Muziek Centrum Nederland

David Dramm

Driving down the endless American highways in a comfortable car - effortlessly, almost inaudibly propelled by an immense power, while the landscape passes by on both sides. This is the image that is evoked in David Dramm, who was born and bred in California, when he speaks about his music. You experience the tension contained in this paradox when listening to his compositions. Roughened timbres and fiery rock drums are imbedded in spun-out musical structures.

The continuously churning rhythms, the swelling Hammond organ and the vigorous winds in Orange Slice (2000), written for the Swiss improvised rock trio Steamboat Switzerland and a couple of Dutch musicians, give you the feeling that you are sitting in the tip of a rocket that is shooting into space with roaring engines. A minute core of pulsing awareness against the immense backdrop of infinity.

In Cirklo (2008), written for the eponymous dance performance by Krisztina de Châtel, you are also drawn in by the tension of unexpected paradoxes. Moments of silence, set off against thin, transparent sounds, are filled by sounds from outside - passing traffic, aeroplanes flying overhead. Passionate Sufic singing full of ornaments unfolds over a calm cycle of repeated chords. The music gives you energy, makes your heart beat faster, but almost unnoticeably it lifts you over long curves to an end where you keep your rushing thoughts at bay a little longer.

René van Peer

3 characteristic statements by David:
  • My vocal music is inhabited by unlikely voices: philosophical drunks, poets addicted to absinth, Hollywood cowboys, gangsta rap artists, preachers, witches and fairies, as well as mystics and river boat card players. After all, as Voltaire already said: ‘Everything that is too crazy to be uttered is sung.’
  • It is a myth to presume that the score between the title and the double bar forms a unity over which the composer holds sway. There are shifts that are beyond the composer’s control and if we listen carefully voices can be heard which are not the composer’s.
  • I was brought up in a part of America that was culturally quite isolated, so I had to discover everything through the library and record shops. If you are brought up here in Amsterdam, you can go to the Concertgebouw with your school. That is very special, but it also creates certain prejudices: certain music does not belong with other music. In the record shop I did not see this. That distinction only became clear to me a lot later - and by then it was already too late.
David Dramm
A concise personal portrait

David Dramm’s interests:
A good opening sentence. ‘As today is the last day, I will spare you.’ (W.F. Hermans);  Ice cubes; List of just two things

David Dramm’s musical inspiration:
Jacques Derrida, Gordon Matta-Clark, Vladimir Nabokov, Claire Denis, Walter Murch, Jean-Phillipe Rameau, Rogers & Hammerstein.

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