Event on the occasion of the International Day of Remembrance for the Liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army on 27 Jan.1945
"Soon there will be no more survivors of the Holocaust - and who will tell then?" Author Monika Held and double bassist Gregor Praml have conceived a concert reading with double bass + loops & effects from Held's novel "Der Schrecken verliert sich vor Ort" and original sounds by Auschwitz survivor Hermann Reineck. Text and music vicariously tell the story(s) of a contemporary witness.
In the novel "The horror loses itself on the spot" the story of the concentration camp prisoner Heiner and his wife Lena is told. The two met at the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial and fell in love. He was the witness from Vienna, she was the translator of Polish testimonies. A love between trauma, ignorance and misunderstanding. The question of their lives (and probably of ours) is that of the limits of understanding the world of the survivors of a concentration camp.
The double bass player Gregor Praml and the author Monika Held have experienced in joint performances that text and music are able to tell the story together. It is the story of the desire to pass on what has been experienced and suffered and the struggle against the limits of imagination. Gregor Praml creates with his instrument the whole sound cosmos of the theme 'Remembering not to forget'. In doing so, he uses effects devices and a LoopStation on the double bass. An unusual way to stage this instrument. He describes this work like this: The double bass leaves the classical role of text accompanist. It becomes a soloist, telling the moods and emotions of this story with its own voice. The bass grooves, sings and laments. This creates exciting soundscapes that seem to be almost endless and sound like a whole orchestra.
