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

Programm

Januibe Tejera
IRRÉALITÉS / UNREALITIES 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

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

Huihui Cheng
Sonic leak for saxophone, electric guitar, piano and percussion, 2020 (17’) (ÖEA)

Oliver Weber
INSCHRIFT II revised version for trombone, cello, keyboard and electronics, 2024 (20‘) (UA)

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

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

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

The Spider as an Artist

23. Oct. 2023 // 19:30
Großer Ehrbar Saal
Palais Ehrbar, Mühlgasse 28, 1040 Wien

Entrance: free

PHACE
Mathilde Hoursiangou, piano
Berndt Thurner, percussion
Maria Chlebus, percussion
Roland Schueler, cello
Alexandra Dienz, double bass
Samuel Toro-Pérez, e-guitar

The spider is an aesthetically inclined creature. He constructs his nets from the finest threads and with extremely elaborate, careful detail to fit every corner precisely. As a solo artist, he sometimes takes idiosyncratic paths, deviates from the given pattern, extends a corner here or leaves out a thread there. But the result speaks for itself: a web that is not round, but nonetheless attractive from all perspectives.

It is precisely these complementary opposites of given structure and enriching deviations that come together in the concert evening The Spider as an Artist (mind you: not the other way around). In five solo pieces, the musicians weave webs only to tear them apart again, test the tonal tensile strength of their instrument, and exploit the possibilities down to the last corner. In the evening’s title work, Franck Bedrossian writes an invisible poem by Emily Dickinson, as transparent as a spider’s web, with the bow on the body of the cello, while Sarah Nemtsov is inspired by a poem by Anne Sexton for Seven Thoughts – Her Kind. In Christof Dienz’s Bass Surface, two players intervene in the solo performance of the double bass and enrich the performance with percussive elements, while in Alexander Kaiser’s piece the guitarist’s fingers scurry spider-like over the fingerboard and through shattered outer-space soundscapes.

The Spider as an Artist
Has never been employed —
Though his surpassing Merit
Is freely certified

By every Broom and Bridget
Throughout a Christian Land —
Neglected Son of Genius
I take thee by the Hand —

Emily Dickinson (1275)

PROGRAMM

Franck Bedrossian
The Spider as an Artist for amplified cello solo.

Christof Dienz
Bass surface for double bass solo with 2 players, 2014.

Pierre Jodlowski
Serie C for piano and tape, 2011.

Alexander Kaiser
WhIch is NoT for e-guitar and electronics 2022/23.

Sarah Nemtsov
Seven Thoughts – Her Kind for sample keyboard with voice, 2018

In the Blink of an Ear

3. Oct. 2023 // 18:30
SUSSUDIO
Wolfgang-Schmälzl-Gasse 19, 1020 Wien

Improvisations and Compositions
Free entrance

PHACE
Roland Schueler, cello
JSX, Turntables

“Excuse me, do you say in English, ‘I look at the window,’ or do you say in English, ‘I look out the window’?” In Jim Jarmusch’s film Down By Law, the Italian drifter, Bob (played by Roberto Benigni), draws a window on the wall of his windowless jail cell. Bob, who speaks little English, asks his cellmate, Jack (played by John Lurie), which preposition to use when speaking of his window. Jack replies, “In this case, Bob, I’m afraid you’ve got to say, ‘I look at the window.’” (Seth Kim-Cohen, ›In the Blink of an Ear‹) …

From September 20, 2023, the exhibition BLINK OF AN EYE can be seen at the artspace SUSSUDIO. It brings together new location-specific works by Kaja Clara Joo and Michael Kienzer in order to trace elective affinities and interactions and to create an exciting dialogue at the interface between sculpture and installation. As part of the exhibition, PHACE will connect with the works of art on October 3rd with a performance by Roland Schueler and Jorge Sánchez-Chiong in order to trace the above relationships and effects inside the sonic art space.

When In the Blink of an Ear minimalism and maximalism merge, lowercase and hyperpop collide, Schueler & Sánchez-Chiong are playing and listening, , to paraphrase Seth Kim-Cohen, definitely “out of the jail cell”. It is another facet in PHACE’s regular collaboration with Jorge Sánchez-Chiong and his incomparable mix of musical spontaneity and boundary-pushing understanding of sound – as a composer, on the turntables or in educational projects – and also a foretaste to PHACE | ANIMAL SMILEYS , our cycle concert on May 7th, 2024, where we will once again deepen our collaboration with Sánchez-Chiong.

In the Blink of an Ear
Improvisations and Compositions by Schueler and Sánchez-Chiong

PHACE
Roland Schueler | Cello
JSX | Turntables

Exhibition: BLINK OF AN EYE  20.09.—11.10.2023, Sussudio, Wolfgang-Schmälzl-Gasse 19, 1020 Wien