The protagonist of today: Lennart Altgenug. "Ascending & Descending" is his debut abum.
There were some difficulties along the way. For a very long time, I felt lost because it took me quite a long to find my own musical voice and identity, and I feel like I still haven't found it entirely.
How and when is your passion for music born and who inspired you to become a musician?
It was a gradual process. I was always around different kinds of music when I was growing up and I started playing easy melodies by ear at a young age. When I was 6 years old, I started piano lessons. It was mostly a hobby until my late teens until I became interested in jazz and improvisation. From that moment onwards, I started to consider pursuing music as a career. In those days my inspirations were mostly jazz piano players such as Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly and Herbie Hancock to name a couple of them. Later on, towards the end of my studies, I became more interested in classical music again and gradually changed my composing style away from jazz.
Was it easy to follow this passion for you, or did you have difficulty? If yes, which ones?
There were some difficulties along the way. For a very long time, I felt lost because it took me quite a long to find my own musical voice and identity, and I feel like I still haven't found it entirely.
My level of inspriration fluctuates constantly. It is not always possible for me to live an inspired life because sometimes, you need to deal with things in life that consume your head space and take away whatever inspiration that might be there.
What is inspiration or inspirational to you? How do you live an inspired life?
This is another challenge for me: My level of inspriration fluctuates constantly. It is not always possible for me to live an inspired life because sometimes, you need to deal with things in life that consume your head space and take away whatever inspiration that might be there. That's why it is important to me to take time to focus on getting inspiration and using that to create music. The inspiration can come from anything, its hard to pin-point something specific. A lot of times it comes from listening to music, looking at a painting, travelling or just walking around looking at things. However, it is also necessary for me to compose regularly even when I don't feel inspired. Sometimes the inspiration comes during the process and even if it doesn't, the result can still be satisfactory.
What is most challenging about what you do?
I would say that finding my own musical voice and staying true to myself is the biggest challenge. For me it requires a lot of reflection and time. And it is still an ongoing process.
What are your reference musicians?
I enjoy listening to a lot of classical music, especially the keyboard works of J.S. Bach who has been my my favorite composer for a number of years. But I also very much enjoy listening to composers from the late 19th and early 20th century such as Ravel, Debussy, Skriabin and Rachmaninoff. Other than classical music, my music taste is eclectic: I enjoy listening to film scores, The Beatles, Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder and contemporary singers/songwriters. Another big influence is Jazz and Jazz-related music.
Recently your new work "Ascending & Descending" came out, can you tell us a bit about it?
Some of the pieces were already written when I lived and worked in India. After moving back to Germany, I used the time I had during the lockdown to complete it. With the compositions on this album, I was trying to express the emotional processes that I was going through when I was moving from one country to another and building a new life for myself.
I try to compose intuitively, meaning, I just play something on the piano until I find a motive that I like.
What is your creative process?
I try to compose intuitively, meaning, I just play something on the piano until I find a motive that I like. That usually doesn't take too long. The challenge is to develop that motive and make a piece out of it. Whenever I get stuck, I stop playing and listen to the silence. After doing that a number of times, a melodic or harmonic continuation of the motive usually comes up in my head. Then It's just a matter of finding what that sound is.
What do you think about today's music scene?
I admire that artists are constantly evolving and changing their style to align with their personal inspiration, style, and/or personal life changes. I have seen more and more artists get out of the box and change their artistic persona as their life changes and develops which in a way reflects my own journey.
What are your goals/dreams for the future?
I would love to gain an audience and a following from this album and future albums and hopefully play some concerts when it is possible again. Also, I would like get some more film composing work for projects that my style of composing is suited for.
Who is the artist?
Lennart Altgenug has worked as a composer for several short films, including the films entitled Anton and Gameboy, which were featured at the Netherlands Film Festival. In addition to composing for films, Lennart has been composing and arranging for many ensembles. He has written four compositions for string quartet which have been performed at the Amsterdam Grachtenfestival. Lennart has earned a Bachelor's Degree in jazz piano, and a Masters Degree in film composition from the Conservatory of Amsterdam. Besides being a composer, he was also active as a pianist in various bands. In 2014, he recorded his Album 'Memory Lane' which featured his original jazz compositions. Since then, he spent two years in Mumbai (India). Besides being head of the piano department at The True School of Music he was also performing regularly and composed for a variety of short films and series for Indian television. Since 2018, he has been living and working as a composer and teacher in Berlin, Germany. His composition style has moved away from jazz and improvised music towards (neo-)classical music. Soon his new album 'Ascending and Descending' will be released with Blue Spiral Records.
Inspired by film music, impressionism and minimalism, the pieces of "Ascending & Descending" are a musical reflection of different moods and feelings that arise from uprooting from one place to another.