Butzmann, Frieder; Kapielski, Thomas
«The Woman's Role»

We presented ourselves to the public in language-oriented two-man shows in the 80s. The musical part of these evenings was based on the contrast between noisy sound collages, string quartets starting to play, the use of gigantic, roaring wind machines and spoken words and sentences introducing, commenting on, caricaturing or interpreting the different kinds of music, musical quotations and genre quotations. The texts were spoken / sung / yelled live, and supported by slide and film projections. In addition to this there were short 'scenes', related to music theatre and impressive acoustically: a siren-like high note announces that a cupboard is about to fall over . . . a bubbling coffee machine sounds contemplative . . . a loud bang marks the bursting of an airbed . . . We were always formally concerned with a rapid alternation of speech and music.
'Die Rolle der Frau' consists of descriptive set-pieces from the world of women (or from the kind of things attributed to them) , moving from quoting like comics to downright smutty. The sound reinforces or comments on the texts gesturally. Between kitchen, bringing up children, secretary-Romanticism, advertising aesthetics, boutique chic and powder-puffs.

Butzmann, Frieder; Kapielski, Thomas