PHACE

Mathilde Hoursiangou, electric organ
Ivana Pristasova Zaugg, violin
Petra Ackermann, viola
Roland Schueler, cello
Jorge Sánchez-Chiong, electronics

SOUND DESIGN
Alfred Reiter

Dreams, of music, about music, and through music. Three works look at unheard-of utopias, unimagined connections, and parallel realities, each in its own way inviting us to shift our perspective. In Animal Smileys (20222/24), Jorge Sánchez-Chiong imagines a third Summer of Love, playing with an iconography of peace and liberation that seems refreshingly utopian yet strangely out of place in the here and now. Samples and electronic effects transport the soundscape to a parallel universe, a timeline in which the combined hippie and techno aesthetics have prevailed, and an eternal, post-human summer of love reigns.

Effects and distortions also offer glimpses into parallel dimensions in Kadosh (2021) by Sarah Nemtsov. This virtuoso solo piece for violin explores timbres and resonances, takes unexpected shortcuts, and finds new connections between the tones and sounds that wind through the musical material like wormholes, making things seemingly distant appear like neighbors.

Peter Ablinger needs only water and glass tubes to shift reality to another level. Constant drops, seemingly uniform, almost imperceptibly subject to deceleration, interplay to create mutating rhythms and melodies. It is a flowing, almost meditative soundscape, which nevertheless resonates with a certain amount of glassy hardness, which invites you to immerse yourself in WEISS / WEISSLICH 31e, Membrane, Regen (2002) and leaves behind an absolutely memorable listening experience.

Liquid Loft
Luke Baio, dance/ choreography
Andreas Berger, composition/ soundconcept
Valentina Diaz, social media
Kim Dong Uk, dance/ choreography
Stefan Grissemann, text
Chris Haring, artistic director/ choreography
Roman Harrer, stage management
Verena Herterich, dance/ choreography
Thomas Jelinek, light design/ scenografie
Cornelia Lehner, companie management
Michael Loizenbauer, video
Katharina Meves, dance/ choreography
Dante Murillo, dance/ choreography
Anna Maria Nowak, dance/ choreography
Stefan Röhrle, costume
Judith Thaler, production
Hannah Timbrell, dance/ choreography

PHACE
Petra Ackermann, viola
Manuel Alcaraz Clemente, percussion
Stefan Obmann, trombone
Maximilian Ölz, bass
Roland Schueler, cello
Doris Nicoletti, flute
Reinhard Fuchs, artistic director
Markus Bruckner, production
Michael Eder, promotion

with musical fragments by
Franck Bedrossian,
 Pierre Jodlowski, Lorenzo Troiani
and Johannes Brahms.

Spaces of Freedom

Oct. 5 2024 // 21:00
ORF Musikprotokoll,
Helmut List Halle, Graz

Lars Mlekusch, conductor

PHACE
Doris Nicoletti, flute
Walter Seebacher, clarinet
Michael Krenn, saxophone
Thomas Märzendorfer, trombone
Mathilde Hoursiangou, piano
Maria Chlebus, percussion
Ivana Pristasova Zaugg, violin
Myriam García Fidalgo, cello
Maximilian Ölz, double bass
Manu Mayr, e-bass
Maria Mogas Gensana, accordion

SOUND DESIGN
Alfred Reiter

How do AI, robotics, and virtual reality affect the freedoms of contemporary composing? What musical questions arise with a view toward future digital revolutions? PHACE from Vienna brings these topics together in three world premieres.

In Alessandro Baticci’s Luminal Mirage, natural and virtual sounds merge. The instruments imitate the sound of electronics, doubling rhythms and timbres. Endlessly ascending and descending lines wind along, as if in an M. C. Escher staircase.

Grzegorz Pieniek is inspired by futuristic films and current digital developments. Nava Hemyari uses balloons as portable instruments. Annesley Black, who has been teaching composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz since 2023, presents her work scrap at ORF musikprotokoll. She works with the live electronic processing of instrumental sounds; the smallest possible distinguishable audio fragments vie for supremacy over hearing and memory.

