RENATO DIZ ✕ PETER TRAUNMUELLER

RENATO DIZ ✕ PETER TRAUNMUELLER is a live, site-responsive practice in spontaneous composition — a multi-sensorial encounter conceived for exhibitions, installations, and arts events, in which the works on view become a core catalyst. Renato Diz (keys) and Peter Traunmueller (drums) compose in real time, in direct dialogue with the venue that hosts them: no prepared setlist, no second attempts, each performance a single, inevitable biome born from the architecture of the room(s), its curatorial logic, and the near-telepathic chemistry the duo has perfected over nearly a decade of shared practice. Conceived in intimate collaboration with each space, every presentation refuses the safety nets that mediate so much contemporary performing arts and insists that artistic authenticity can also emerge when the gesture is allowed to arrive on its own terms — radical spontaneity here is not just a concept but an imperative. The hosting setting becomes a porous collaborator — instrument, interlocutor, muse — so that what unfolds belongs not only to the performers but to the place and the people who, for one evening, share its pulse. As with most living encounters, audiences are invited to travel through its topography, form associations between the works and the sound, and create personal meanings by zooming in on a detail, stepping back to take in the whole, returning to find the room changed through sonic transformation.

→ Read the full curatorial statement

PERFORMANCE EXCERPTS

Performance formats developed in conversation with curators:

Single sustained performance sited within one venue, conceived in response to a specific exhibition or work
Roaming, processional performance moving through multiple rooms, audience traveling alongside
Discrete responses to individual works selected with curators — well-suited to permanent collections, retrospectives, and biennials

Sets typically run 45–75 minutes.

MULTIDISCIPLINARY RELEASE

DESCRIPTIONS OF USELESS SUBTITLES AND MEANINGFUL SUBLIMATIONS is a multi-sensorial living ecosystem of thirteen interdependent organisms, each composed of three biotic elements—a musical soundscape, a poem, and a visual artwork—that together invite the viewer to wander, linger, and forge their own associations between sound, word, and image. Born from the telepathic musical dialogue between Renato Diz and Peter Traunmueller, the project expanded through a Darwinian impulse toward diversification: José Diogo Neves shaped the recording sessions and mixed every sonic event into audiophilic perfection, capturing keyboard and drums in real time with no overdubs or post-production artifice; his mixes revealed poetic and cinematic strata that drew Renato and Peter into automatic-writing responses, edited and woven together across pandemic-era videoconference listening sessions; and the resulting confluence of sound and verse summoned new visual universes, brought to life by Pedro Marnoto in dynamic black-and-white compositions developed in collaboration with Renato. Bound throughout by an unwavering commitment to radical spontaneity, the work offers itself as a synesthetic bubble of life—an invitation to befriend the question mark and to remember that we are impermanent, plural, liquid, open, and in continuous mutation.

Keyboard & composition - Renato Diz.
Drums & composition - Peter Traunmueller.
Mixed and Mastered by José Diogo Neves in Tallinn, Estonia.
Tracks 1 - 6 and 9 recorded by Renato Diz at Dreammiller Studios (Astoria, NY) in October 2018.
Tracks 7, 8, 10 - 13 recorded by José Diogo Neves at The Bunker Studio (Brooklyn, NY) in April 2019.
Original drawings (book) by Pedro Marnoto.
Album and final artwork (book) by Renato Diz and Pedro Marnoto.
Combined poetry (book) by Renato Diz and Peter Traunmueller.
Graphic design by Lizzie Suh.
Produced by Renato Diz and Peter Traunmueller.

SELECTED REVIEWS

I very much enjoyed the distinctive interaction between the three realms, in a dreamlike story-telling quality that interconnects back and forth between sound (music), poetry and visual arts. Reaching for a state of certainty, wander and freedom at once. This work is a true artistic statement, blending and portraying the many ways we can experience life. Congratulations !!!

Dafnis Prieto: Multi-Grammy Award-winning drummer, composer, educator, MacArthur fellow
Such thoughtful, multidimensional work demands upon its audience full presence and attention. And yes, there are limitless rewards for those who listen with such discipline. Seemingly created in balanced passions: mind, heart, and intention, Descriptions of Useless Subtitles and Meaningful Sublimations possesses the depth to hear and feel something new and revealed at each new hearing!

John Daversa: Multi-Grammy Award-winning trumpeter, composer, educator
Descriptions of Useless Subtitles and Meaningful Sublimations stands as a remarkable compilation of art, poetry, and music. The dialogue between Renato Diz and Peter Traunmueller represents some of the most exceptional spontaneous composition that I have witnessed. This journey seamlessly transitions from moments of profound silence to intricately woven soundscapes, all the while sustaining an extraordinary connection between the artists. I strongly encourage you to experience this project—it’s a transformative journey that you will not forget!

Steve Rucker: Legendary drummer for Bee Gees, Michael Jackson, Jaco Pastorius
Renato, Peter, Pedro, and José have created a beautiful multi-sensorial experience. I was constantly surprised and engaged by their attention to detail and ability to seamlessly transition between textures and soundscapes—a wonderful and mysterious voyage. I was particularly impressed by Renato’s command of timbre orchestration - a bold and powerful voice in today’s contemporary art world!

Jean-Michel Pilc: Multi-award-winning pianist, composer, educator
In this Instagram age of 30-second blasts of contextless and often empty virtuosity, Renato Diz, Peter Traunmueller and Pedro Marnoto are breathtakingly fearless in their creation of this highly original, creative, and thought-provoking work. Their virtuosity lies not in displays of empty flashiness, but rather in telepathic musical connection, and a highly developed musical maturity in their exploration of sound, timbre, and rhythm in this amazing one-of-a-kind collaboration. A truly unique and wonderfully immersive experience!

Martin Bejerano: Multi-award-winning pianist, composer, educator
I love the sonic space and the surprises at every turn! And the accompanying book is a perfect visual counterpart to this music!

Ralph Alessi: Multi-award-winning trumpeter, composer, educator, ECM artist
(...) the drawings, they seem amazing, from the outer world, where peculiar characters rise up; outsiders, or globetrotters, accompanied by abstract poetry and contemporary music with strong doses of improvisation, where the drums and keyboard unfold a perfect tuning [...] In several organisms the groove is present as well as the bursts of percussion that generate sound chaos, making this work rich in nuances, colorful, elegant and at the same time circumspect and a three-dimensional facet!

Guillermo Escudero, Loop Magazine (Chile)
(...) a total work of art – and those who engage with it experience 13 extraordinary sections (...) music as the exercise of transcendental free tone movements and as a pull into the field of its own meaning. (...) Grows in the mind into a life’s work full of inspiration!

VerhoovensJazz (Germany)
(…) a collection of avant-garde musical experiments without that sterile academic sound […] The music can be quite minimal at times, making judicious use of silence and individual instruments and sounds. Some of the pieces can be quite delicate. […] an adventurous album that should appeal to fans of music that links the avant-garde to experimental rock.

Henry Schneider, Exposé Online
The recording opens up the subliminal-imaginative part of the brain, enticing the listener to travel deep inside the mind. (…) Sonically, the organisms emote struggles, growth, persistence, hardship, and glory. (…) Descriptions of Useless Subtitles and Meaningful Sublimations is quite a journey that the listener will not soon forget. The multi-media project opens pathways in the mind, stimulating the aural senses and primal psyche, affecting the audience in a most unique way.

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