ULRICH KRIEGER
Ulrich Krieger all rights reserved. Last updated 11/2016 contact
BIOGRAPHY
Ulrich Krieger
is well known as a saxophone player in
contemporary composed and free improvised
music as well as a composer of chamber music and electronic music.
His recent focus lies in the experimental fields and fringes of contemporary Pop culture: somewhere in the limbo between Noise and Heavy Metal, Ambient and Silence.
His original compositions go back and forth between Just Intonation, Silent Music, Noise, Instrumental Electronic, often asking for elaborate amplification, and works in the limbo of Rock culture – not accepting stylistic boundaries.
Krieger developed his own, often amplified style of saxophone playing, he calls 'acoustic electronics'. He uses refined acoustic, quasi-electronic sounds, which then get processed, the saxophone often becoming more an 'analogue sampler' rather than a traditional finger-virtuoso instrument. By amplifying his instrument in various ways, he gets down to the 'grains of the sounds', changing their identity and structure from within.
Ulrich Krieger was commissioned to write works for: Soldier String Quartet, oh-ton ensemble, Ensemble United Berlin, KontraTrio, zeitkratzer, Ensemble Experimente, Seth Josel, intersax, Text of Light, and others. His compositions are widely performed by ensembles in Europe and the USA.
He has managed to transcribe and arrange Lou Reeds infamous 'Metal Machine Music', everybody thought impossible to do, for classical instruments, performed by zeitkratzer and other groups.
He also arranged works by Merzbow, Throbbing Gristle, Deicide, Terry Riley, Henry Cowell and others for chamber ensemble.
He collaborates with: Lou Reed, LaMonte Young, Phill Niblock, Text of Light, Lee Ranaldo, Phill Niblock, John Duncan, Zbigniew Karkowski, Merzbow, Thomas Köner, DJ Olive, Christian Marclay, Kasper T Toeplitz, Antoine Beuger, Radu Malfatti, Mario Bertoncini, Michiko Hirayama, Miriam Marbe, Hans-Joachim Hespos, Ensemble Modern, Berliner Philharmoniker, Soldier String Quartet, zeitkratzer, just to name a few.
Krieger has received prizes, grants and residencies from: Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg, Villa Aurora Los Angeles, Deutsches Studienzentrum Venedig e.V., Akademie der Künste Berlin, 'Meet-the-Composer' Forum New York, DAAD, Darmstädter Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, and many others.
He lived in Berlin and New York, and was 'Composer-in-Residence' in Los Angeles, Rom, Venice, Bologna, and Townsville (Australia).
He studied saxophone, composition and electronic music at the UdK Berlin (University of the Arts) and the Manhattan School of Music New York and performed with orchestras like: Berliner Philharmoniker, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, Rundfunk-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Ensemble Modern, Musikfabrik, and many more.
Since 2007 he lives in Southern California, where he is associate professor for the composition faculty at the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles.
Krieger performed in West- and East-Europe, North America and Asia and released several CDs as performer, improvisor and composer: Selection: 'a CAGE of saxophones’ vol. 1 and 2 ' J. Cage's works for saxophones (Mode 104 and 160) 'WALLS OF SOUND II’ (2004 Sub Rosa 218 - CD) 'WALLS OF SOUND I’ (1997 O.O. Discs #32 - CD) H/YBRID S/OUND S/YSTEM - WINTER WAS COLD, TOO (U. Krieger/R. Friedl) (Tourette 2002), NIGHTMARES (1996 Academy / edel 0085122ACA - CD)