[Biography]
Bernhard Living is a composer - curator - and former multi-instrumentalist (alto saxophone and flute).
He was born in 1948 in Ely - Cambridgeshire - England - and lived for the first part of his life in Greenwich - London.
He studied composition with the South African-born composer Stanley Glasser at Goldsmiths College (University of London) - and philosophy at Middlesex Polytechnic.
Composer Bernhard Living’s digitally-based compositions share a formal ‘black square’ minimalist aesthetic - and have taken minimalistic compositional techniques to what he considers to be their logical conclusion - with the music being characterised by sparse textures - glacial movement - long periods of silence - maximal repetition - minimal variation - and are reduced to their most basic essential components.
The content of each composition can be pitched tones - using both consonance and dissonance - or un-pitched noise elements - or a combination of both.
The compositions are examples of ‘technological lessness’ - and explore what the architect and philosopher Buckminster Fuller called ‘post-industrial ephemeralisation’ - of doing more with less - of doing everything with nothing.
Influences on Living’s music include the composers Thomas Tallis - Anton Webern - Morton Feldman - and the artists Josef Albers - Agnes Martin - and Donald Judd.
Musician As a musician (1966 - 1992) - Living performed with a number of leading composers and musical innovators - including_ Karlheinz Stockhausen - Cornelius Cardew - Hugh Davies - Barry Guy - and Mike Westbrook.
He is a featured soloist on a number of classic jazz - post-punk - and rock albums - including: Mike Westbrook’s Celebration (1967) - Release (1968) - and Marching Song (1969); Manfred Mann’s Chapter Three (1969) and Chapter Three Volume Two (1970); Barry Guy’s Ode (1972); and Linder Stirling’s Ludus project (1982). The Sunday Times music critic Derek Jewell described Living’s performance style and technique as ‘revolutionary’.
Curator In the role of curator (1993 - 2000), Living was influential in setting up the BN1 Visual Arts Project - a Brighton-based autonomous arts organisation. Described as a ‘museum without walls’ BN1 commissioned leading digital and installation artists - including: Susan Collins - Tessa Elliott, -Anna Heinrich & Leon Palmer - Thomas Köner - Simon Poulter - Michael Petry - and Paul Sermon, - to produce artworks for both traditional exhibition spaces and for the pubic domain.
Living has been an active advocate of digital technology - and within this role he has sat on a number of advisory boards - including the Arts Council of England and South East Arts - to help shape policy within the arts and their relationship to new media.
Corpora AlienaIn 2017, Living established a new curatorial project - Corpora Aliena. The aims of the project is to to present live experimental music events - film screenings - to work with artists from the international community - and to ensure a positive gender balance with a high proportion of female composers and musicians taking part in all of Corpora Aliena’s events.
Composers - sound artists - and film-makers featured in Corpora Aliena concerts include: Pietro Bardini - Alexei Borisov - Kate Carr - Lucia H. Chung - Graham Dowdall - Andres Duque - Phil Durrant - Diogo Evangelista - Olga Fedorova - Iris Garrelfs - Eden Grey - Sebastiane Hegarty - Liz Helman - Steph Horak - James L. Malone - Phil Maguire - Lisa McKendrick - Alexei Monroe - Alexandra Navratil - Laura Netz - Jimmy Peggie - Rebecca Salvadori - Pascal Savy - Hanzo Schwarz - Iveta Sedlakova - Lucie Štěpánková - Patrick Stevens - Anna Studinovskaya - Bill Thompson - Christine Webster - and Pavel Zhagun.
He was born in 1948 in Ely - Cambridgeshire - England - and lived for the first part of his life in Greenwich - London.
Composer
Corpora Aliena
