This is Axel Dörner
(The Speak Aloud Performance)

"Speak aloud" is a computer program that converts text to speech. This performance consists of a well-known musician of the improvised music scene playing his music while a synthesized speech talks about him. The musician, without him knowing it in advance, is objectified and exposed as a kind of fetish. By the way the text is organized, the performance ends up dealing with different problems concerning the new music scene like the relative fame of the musicians, the lack of popularity that this kind of music has and its questionable relevance for the general audience in opposition to what this music represents for a small group of devotees (mostly audiophiles and musicians who play the same kind of music).

The first performance was done with the English tuba player Robin Hayward, and the second one with the German trumpet player Axel Dörner.

Watch the video (Axel Dörner version) / Download in HD

Axel Dörner - trumpet
Diego Chamy - concept, text, computer

Performed at "alberto ukebana", Berlin, July 18, 2008.