Leo Hofmann - Kapriole (2022)

After working in music theatre, sound art and performance contexts, Kapriole is the debut album by Zurich- and Hamburg-based artist Leo Hofmann. Central to the album, which refers in its title to a joyous jump (in classical horse riding as much as in life in general), is the ambition to translate an ephemeral practice into recorded matter. Fixed but never static, Kapriole is informed by intimate and detailed listening situations and sound practices like ASMR or the acoustically sheltered world of noise cancelling headphones. And while it’s apparent that Hofmann has a deeply rooted understanding and command of technology and its abundant possibilities, Kapriole is a tender and almost analogue feeling affair: as in his performative practice, the human voice occupies a central role in the musical configuration of the album. Quirky repetitions, hushed fragments and poetic statements circling topics like communication, mobility, and immersion occupy the album’s eight tracks. The result is a sonorous sensation, which, in its scarcity, paves the way for meticulously crafted and delicate soundscapes. Kapriole as a joyous jump which is technological as much as it is emotional.

As the stage has been central to Hofmann’s oeuvre of the last ten years, the release of his debut album examines forms of exhibiting music in the digital sphere. Kapriole is therefore accompanied by a microsite programmed by Frederik Mahler-Andersen, serving as a casual but sincere exploration of an alternative stage. The last two years have shown the unexpected limitations that thinking and working in conventional live formats entails. The set-up of Kapriole as a multimedia project thus carries out a shift into a virtual space, although it might transfer to a physical stage at some point in the future.
-
Leo Hofmann (*1986) creates, composes and performs music theater pieces, sound performances, audio dramas and installations. He works with voice, movement and electronics, examining music situated between medial immutability and transience, addressing the visual in musical performance and the physical in sound. His pieces have been featured at many international festivals, concert halls and theaters including the SPOR Festival, Gare du Nord in Basel, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Goethe-Institut Nairobi, and Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich.