BLACK TO COMM is a German music/sound artist and composer renowned for his emotionally abrasive instrumental music. Due to the range of technologies, instrumentation and styles he employs, his pieces often feel rather nostalgic, hinting to undefined periods in time both far behind and very recent.
Where his vast back catalog has consisted of meticulously layered and sonically rich mixes of field recordings, musical composition and the manipulation of both analog and digital recording methods, His piece ‘Selten gehörte Hausmusik’, developed and completed over the 2020/2021 winter lockdown, could be seen as a rather revealing proof of his current experience.

Three modest pieces seemingly performed on harp, piano and organ, serve either as personal chamber music, or the documentation of ideas for future creations, reflecting being stripped of outside stimulation. In reality though, these pieces were created through the manipulation and transformation of MIDI-data, thus simultaneously questioning the notion of authenticity and intimacy. In combination with the stark imagery of the video, there is proof of one being stripped of outside stimulation, and that, although caught unprepared and with limited resources at hand, this is a period of hibernation.