Max Andrzejewski 

Das Summen meiner Teile

Piece for string quartet (Ensemble Resonanz) and improvised drumset (15”)
Beethovenfest Bonn 2022 / Album 2024

The album  was released February 7, 2025

String quartet of Ensemble Resonanz:
Barbara Bultmann - Violin, Voice
Swantje Tessmann - Violin, Voice
Justin Caulley - Viola, Voice
Lea Tessmann - Cello, Voice

Max Andrzejewski: 
drums, vibraphone, voice, percussion, composition

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Summen

When I was seven, I drew notes on a piece of paper at my grandparents’ small flat in Bonn. Notes thrown randomly onto paper (obviously no Wunderkind!), which my grandfather Czeslaw titled Opus2.

Das Summen meiner Teile (word play like the hum of my parts as in the sum of my parts) is composed from a small excerpt of these childishly drawn notes. I wanted to take seriously what emerged from playing—as set source material. On the one hand, out of fascination with the clarity and seriousness with which my own daughter plays. But above all out of gratitude for my family influence, the encouragement in these moments that probably made me who I am—the sum of my parts.

The piece was commissioned by the Beethovenfest Bonn in 2022 and was performed by the great Ensemble Resonanz string quartet and myself on the drums. A year later, I began to develop the piece further and brought it into the form that can now be heard on the recording.

The other two pieces are swarm-like compositions. For me, studying the way swarms work is a beautiful allegory for family dynamics, for paths taken together, for splits …

The album SUMMEN merges my two fields of work that always balance each other: on the one hand, composing so-called contemporary music and on the other, improvising as a drummer. I was lucky to have already worked in both roles on other projects with the Ensemble Resonanz—and again it was amazing working with them on my music.

Max Andrzejewski

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