Eres Holz: DEATH

The works by Eres Holz collected on this CD were written in times of war, political violence, and social hardening. They revolve around the long-term consequences of destruction: trauma, guilt, isolation, and the fragile possibility of empathy. Human beings appear both capable of extreme violence and highly sensitive creatures whose vulnerability demands protection and attention. The music does not seek to draw a moral line under the past, but rather makes audible spaces of experience that defy rational explanation.

At the center is the work commissioned by Deutschlandfunk, Ein Mensch erkennt, dass er nie Mensch war (A person realizes that he was never human) for ensemble, electronics, and text projection. The starting point is Svenja Goltermann's study Die Gesellschaft der Überlebenden (The Society of Survivors) about German veterans of World War II and their experiences of violence. The composition follows statements made by those affected, which do not come from everyday communication, but from psychiatric interview transcripts. They mark stages of depression, loss of meaning, alienation, and painful self-awareness. Holz deliberately approaches this material from a different perspective: as a Jew, an Israeli, and the son of a Holocaust survivor. He is interested in understanding the mechanisms of violence—not in justifying it, but in asking how war deforms and isolates people.

Violence can be experienced even more directly in DEATH for two bass clarinets and live electronics. The soloists are exposed to an aggressive electronic soundscape that they themselves help to create. Violence is not reflected here, but vicariously performed and suffered – the audience is also drawn into this experience. The bass clarinet unfolds its entire expressive spectrum: from shrill alarm to abysmal lament, amplified by eruptive electronic sounds.

With MACH for trombone and electronics, Holz finally addresses existential loneliness. The cycle arose from the experience of social isolation and combines instrument-specific virtuosity with apocalyptic soundscapes. In the end, only the electronics remain—the human sound disappears without a trace.

This album is intended as a musical contribution to a culture of empathy—and as a reminder that violence has an impact far beyond the moment it occurs.