Haberer’s fascination with polyrhythms has played a role in his work over many years – in the new solo album polyrhythms have become a standard feature. Almost all the pieces have an underlying polyrhythmic structure, each one may be different but it is a component part of the composition.
Some of Haberer’s new “discoveries” plus his further development and experience in playing polyrhythms manually are the starting point for the album.
His experimentation on the drums with several simultaneously played different rhythmic patterns – with ratios of seven to five, and eleven to three, and nine to five – laid the foundations for the tonal sequence which were then composed and programmed.
There is an underlying constant beat in the majority of the pieces. However, several rhythmic levels are played simultaneously meaning that the rhythmic pulse takes on an ambivalent quality – the listener can switch back and forth between the various levels.
Haberer has clarified some of the polyrhythmic relationships by using different layers of sound:
The grooving electronics are overlaid by the sound of tin cans and drum set – played in completely different but rhythmically related groups.
Haberer’s enthusiasm for polyrhythms began very early in his career. It was fired by his first teachers, Jazz drummers Peter Giger and Pierre Favre and then through his studies with Christoph Caskel, where Haberer encountered new music.
The resulting fascination was further intensified by contact with non-European music cultures and musicians from all over the world on his numerous concert tours on behalf of the Goethe Institute.
POLYRITMIA – composed and played as an improvisation, programmed and completed between 2009 and 2011.
POLYRITMIA – a solo project in which Christoph Haberer performs (again) live on stage with acoustic drums and electronic percussion, with synthesizers and samplers.