Phonix 16 - Mathias Monrad M?ller: The Best Version of Myself

The title The Best Version of Myself� sounds, at first glance, arrogant, self-assured and narcissistic. On closer inspection, the title reveals the thread of the compositions collected in the album that the composer and performer Mathais Monrad M�ller recorded with the soloist ensemble PH�NIX 16, Sebastian Berweck, Carola Schaal and The Norwegian Radio Orchestra. For M�ller, the phenomenon of narcissism is more than a pathology of our days. Especially the myth about the impossible love between Narcissus and the nymph Echo reveals important elements that characterize M�ller�s work. While Narcissus represents the dimension of the visual, the nymph Echo literally stands for the acoustic and the world of sound. As we know, echo also means reverb. Imitating and creating sounds; delay and fade-out; action-reaction � these characteristics of echoes are central strategies of singing for M�ller. The composer and singer aims at exploring possibilities to overcome what is generally treated as a �right� or �wrong� sung tone. It is music that is composed but does not require a score and thus becomes �performatively present�. It is music that is easy to play, but neither banal nor simple.