honour – and a pleasure – to be part
of it.

Wuppertal, Germany
Feb 18, 2022
Wilfried Hanrath

Ensemble For Sound Poetry And Contemporary Music (EFSPACM) is a group creating various musical works. The basis of being part of the Ensemble is taking part in our projects.