Bowie on Strings

Interpreters

Ian Anderson . Arrangements
Nikolaus von Bülow . Direction
Stuttgarter Kammerorchester

Programme

David Bowie
album “Blackstar” (2016)
as well as hits ranging from “Heroes” to “Let’s Dance”

“We can be heroes, just for one day.” (David Bowie: “Heroes”)

Ian Anderson, composer and violist of the radical string quintet “Wooden Elephant”, has arranged the album “Blackstar” and other hits for the SKO for strings and a range of purely acoustic “instruments” (in quotation marks...) , thereby erecting a 21st-century monument to the hero David Bowie.
Bowie attaches great importance to the quotation marks around “Heroes”. Do they even exist – real heroes? He asks himself that very question. By the age of thirty, he – the most influential style icon of all rock artists – had already lived at least seven lives on stage and peered into more psychedelic abysses than he would have liked. In 1977, he took a break from the scene in Los Angeles and found it, of all places, in Berlin. The album “Heroes” from the Berlin Trilogy was recorded at Hansa Studio in the west of the city, not far from the Wall.
Over the following decades, the androgynous Brit with the different-coloured eyes remained tireless as an artist, musician, actor and producer. Right up until his death 10 years ago, he was constantly reinventing himself. He transcended all genre boundaries and couldn’t care less about convention. With his own end already in sight, he released his 28th (!) album, “Blackstar”, as a kind of legacy. Art rock, avant-garde jazz and experimental sounds merged on it to create yet another novel, multi-layered and fascinatingly dazzling sound.