Sven Helbig
Skills
“In my parents’ living room stands an elaborately hand-forged copper kettle -my grandfather’s masterpiece, hammered out of a single piece of copper. Growing up in a family of craftsmen, I have been familiar since early childhood with the attitude of perfecting a thing for its own sake.
The deepening concentration and slow maturing of execution, the craft shares with spiritual rituals, with arts, sports and the sciences.I am touched by the sight of almost ideal expressions of human activity, be it a forgedpiece, a perfectly build sentence or an athletic performance. I dedicate my album SKILLS to this fascination.
A branched succession of changing skills has brought mankind to the present day. The skills that were originally life-supporting grew into handycrafts and art. This development through the times reflects the enormous changes in ethics, aesthetics and morals.People describe this process in many shades, from culturally pessimistic dystopias to posthumanist utopias.The music of SKILLS lives in this field -between hymn and melancholy.”
Available as download, physical copy and on all major streaming platforms on February 04, 2022.
About the Artist (Read more)
Sven Helbigis a composer for choir, orchestra and chamber music. He combines classical composition techniques, with a deep knowledge of electronic sound synthesis and his skills on various musical instruments.
Sven fell in love with music as a kid through his self-buil dradios, some parents’ vinyls and the local brass bands in his small East German home town Eisenhüttenstadt. Electronic bricolage was his first passion and remained a creative element in Sven’s later orchestra and choral music.
He started out learning clarinet and guitar, later moving on to drums. The self-taught composer’s acclaimed debut album Pocket Symphonieshas been released on the Deutsche Grammophon label. Through the last years, Sven’s concerts inspired audiences at the Barbican Center London, Alexandrinsky Theatre St. Petersburg, Bolshoi Opera Minsk, Manchester Cathedral, Reina Sofia Madrid, Volksbühne Berlin, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg as well as the Radio Hall Mihail Jora Bucharest to name just a few. Sven’s works have been staged by renowned artist like BBC Singers, Fauré Quartett, cellist Jan Vogler, the choir of the Bolshoi Opera and conductor Kristjan Järvi. On stage, Sven performs live-electronics and percussion alongside the ensembles.
Sven is a long time collaborator of Industrial-Metal band Rammsteinand British Pop icons Pet Shop Boys. He orchestrated their ballet “The Most Incredible Thing”, premiered at Sadler’s Wells/London, as well as “A Man from the Future”, premiered at Royal Albert Hall/London. Since 2017, Svenhosts his weekly radio show Schöne Töneon Berlin’s Radio 1, celebrating music history and contemporary artists.