SKILLS is the new concept album by German composer Sven Helbig. Horns, string quartet and electronics form the sound of the melancholic hymn to man's ability to adapt to extreme circumstances and to push skills to perfection. For the 1-hour concert program Sven collaborates again with the Icelandic video artist Mani M. Sigfusson ( Johann Johannsson, Sigur Ros, Kiasmos, Rolling Stones).
SVEN ABOUT HIS NEW PROJECT:
"In my parents' living room stands an ornately forged copper kettle - my grandfather's masterpiece, hammered from a single piece of copper. Growing up in a family of craftsmen, I have been familiar since childhood with the attitude of perfecting a thing for its own sake. The deepened concentration and slow maturation of execution, shares craftsmanship with art, with
spiritual rituals, with sports. People are touched by the sight of ideal forms, masterful skill and perfection. I dedicate my latest album SKILLS to this fascination. A sequence of changing skills has led man to the present time. In the origin life-supporting skills grew into handicraft and art. This reflects the changes in aesthetics, ethics and morals. People describe this transformation differently, in culturally pessimistic dystopias or in posthumanistic utopias. SKILLS lives in this field - between anthem and melancholy."