Ingar Zach

Photo: Ingo Biermann

Ingar Zach is known for his research in sound production and alternative techniques in contemporary percussion. During his career he has developed a unique style using the Gran Cassa as the main source of sound exploration where he employs transducers with various objects to make the drum vibrate. He works in the field of contemporary music and is regularly touring worldwide and recording with his fixed ensembles; Dans les arbres, Huntsville and O3 alongside his solo- and collaborative projects. As a composer he is active in his regular ensembles, and he is continuously working with developing his solo work. In recent years he is composing for ensembles like Ensemble MusikFabrik, Quatuor Bozzini, Speak Percussion, Pinquins and Ludus Gravis. His solo work is used in different genres, such as film, dance, and art performances. Ingar Zach is currently a Ph.D. candidate in artistic research at the Academy of Music in Oslo.

 

"There is nothing generic about Ingar Zach’s dance with his instruments — the gestural information is highly personal and specific. In common with most modern percussionists, many of his gestures aren't hitting — there’s rubbing, blowing, rolling, bowing, scraping — and the gestures are not only bodily multiplicitous, they are technologically varied — mechanical devices, electrical engines and digital sources create layers — the drumskin becomes a promiscuous sonic conduit of a sort-of museum to mankind’s varied technologies. Ingar Zach’s kit is a constantly evolving bespoke collection — never exactly the same on any gig or recording — there is little preset or ‘off the shelf’ in the objects assembled, and each unique set-up becomes a one-off playground. At the basis of his kit is the Gran Cassa, which becomes a table, both physically and musically — many sounds resonate and are amplified through it. All this creates ambiguous, unique sounds that helps to listen afresh, but it doesn’t entirely explain the phenomena of his music. There is a deeper process that allows us to hear his sounds as if re-wilded. His sounding/listening doesn’t go through a process of analysis based on a reductive notation system. He’s post literate. The drum behaves differently in every time/space and you can never predict the result — he’s of a generation who’s mind is unburdened by the instinct to filter that phenomena through a writing technology — he listens to each sound as a unique event, unclassified according to past notions and future reproducibility. Ingar Zach is one of the most adept and focussed musicians at creating a music based on this immediate, deep listening».

Jim Denley

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