Photo © Guido Schiefer
Dear readers,
IIt is with a heavy heart that we must inform you that Udo passed away completely unexpectedly on 14 January 2023 in Cologne, Germany. Udo was 56 years old.
We, Udo’s family and his partner, Teresa Coll, grieve immensely for his death, which was far too early and far too unjust. Udo’s sudden passing is incomprehensible to us and to his friends and colleagues. Udo has left a huge and impossible-to-fill gap in our lives. We are anguished beyond words.
We miss you Udo, with all our love,
your family and Teresa
——————————————————
Udo Moll, the cologne-based trumpeter, synthesizer player and composer was born in rural southern germany in 1966. He underwent his first musical socialisation in the brass orchestra of the local Musikverein Uhingen. After having studied jazz trumpet with Manfred Schoof and composition with the Stockhausen-companion Johannes Fritsch at the Musikhochschule (conservatory) Köln (germany) he embarked on a career as professional, freelancing trumpeter, composer and electronic musician.
since then he is working in different musical fields :
-improvisation :
2004 he initiated the improvisational research project das mollsche gesetz, which since then created, in collaboration with classical musicians, actors and video artists, several feature-length programmes. e.g. :
2005 Haikus aus dem Werkzeugkasten for Deutschlandradio Kultur.
2006 Short Music and Silence at the Moers Festival.
2007 catalogue of improvisation - funded by Musiktriennale Köln, Deutscher Musikrat, Siemens Arts program, SK Stiftung Kultur.
2008 release of the documentary catalogue of improvisation (cd & book) with german record label wergo.
2014 infinite loop electroacoustic improv-duo with pianist Florian Ross, released on unit records
2015 das mollsche gesetz feat. Anthony Moore : the longue duree
2016 the longue duree 2.0 at Festival Nuits d'Hiver / Marseille (France)
as an improviser Moll worked with: Gerry Hemingway, Hasse Poulsen, WDR Bigband, John Tilbury, Elliott Sharp, Sidsel Endresen, Wolfgang Mitterer,
Institut für Feinmotorik, Frank Gratkowski
Photo © Fati Baghaturia
-composition :
with the mollsche gesetz re-compositions and renderings of :
2006 Beethoven (Beethoven Redux at the Frischzelle-Festival Köln)
2007 Heine/Schumann (Heines Sklavenschiff premiere in Düsseldorf, commissioned by the Heine-Schumann-year)
2010 Cabanilles/Cabezon (premiere of das mollsche gesetz : tientos y lucientes , an amalgamation of 17th-century spanish harpsichord music with electronics and improvisation)
2010 John Cage (das mollsche gesetz : cheap imitation / counterfeit whiteness with John Tilbury (piano) for Netzwerk Neue Musik / ON-Neue Musik Köln).
2008 composition of dance theatre music for Nächster Halt : Freiheit by choreographer Daniela Kurz at National Theatre Nürnberg
2008 scholarship for the musicians residency of Art OMI in New York.
2009 dance theatre music for trotz alledem by Daniela Kurz for Human Rights Award Nürnberg
2012 residency and studies at the Brhaddvani Institute for Carnatic Music / Chennai (India)
2013 punchcard music a video-concert, in collaboration with video artist Gudrun Barenbrock and Wolfgang Mitterer, premiere at the Festival 8 Bruecken - Musik für Köln
2013 composition and performance of un tango avec le baron with the choreographer
Kettly Noël and dancer Koffi Koko - premiere at the festival dense bamako danse / Bamako (Mali)
2014 nominee for Deutscher Musikautorenpreis der GEMA
2015 3-month residency as composer at Villa Aurora - Pacific Palisades (USA)
2017 ENIAC girls - orchestral version - for text projection, electronics, synthesizer, percussion, electric organ
2018 3-month residency as composer at Villa Kamogawa (Goethe Institut) - Kyoto (Japan)
2019 Prix Maruliç (HRT croatian RadioTelevision) - special achievement award of the jury for ENIAC girls Radio version
2020 radio drama Abenteuer for ORF Kunstradio
2020 CD release ENIAC girls - longlist for Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik
2020 sound art composition Otaku Nation for Deutschlandfunk Kultur / SWR
2020 Otaku Nation shortlisted for Prix Phonurgia Nova, Paris, in the sound art category
2021 Otaku Nation wins the Bronze Medal at international radio Festival Grand Prix Nova in Bukarest
2021 321 Divisadero - a radio feature about Ramon Sender and the San Francisco Tape Music Center for SWR
collaborations with Wolfgang Mitterer, Moritz Eggert, Manos Tsangaris, Maria de Alvear, musikFabrik
-world music :
regular tours with the renowned worldmusic-ensemble Schäl Sick Brass Band , festival gigs in europe, asia, africa and middle east, often supported by Goethe-Institut.
concerts in Cairo and Alexandria, there also research for a cd-production featuring tunes by the egyptian composer Mohammed Abdel Wahab, co-founding of tabadoul orchestra, a german-egyptian ensemble which revives Abdel Wahabs music in europe.
2013 tabadoul orchestra : wahab screening with the libanese video artists Mazen Kerbaj and Raed Yassin / Beirut (Lebanon)
Moll worked with : Mohamed Mounir, Buzuki Orhan Osman, DuOud, Mahala Rai Banda
-electronic music :
recently intensive research about using the computer and the modular synthesizer as an expressive musical instrument in performance and improvised music.
2009 artistic residency at STEIM (Studio for the development of electronical music instruments) / Amsterdam (Netherlands)
2011 residency for electronic music & composition at Künstlerhaus Lukas, Ahrenshoop
2012 sound installation eden birds for Muziekbiennale Niederrhein (Netherlands)
2012 eccentric listening with video-artist Gudrun Barenbrock for Netzwerk Neue Musik
2014 protean territories - concert installation for hybrid instruments and video
2016 ENIAC girls solo version - for text projection, synthesizer, trumpet
2016 VANITAS for modular synthesizer and resonating bodies
2018 ENIAC girls Radio Version for Deutschlandfunk Kultur
2019 Shakespeare Zombienation for modular synthesizer and interactive video
2020 Shakespeare ZombieNation II with Leonhard Huhn
2021 WirWelt music for the video installation by Gudrun Barenbrock
2021 EMS Studio Stockholm residency
2021 superflat for modular synthesizer, 3 violoncelli and video installation (with Gudrun Barenbrock)