"The present works and their recordings on this CD were created in times of war and destruction. We are all aware about the long-term effects of devastation. For traumas last a lifetime and subsequently characterise ensuing generations. Human beings are capable of bestiality - but are at simultaneously highly sensitive life forms. We are all fragile and need to be treated with appropriate care. This album is here to raise awareness of the importance of empathy whilst expressing the longing for life." - Eres Holz

Ein Mensch erkennt, dass er nie Mensch war
The composition is based on the book Die Gesellschaft der Überlebenden [The Society of Survivors], published in 2011 by historian Svenja Goltermann, which, according to the subtitle, is about "Germans who were repatriated after the Second World War and their experience of violence" as well as how they were perceived and accepted by German post-war society - or not, as the case may be. The composer Eres Holz has nevertheless tried to empathise with these men, and has done so quite consciously as a Jew, as an Israeli, as the son of a Holocaust survivor.

DEATH
DEATH is not about how violence in war changes people - the subject is how this violence is experienced very directly, vicariously by the two bass clarinettists who are at the mercy of a pandemonium of electronic sounds the production of which they themselves inculcated. A feeling of being at the mercy of others is created by the simple act of listening.

MACH for trombone and electronics
MACH is the name of a cycle of pieces for solo instruments that Eres Holz began in 2011, and which now comprises ten pieces. Four tracks have already been released on the double CD "Touching Universes" (NEOS12207-08).