Projects

Pascal Schumacher’s new album LUNA stands in diametric opposition to his previous release, SOL. And it’s not just the play on the albums’ titles, which already point to the differing moods of lightness and darkness, both releases also stem from opposing creative standpoints. While SOL carried in it a sense of spontaneous discovery as Schumacher, after years of playing with bands and ensembles, ventured out in his first solo endeavour, LUNA captures a more meticulous side to the musician’s work which involved once again composing for other players

When Pascal Schumacher, Edward Perraud, and Sebastian Studnitzky initially met during an artist residency program in Dudelange, Luxembourg, they couldn't have foreseen the extraordinary outcomes their collaboration would produce.

The ever enigmatic Marlene Dietrich meets the subtle music of composer and vibraphone player Pascal Schumacher from Luxembourg. Conducted by German conductor Christian Schumann, this project is a challenging and innovative approach to the silent movie "Die Frau, nach der man sich sehnt" (French title: "L'Énigme" // English title: "The Woman One Longs for"), originally produced in 1929.

Following the euphoric ‘Windfall Concerto’ for vibraphone and orchestra premiered in 2015, this new opus consists of eight movements, again distancing itself from the standard classical concerto in three movements that features a Supersoloist. Pascal Schumacher is aiming for a more organic and resolutely contemporary configuration in Rosace.8 where the vibraphonist is band leading the orchestra.

First imagine empty space. Darkness, then a spark, a central light. A lone figure stands revealed by in a strange ambience of purple and blue and white. In front of him, the metallic edifice of a vibraphone. The figure bows, he gazes forward. When he strikes the bars with two blue-tipped mallets in each hand, the notes chime and ring out through the darkness like signals through the cosmos. Shimmering, the volume of the notes pulsates, dilating and swelling in darkness, twinkling and dissolving.