PROGRAMM

Grzegorz Pieniek
Cyberbrain for amplified ensemble and electronics, 2024 (wp)

Comissioned by PHACE and Radio Österreich 1 in cooperation with ORF musikprotokoll, with support by SKE Austro Mechana and Stadt Wien Kultur

Nava Hemyari
blowfür Ensemble, 2024 (UA)
Comissioned by PHACE, with support by SKE Austro Mechana

Annesley Black
Scrap for ensemble and live-electronics, 2019

Alessandro Baticci
Luminal Mirage for ensemble und electronics, 2024 (UA)
Comissioned by PHACE and Radio Österreich 1 in cooperation with ORF musikprotokoll, with support by SKE Austro Mechana and Stadt Wien Kultur

BTZM 2024

26.Sept.2024 // 20:00
Bludenzer Tage für zeitgemäße Musik,
Bludenz, Kunstraum Remise

Nacho de Paz, conductor

PHACE
Doris Nicoletti, flute
Walter Seebacher, clarinet
Spiros Laskaridis, trumpet
Mathilde Hoursiangou, piano
Francesco Palmieri, e-guitar
Manuel Alcaraz Clemente, percussion
Ivana Pristasova Zaugg, violin
Petra Ackermann, viola
Roland Schueler, cello
Maximilian Ölz, double bass

SOUND DESIGN
Alfred Reiter

In  the three lessons of Professor Bad Trip, Fausto Romitelli created a unique piece of music that unfolds waves of melodic fragments over seductively fragile harmonies and exalted ornaments and rushing glissandi, only to collapse in on itself again and again. Influenced by the distorted and “dirty” sounds of psychedelic rock music, the material is shaken up, developing expressive metastases, like a musical mutant infected by viruses, becomes a beautifully scary monster and casts a spell over the listener. Inspired by the descriptions of the mind-altering effects of mescaline in the works of Henri Michaux, Romitelli’s work is all about “the artificial, the distorted, the filtered”. The composer forges sound sculptures that materialize like surreal musical visions of the deformations, distortions and disfigurements in Francis Bacon’s paintings.

The professor’s three idiosyncratic lessons also could be of interest to Clara Iannotta’s composition class. Her students at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna have created a collective composition for the Bludenzer Tage zeitgemäßer Musik, adding a contemporary perspective to the evening. The aim was to find out how an idea can spread and change by passing through different minds and bodies, ultimately becoming a coherent sound performance. Silent Post represents a year of hard work full of experimentation and mutual inspiration.

PROGRAMM

Gaia Aloisi, Claudia Cañamero Ballestar, Isaac Blumfield, Yuheng Chen, Giuseppe Franza, Yoko Konishi, Manuel Hidalgo Navas, Miguel Segura Sogorb, Sophie Wallner
Stille Post for ensemble (2023–24) UA
a collective composition by students in the class of Clara Iannotta at Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien

Fausto Romitelli
Professor Bad Trip: Lesson I – III for ensemble and electronics (1998-2000)

Take Five for Nine

Sep. 7 2024 // 20:00
Klangspuren Schwaz, Innsbruck, Treibhaus

Lars Mlekusch, conductor
Alexandra Dienz, double bass
Maria Chlebus, percussion

SCHTUM
Manu Mayr, E-Bass
Robert Pockfuß, E-Guitar

PHACE
Doris Nicoletti, flute
Walter Seebacher, clarinet
Michael Krenn, saxophone
Stefan Obmann, trombone
Mathilde Hoursiangou, piano
Maria Chlebus, percussion
Ivana Pristasova Zaugg, violin
Victor Lowrie Tafoya, viola
Roland Schueler, cello
Francesco Palmieri, e-guitar
Alexandra Dienz, double bass

SOUND DESIGN
Alfred Reiter

The Italian composer and curator Clara Iannotta prefers to speak of a “choreography of sound” rather than an orchestration – for her, the moment the sound is created, the gestures of the musicians, their positioning on the stage, the interaction of light and movement are just as important as the sound that one hears: for her, music is above all a physical experience. She wrote her work They left us grief-trees wailing at the wall for clarinet, tenor saxophone, percussion, piano, electric guitar, violin, viola, cello and double bass as a commissioned work by the Ars Nova Ensemble, the Riot Ensemble and Wien Modern. As a duo, Manu Mayr and Robert Pockfuss merge rhythmic, melodic, sound and structural elements of electronic dance music with experimental methods of contemporary music production – their works move in an “electro-acoustic world of feedback loops, sub-bass interference and noise twittering” (reaktor). They have played concerts at Berghain, Reaktor in Vienna, Sonic Protest in Paris, Novas Frequencias in Rio de Janeiro and the Gamma Festival in St. Petersburg, among others. Bernhard Gander moves in a similarly fluid way between the genres of popular and classical music in his works – he combines contemporary new music with rap, electronic dance music, comic aesthetics and heavy metal, among others, with the rhythm always being the center of every sound episode. In the past, his approach earned him a reputation as an “exceptional phenomenon” in the classical music business.

