Surfer and film composer: Music inspired by surfing - Philipp Kümpel on AER MARIS

Your work AER MARIS, consisting of various sections, has been described as a "surf symphony", is that the right term?

It's not actually a symphony, because then all the instruments in the orchestra would be playing. In AER MARIS, however, only the string instruments are involved, so it is technically a suite, in this case with eight parts.

Did you deliberately limit your composition to the strings?

On the one hand, I studied strings myself, I studied double bass and was also in the orchestra for ten years. And secondly, I wanted to keep it closed. For me, the string sound is the most closed sound and also the one that best expresses the mood of the days by the sea.

Many surfers always have music in their heads on the water, a song they've just heard in the car or whatever. Have you ever composed music in your head on the water?

Yes, absolutely, I have those kinds of mantras too! But with the music I composed, it was more a case of coming home after a day of surfing and reviewing what had inspired me that day. It could have been a windless day when I went to the water for nothing, it was hailing, it was foggy or whatever. And that was what inspired me - nature rather than the act on the water. My music tends to describe the moods. Not a lot happens musically, but that's what makes sailing and surfing so sensational, that we are always exposed to nature. We have to live with what nature offers us on any given day.

And you have captured that in the seven sections.

Exactly. There are seven sections like seven days of the week. There are different moods, like a foggy morning, then a day with a storm. And then there's a kind of wishful day at the end, how you would like it to be. But the whole thing is not concrete, you can't identify exactly which sound is the fog, for example. Everyone has to imagine it for themselves.

How did you go about realising your idea?

After a day on the water, I sat down at the piano at home in the evening and improvised. That was the basic mood of nature, and I then realised it for string instruments. At some point I had the idea that I was a person in this nature, so I added a solo violin, which plays its part in this nature in every piece. It's very, very abstract, but that's how it developed.

And what do sailing and surfing mean to you musically and are there any differences for you?

Well, I think the difference with sailing is the even greater expanse. Many of the moods I describe tend to be seen from the fixed shore, but when I'm sailing I'm even further out and often have no eye contact with the land at all. There I am only exposed to the water and the light, but no longer to the earth, which is a big difference. But basically it's this colour mood, the light, but also sounds like the whistling of the ropes, it's almost a melody that you have when you're sailing.

You compose film music full-time. Is there a parallel between this and the nature and conditions you see while surfing, which you then set to music in your piece?

In any case! Many people think that the music is created for a finished film, but it's often the other way round. You are told the rough story by the director and then compose the film music before the film. In this respect, this imagining of moods or water is something that is given to you as a film composer. Otherwise I would really have had to take the grand piano on a yacht or put it on the beach to set the surroundings to music, so to speak. But I don't have to do that. It's always in my head.

AER MARIS was recorded by the Elbland Philharmonic Orchestra. How were the musicians' reactions?

They were totally enthusiastic about the idea. I had initially announced that I would go surfing with everyone to get a feel for this music. Unfortunately, it hasn't happened yet, but many of them were interested in doing a surfing course because they wanted to experience the feeling they had expressed with their instruments for themselves. They are normally always worried about their fingers and that the skin they need to play will soften.

How and where can you listen to AER MARIS?

We've only recorded it for now, you can listen to it on my YouTube channel "Only Philipp". But the hope is that there will be performances with this or another orchestra, negotiations are still ongoing. My favourite place would be in Hamburg in the Elbphilharmonie - only with sailors and surfers in the audience. And then I'd be curious to see if people recognise their feelings!

Listen to AER MARIS

1. mistral fields - wide open spaces, wind as rhythm

2. subcurrent - invisible movement - the sea breathes from below

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3. tideforms - one cycle, one wave - structure in flux

4. aeolian drift - sound like wind over strings, floating, directionless

5th Interlude: Between Waters - A moment of silence between two tides

6 Pale Horizon - A distant breath of light and mist

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7. still sea - transparency and silence - music that hardly sounds at all

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