James Saunders : Know that your actions reflect within the group

The British composer James Saunders has recently started work on a new series of open works based on a system of signs and signals. Musicians call out numbers, give signs with their body or send audio signals which trigger responses. The idea behind the composition is to play with the cognitive load as players are asked to process multiple sources of information and carry out parallel tasks. The piece considers how musicians play together, how can they interact and how can this system express specific cultural or social values… these are questions which Saunders is seeking to find answers to.

Verunelli : Man Sitting at the Piano

The Italian composer Francesca Verunelli has created an installation for a musician and a machine. She pairs the greatly amplified acoustic sound of flute-player Michael Schmid with the acoustic sound of the piano player. The potential for a radically different time experience which the computer-controlled piano player offers enters into conflict with human time. In her composition she explores the boundaries of the human, physical capacity to experience time.

Schüttler : My Mother Was a Piano Teacher

As a follow-up to his ‘Schöner Leben’ cycle Martin Schüttler has created six solos for Ictus, written specially for Eva Reiter, Michael Schmid, Tom De Cock, Tom Pauwels, Jean-Luc Plouvier and Geert De Bièvre. Six portraits with biographic aspects which are simultaneously performed from six containers installed in an annex of the concert hall. The German radio and television transmits sound and image on a screen in the concert hall. In turn, the composer tries to channel this information so that two to maximum three musicians can be seen and heard at the same time. Schüttler’s work is not just an introspection in the most individual sound world but also an exploration of a specific group dynamic. After the screening in the hall the public is led past the containers where residues of the sound can be heard, and the work also continues to exist as an installation.

Eimermacher : Cut

In her work Hanna Eimermacher looks for an intimate relationship and mutual dependence between sound, instrumental gesture and movement of the musicians in space. The architecture of the ensemble, with symmetric properties, turns slowly round its axis, fans out, condenses, crumbles and once again creates straight horizontal or vertical lines. To achieve this Eimermacher works with two trombonists, two percussionists (with, amongst others, long aluminium bars), bass flute and bass recorder (with voice), violin, cello and electric guitar. Just like in her earlier work the composer seeks out an ambiguous synaesthesia and a sensory exaltation within the delimited space of the concert platform.