Ruhe.punkt - Hanno Leichtmann

Outerlands was created on the historic organ Tat Villa Aurora in Los Angeles, built in 1927. The Villa became known as a refuge for Lion Feuchtwanger and his wife Marta during their escape from fascism, and fortunately it was spared from the wildfires in the Pacific Palisades last year.

In 2018, Hanno Leichtmann was a fellow at the Villa, which has served as an artists’ residency since the 1990s. He composed on the instrument at which Marta Feuchtwanger and Hanns Eisler once sat. His time there inspired a cycle of twelve finely crafted “vignettes” that oscillate between transparency, rhythmic structures, and a subtly southern-inflected minimalism. Marimba stops, tubular bells, and mechanical sound elements play a central role, giving the music both a physical presence and a sense of weightless suspension.

Leichtmann, who has a musical background as a jazz drummer, combines these sonic resources in Düsseldorf into a body of music that moves between subtle echoes of minimal music and experimental electronics.

The event is a collaboration with the St. Antonius Church. The long-term, multi-album project OUTERLANDS is a commissioned work by Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e.V.

About the organ of the St. Antonius Church.