Artist description Austrian composer and sound artist, creating contemporary compositions, sound installations and intermedia art projects. See gal's official website (www.bernhardgal.com) for additional sound files, upcoming events, CD information, etc.

Artist History see www.bernhardgal.com

Albums bestimmung new york (Durian, 1999); Defragmentation/blue (Plate Lunch, 2000); relisten (Intransitive, 2001)

Press Reviews It is impossible to combine all acoustic facets of New York City. The sound artist gal was aware of this, nevertheless he succeeded in capturing the multifarious with his CD 'bestimmung new york'. 15 persons were recorded in 15 languages (Japanese, Hungarian, Filipino, Arabic, Polish, Hebrew, Spanish, German, Basque, Yiddish, Russian, English, Thai, Urdu, Cantonese). All pieces are based on the same text, including the probably most often spoken sentence of all languages with its well-known negative derivative: 'I love you' respectively 'I don't love you' - paired with the counting of the numbers 1 to 10 and a few other phrases like 'never the same', 'a thousand times', 'and again'. These words, either in full sentences or as single syllables, are the material for the various rhythms and speech melodies that gal digitally combines in the most elaborate way. He skilfully and profoundly alters each language regarding its inherent acoustic potential - which reminds of Laurie Anderson, not only because of the occasional use of vocoding. Especially the virtuously arranged speech loops - shifting phonem-canons - create mood patterns that are exciting and thrilling, the sound balance is always right. Additionally, the new fields of meaning originating from detached text particles and word cascades, make a lot of sense. Stefan Fricke, Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, Germany - September 2000 (translated by Gromoga Productions) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "Defragmentation/Blue" was an audio-architectural installation presented at the Beekman Studio, New York, during the summer of 1999 by Austrian sound artist "gal" (Bernhard Gal) and Japanese architect Yumi Kori. This CD follows gal's first opus, "Bestimmung New York" (1999, Durian) and consists of a very different project. Instead of the speech-based pieces of the earlier experiment, this work showcases long sustained tones. Frozen in time, bright blue lines appear in the dark without beginning or end. Immateriality is the key to this continuous hour-long piece. Five movements have been indexed, but they only reflect subtle atmospheric changes. Microtonal variations make the tones beat softly against each other. The linearity of the music is punctuated by occasional chords of chimes. In the course of the album, one wonders who is the sound artist and who is the architect -- the aesthetic plasticity of the music blurring distinctions between the two forms of expression. "Defragmentation/Blue" makes a minimalist meditative landscape. The first and fifth parts tend to associate the cold sterilized linearity of the music with hospital corridors through the use of breathing sounds and monitor blips (an impression enhanced by the cover artwork). Both beautiful and disquieting, this work manages to say a lot with very little. Recommended as one of the most significant releases on the German label "Plate Lunch".François Couture - All-Music Guide, May 2001

Location Vienna, Vienna - Austria

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