Questions & Answers with SCHLOSS MIRABELL Meet the girl behind the project Schloss Mirabell. Florina Speth is a brilliant young composer, electronic musician and the scientist working on her PhD in neuromusicology. Her debut album "Ghoshour Diary" will be released in Monotype Records on April. What made you to leave somehow safe, classical background and explore new musical space? I would never call the classical music world as “safe” (laugh) but that was not the reason for me to not go on this path. When I got 18 -being highly disciplinated in following up this way before- I realized that the kids dream of being a cellist looked different than i thought and that living from that would mean something else than enjoying it always. The thought of playing predetermined programs, reproducing musical thoughts of composers, controlled by many social and political rules and roles in such a context didn't call me. Since I had been first time in a concert where there was played a piece of Sofia Gubaidulina (there i was 11) I got VERY curious on music that didn't please in the first moment. It made me wondering about "modern classical music" and I started to listen to wired music I couldn't understand and was not served with a direct pleasure. I also remember playing an orchestra piece for tooth brushes which impressed me a lot in this age (laugh). There all the instrument groups had to brush teeth in different velocities and time patterns. This was probably my first contact with structured noise! When I started studying cognitive musicology, neurolinguistics and music therapy in Cologne I was heavily inspired by reading about how the mind works, how we are able to process music and discovered my fascination on robots and AI. In this time I started to create personal musical thoughts which I imagined and couldn't put into words about all this. In your compositions you let all those strange sounds used by you react, sometimes even without the control... I imagine all the instruments as small living systems or groups of creatures that interact. By implementing spaces where these “creatures” act freely I enable myself to also listen to them and react instead of controlling. I simulate them as own entities, otherwise I would get heavily bored. I have a big fascination for the act of projection life on things.
Is it somehow similar to the way you work with your patients? In my research I apply these thoughts in a very different way. There I work with stroke patients that cant control their own body parts anymore due to a paresis. Robotic systems guide their movements and I aim to extend these systems by adding a sounding prothesis. (More detailed that's also described HERE) You decided to name your debut album “Ghosthour Diary” after those strange hours between night and day but what have you done being awaken at that time? The time before sleeping is a very meaningful time- as it is a moment before shifting to a state of pure subconsciousness. We can direct ourselves a bit before going there. By doing music I personally reach a state of innocence and can process day experiences. Some people write diaries to clean their head, some write to-do-lists for the next day, others watch the news. I deepen memories and smoothen mental noise.