Reisemusik Tagebuch

Paris/Berlin, diary 1978-1982

Paris – some addresses : rue de l’Odéon, rue du cardinal Lemoine, boulevard de Denain
Berlin – East/West, Turmstrasse Moabit/Goethe Strasse, Charlottenburg/Ruschestraße, Lichtenberg/Kastanienallee Hellersdorf

Sometimes you find yourself tidying up your bookshelf.

And there, tucked away between two books, was a small music notebook in a curious, compact Italian-style format, entitled “Paris-Berlin Reisemusik, Tagebuch.”

A few notes jotted down during journeys between Paris and Berlin during the era of the Wall, over a fairly long period, like a diary capturing, in a few quick scribbles, a few musical ideas, a sensation, a moment, the fleeting thought that vanishes in a glance, as if in a brief reverie.

On rereading, it became apparent that, as I retraced the journeys linking places where I had stayed for periods of varying lengths, a certain form and a few ideas began to emerge; these could take shape quite apart from the expression of memories, yet were encompassed within a “comprehensive” journey, revisited with its themes and recurring motifs, shaped by the vagaries of an adventurous life on the move.

A coincidence? 7 venues, 7 performers, Reisemusik-Tagebuch, un Konzertstück.

Henry Fourès