IMPROPER SESSIONS presents HARZ

-by Elizabeth Spouse (Development Coordinator / Curator at Improper Walls)

Harz is the aural love child of Bernd Ammann and Niklers Satanik from western Austria. Founded in 2018 by the studied musicians they began to create soundscapes based on rhythmic patterns, using bass, synth, zither, hang drum and various percussions. Meditative as well as danceable, Harz’ music evokes in-between states of flux within the listeners mind, dulling the senses for outer/worldly influences and stimulating the inner cinematic theatre. 

Harz, or resin in English, is the amber blood of the tree. It sticks and flows and exudes a sweet intoxicating smell that soothes the mind and stays in the memory. Harz as a band is electronic beats merged with the shimmering sound of the hang drum and other melodic percussions from all over the world with driving lines from bass and synths. Harz, the band, is a live event – everything is created and happening on the spot: loops, effects and interaction. Some of those ethereal soundscapes have now been frozen in time for “Kontinuum”, the debut album of HARZ.

Watch the Improper Session from Harz here. You can find a link to the full livestream in the description.

So, without further ado, meet Harz!

Nik: We are Harz. And we’re going to play for…
Bernd: ...Improper Sessions.

• You define Harz as the “aura lovechild” of the two of you. How do you define aura in this sense and how did they make love?

[edit out the part where they both understood “oral”]
Nik: They just touch each other; uncomplicated, flowing into each other. At the moment it’s a completely chaotic aura; all colors, tough decisions, how to protect myself. Yea.

• How do you feel it changes with your music, and together?

  Nik: Sometimes it’s a little bit too loud for me, or the sound systems are so different at the places we’re playing, I need 15-20 minutes to...
  Bernd: ...to dive in.
  Nik: Yes, to dive in, and when that moment happens and we’re playing our music, I feel freshly born.
  Bernd: Voll gut.
  Nik: Most of the time.
  

• You said your music “dulls the senses for outer/worldly influences and stimulates the inner cinematic theatre”. What visual images come to mind when you play, what do you picture?

Bernd: It changes from really abstract to real specific pictures of life. It’s an evolving, changing thing and it interacts with the audience.

• I really like the word Harz, in English resin, and how amber is the blood of the tree, with this aspect of sticking and flowing. How does it play a role in your music? How would you describe the importance of the dynamic between those two things?

Bernd: I think the special thing about our setup is that it’s always open and we can improvise. Everything can change, we can make mistakes, and if we make mistakes...
Nik: ...the Resin is going to build a new surface!
Bernd: Yes, and resin has a certain smell that everybody knows...
Nik: Yea, this is the part where I want to come in. We have our parts that we play. I don’t know, sometimes 60% is improvisation and the rest is fixed. The parts for us that are the sticky parts, are completely different for the people who are coming to our concerts; what they have in their minds as the sticky parts.
Bernd: Huh? What do you mean?
Nik: For example, John, he comes to fifteen concerts, and he has these parts he’s waiting for…
Bernd: Ahhh ok, he memorized it.
Nik: ...yea, and we have different parts that we’re playing as the fixed parts. The sticky parts.

• Is there anything else you’d like to add, that you’d like people to be aware of?

  Bernd: We changed our setup, we played live a lot this summer. It’s harder, it’s more techno and it’s really really open. Let’s see, maybe we have time this winter to structure it, to see where we want to go, but right now it’s really open.
  

• Beautiful. Thanks guys! 

Improper Sessions is a new concert series in which we’re inviting musicians to play in the middle of an existing exhibition, with the entire evening dedicated to the musical act. It’s a platform for musicians to present their music outside of the standard concept of the concert stage or music video; a space where we can create something together, allowing for more sides of the musician to be seen.

Each performance takes place in front of a small audience and is live streamed. You can learn more about each musician/band via a short interview released in each Improper Dose following the concert, as well as an additional edited video that we believe will be quite beautiful, so make sure to check this out and be on the lookout for future acts!