In six parts, August Zirner speaks on HYPERMADE about language, responsibility, and the subtle difference between expression and effect.
HYPERMADE: Many artists today try to assert their relevance through speed and visibility. What kind of time does art need to truly resonate? And how do you preserve that time in your own work?
AUGUST ZIRNER: In the past, speaking quickly was called “a flight from expression.” I have to admit, I used to do that too. I found tempo exciting. Speaking Friedrich Schiller quickly felt cool. But nowadays, I find it more meaningful to give language the time it needs to really reach the audience. It’s hard to measure, but if you’re present on stage, you can sense what an audience can handle.
HYPERMADE: You once emphasized that you’re more drawn to performing works by contemporary, living composers. What makes the present so interesting for you as a musical space—and what might it lack?
AUGUST ZIRNER: I’m not even sure what I meant by that. I find any contemporary musical approach exciting if it’s honest—not just chasing after some kind of “taste.”
HYPERMADE: The boundaries between musical styles are becoming increasingly blurred. In your view, where is classical music heading?
AUGUST ZIRNER: Classical music isn’t heading anywhere—it’s already been written! But perhaps the way it’s interpreted is changing.
HYPERMADE: Does jazz still have relevance today in reaching young people?
AUGUST ZIRNER: You’d have to ask young people that—not me. But I believe music always has relevance, and every genre has its place. What matters is how the performer brings it to the audience. Jazz has already gone through—I don’t even know how many—metamorphoses. I’m more curious about what young performers can still coax out of it. Probably, there’s nothing truly new in the world. Every melody has already existed in some form. The tones have been floating through the ether for ages.
So, every composition is a kind of repetition. What matters is to pull them down again now and then—and rearrange them. And surprisingly, we keep discovering something new. I believe as long as people remain creative, it will continue. AI might simulate that—but it can never be truly original. Young or old, male or female—the main thing is that we try to bring the tones down to earth. And as for jazz: Frank Zappa summed it up years ago when he said: “Jazz isn’t dead. It just smells funny.”
HYPERMADE: Looking back, has your career as an actor—with all it allowed you to express, shape, and touch—reconciled you with the fact that you never became a professional musician? Or is there still a lingering longing—a quiet note that never quite fades?
AUGUST ZIRNER: Longing is a fundamental part of me. Most of the time, I feel like I’m neither one thing nor the other. Half actor, half musician. As an actor, there are still so many things I can’t do—or haven’t yet tried. And it’s the same as a musician. A bunch of half-finished things! That’s frustrating, too. Like I said before: I try to tell stories with my hands and my feet—with language, with performance, with my flute, with gestures, with everything I have.
HYPERMADE: Is there a role, a musical project, or an artistic idea that’s been with you for a long time—but still remains unrealized?
AUGUST ZIRNER: Yes! Quite a few, in fact.
Resonance
Sounds are like memories—they float, they return. And sometimes they say something words never could. The next part takes us to the stage—where expression and dialogue begin.
