Mark Andre (Composer) 

We spoke to Mark Andre and we discovered a quiet, unhurried man who tells us about things as technical as “in composition what I try to do is to develop compositional interstices which are between polarities: they can be structural or morphological polarities but these interstices seem to me to be very central in my work.” , and about things as spiritual as “I like to pray very much. Praying seems to me not so far away from composing, at least for me”. There is no doubt that not only is he a magnificent composer and connoisseur of music and contemporary creation but also a person with deeply religious roots.

He is inspired by sound, structure and transcendental situations: “about how morphological structures impact on musical time”. He is also busy putting the finishing touches to his latest opera "Wunderzaichen", to which we look forward very much: “… it´s a huge score … two hours for choir, orchestra, electronics”.

His main obsession is trying to be as consequent as possible in terms of use and deployment of sound, morphology, sound families and formal processes. He surprises us with his mixture of deep intellect and deep religiosity, which are his keys to well-defined, well-finished and inspiring music although Mark points out that “you don´t have to be Christian or religious to hear that in my music … it´s not the purpose … but I can get transcendentalism maybe regarding the deployment of this other category of presence”

He tells us amusingly that “I´m French German so, like those environmental cars, I´m a kind of hybrid. Also kind of interstices. Officially I´m German and French. But, at the same time, I am neither one nor the other. Roots are not directly connected to a place”. A sort of hybrid who could not live anywhere else that was not Berlin. “Full of interstices. A lot of between the lines “

He complains that the church does not support contemporary music as it did in the past. No doubt things have changed a lot because these days culture is supported less and less generally, whether by governments or institutions. I guess that we live in parallel universes in between gaps. And this is where I probably realize that we live in different universes ... In any case, I just love visiting Andre´s universe and listening to his wonderful music.