ensemble – electronics

PHACE | FOR MORE EARS!

our series at
Wiener Konzerthaus
2024/25

Listen and belong. The series draws the gaze into the spaces in between – where opposites overlap, where similarities and differences merge into something new; where identity becomes the plaything of the music. Echoes reflect on the walls of context, pulling on sound and material. There is no force without a counterforce and no form without transformation. Like with Annesley Black, where the smallest sound particles fight for a place in memory. Like with Giorgia Koumará, where the music questions our normatives. Idioms of spontaneity, burned into solid forms, striving for space: muted and suppressed with Huihui Cheng, agitated and exaggerated with Alexander Schubert. It is a galvanic bath for the senses and sensories. Something comes loose, something gets stuck and something is left behind. The voice emerges: instrument of the self, inextricably linked to identity. In Januibe Tejera’s sound unrealities it loses almost all human character. With Beat Furrer and Sarah Nemtsov it leads to the innermost and the outermost.

voice – ensemble – electronics

PHACE | IRRÉALITÉS / UNREALITIES

PHACE Series 2024/25 – N°2
11.Feb.2025 // 19:30
Wiener Konzerthaus, Berio-Saal

14. Feb. 2025 // 19:30
Austin (TX), Butler School of Music,
Bates Recital Hall

Program

Januibe Tejera
Lost Alphabet for voice, five musicians and electronics, 2024 (UA)
Comissioned by PHACE

chamber music – electronics

PHACE | LIGHTNESS

PHACE Series 2024/25 – N°3
11.Mar.2025 // 19:30
Wiener Konzerthaus, Berio-Saal

Programm

Alexander Schubert
Superimpose I + II for piano, double bass, saxophone, percussion and electronics, 2009 (13’) (ÖEA)

Franck Bedrossian
We met as Sparks for bass flute, contrabass clarinet, viola and cello, 2015 (12’)

Huihui Cheng
Sonic leak for saxophone, e-guitart, piano and percussion, 2020 (17’) (ÖEA)

Oliver Weber
Geborstene Chiffre for trombone cello, keyboard and electronics, 2025 (20‘) (UA)
Comissioned by PHACE, with suppert by SKE der Austro Mechana and Pro Helvetia

Juliana Hodkinson
Lightness sound and light theatre for three musicians, 2015 (14‘)

ensemble – electronics

PHACE | ACCESSING PLEASURE

PHACE Series 2024/25 – N°1
25.Nov.2024 // 21:00
Wien Modern, Wiener Konzerthaus, Berio-Saal

Programm

Bernhard Gander
Take Five for Nine for double bass, percussion and ensemble, 2024 (20‘)
Comissioned by PHACE and Klangspuren Schwaz

Alessandro Baticci
Luminal Mirage for ensemble und electronics, 2024 (13‘) (UA)
Comissioned by PHACE and ORF Musikprotokoll

Annesley Black
Scrap for ensemble und live-electronics, 2019 (16’)

Georgia Koumará 
I wonder if I should start accessing pleasure a whole lot for ensemble und electronics, 2022 (21‘) (ÖEA)

Musikforum Viktring

11.Jul.2024 // 19:30
Musikforum Viktring-Klagenfurt 2024
Stift Viktring, Arkadenhof

PHACE
Doris Nicoletti, flute
Walter Seebacher, clarinet
Michael Krenn, saxophone
Mathilde Hoursiangou, piano
Samuel Toro Pérez, e-guitar
Roland Schueler, cello

Duo So:und
Julia Schneckenleitner, saxophone
Katharina Wegscheider, voice

Duo Lufttore
Yingshuo Ma, saxophone
Piotr Motyka, akkordeon

Musikforum Masterclass Saxofon
class of Prof. Michael Krenn

Duo Krenn/Lavuri
Michael Krenn, saxofone
Luca Lavuri, piano

Rupert Struber, percussion

PROGRAMM

Mikel Urquiza
Opus Latericium for flute, saxophone, clarinet and piano, 2018

Mirela Ivičević
Lil for electric guitar, saxophone, cello and electronics, 2022

Jagoda Szmytka
F* for Music for electric guitar and amplified cello, 2012