Eric Nathan contacted me in 2014 after he had seen the Musikfabrik double-bell project. He had just finished composing the solo trombone piece As Above, so Below, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for its principal trombone, Joe Alessi. Although he originally composed it for trombone with an open F-valve tubing, he thought the piece would be well suitable for the double-bell trombone. I felt it could be interesting but as things go in a very busy schedule, I didn’t really have the time to start praticing it.  f you don’t have a date for a concert set there really isn’t time to prepare a new piece. Then in 2022 Eric contacted me again and invited me to play the piece in Rome in October 2023 at the American Academy where he wrote it as a fellow. It would be a concert of former fellows from the Academy. The American Academy is an incredibly beautiful residence overlooking Rome with a large park with many umbrella pine trees. These umbrella trees were a huge inspiration for Eric when he wrote the piece and the slow middle section is called “the Pines at Villa Pamphilli” which is a short walk away from the Academy. So I started practicing the piece and quickly realised that it is very strenuous, not only to play but to hold the double bell for 12 minutes without a break. The middle “pines” movement is very delicate and I found my left arm would start shaking. I finally found the solution in the Ergo-bone brace which holds the trombone in a harness like a sax or a bassoon player uses. Another issue was, the fast runs on the second bell were written for the open valve which has a somewhat different overtone series, the notes being up to a semitone lower than normal. That meant many of these runs were extremely awkward to play on the double-bell where the overtone series is the same as the normal bell. So, after consulting with Eric, I changed some of the notes in the second bell runs to make them more “playable“ like the ones he had written for the original version. Eric is a trumpet player and had actually bought a trombone to try the runs and knew how they would work on the open valve. Eric was in Düsseldorf a few months before the concert so we met and had chance to get to know each other and go through the piece, checking out the best mute for the second bell from my large collection. After practicing for about 9 months I went to Rome. I was staying in the Villa Amelia which is a beautiful estate with an incredible garden. I had managed to pick up a Covid infection the week before when I was with Musikfabrik in Berlin so I had to quarantine in this beautiful place with Italian meals delivered to my room. I was able to take walks, though and went to see the pines at the Villa Panphili. I did manage to test negative right before the concert. Since I had spent so much time practicing this piece, probably more than any other piece I have played, I wanted to make a recording. Musikfabrik was so generous as to even make a video of it. Janet Sinca really out did herself and went to Rome twice to make videos of the umbrella pines. So the finished video is a real gem and my last recording for Musikfabrik. A farewell video.

As Above, So Below takes its title from a popular maxim in Hermetic philosophy that in essence refers to the underlying unity between two seemingly separate worlds. My work, conceived as a duet for solo performer, focuses on a dialogue between two sides of the same instrument. Two distinct characters are put into musical conversation. I composed this piece while in residence at the American Academy in Rome, which is situated atop the highest hill in Rome with a view of almost the entire city, and every morning I would go to the roof terrace and look out upon the city below. Since a child I have had dreams in which I was (miraculously) able to fly without any manmade aid, and during one of these early morning sessions on the terrace I similarly imagined being catapulted into the sky and soaring above the city. I imagined the feeling of being cradled by tufts of wind, and tossed about like a leaf. The piece is structured in three large sections. The first section centers on this fantasy of flight over Rome. The music builds over this section gaining momentum until we find ourselves rocketing through the sky, rising higher and higher until we fall, like Icarus, to the ground below. In the middle section, I imagine landing into the hauntingly beautiful grove of umbrella pine trees at Villa Pamphili, located in Rome’s Gianicolo. I happened upon this grove one afternoon on a walk and was immediately captured by the beauty of these hundreds of trees spaced evenly in rows. All the trees seemed to lean towards a center point, their branches coming together and touching above and I felt enveloped in this magical space. The final section once again returns to the sky.”