Fabian Künzli

Black Iris

The composition "Black Iris" is a fantasy and does not tell a story. In this sense, I did not originally want to record any extra- or intra-musical thoughts about the composition. The listeners should be given the freedom to experience their own feelings, images, thoughts and reflections, which are awakened and inspired by the music. This interpretative openness remains, although I would now like to share some thoughts on the composition. Steampunk is a retrofuturistic concept. It is about imagining a possible future from the perspective of earlier times. With audible elements of machinery and clockwork, the music certainly creates a visual representation of this aesthetic concept. An atmosphere of prosperity, characterized by seemingly limitless possibilities, contrasts with sounds of mechanical ticking, pulsing, rattling - sounds that point to the consequences of unchecked development and distort the idea of space and time. An imaginative look into the future usually also requires a reflection on technology and prosperity. And so my composition not only reflects utopian and fantastic thoughts, but also a current topic that concerns us all: how do we meet the challenge of maintaining prosperity and achieving climate neutrality at the same time? Is it possible to overcome this apparent contradiction? What paths will we take in the future?

In art, we like to try to express the unspeakable. This composition naturally draws on linguistic and artistic means from a bygone era and thus builds a bridge between the past and the future.

A central music-theoretical aspect of the composition is the use of the major ninth. The first sound we hear in the piece is this interval, which plays an essential role throughout the composition and with which the piece also comes to an end. To a certain extent, the major ninth can be heard as an extended octave. When the two notes of the interval sound far apart, the two-tone sound is barely dissonant. This wide interval of the major ninth is deliberately chosen, it is intended to open the mind, so to speak, and inspire personal fantasies.

Finally, I would like to share a thought about the title "Black Iris". In my eyes, the iris is one of the most colorful and diverse parts of the animal and human body - it's not called the iris for nothing. The pair of terms in the title of my composition "Black Iris" is primarily intended to evoke a thought-provoking idea. The iris is never completely black in nature and it is precisely in the immediate vicinity of the black pupil that it not only loses its colorful splendor when it is black. It also loses its shape, its character. Depending on this, a black iris also loses its purpose...