Zara Ali, Komposition, Konzept, Text
Hannah Dübgen, Bühnenfassung, Konzept
Florentine Klepper, Deva Schubert , Regie
Hansjörg Sofka, Musikalische Leitung
Wolfgang Menardi, Set- und Kostümdesign
Julia Spinola, Dramaturgie

PHACE
Walter Seebacher, Klarinette
Michael Krenn, Saxophon
Mathilde Hoursiangou, Keyboard
Manuel Alcaraz Clemente, Percussion
Francesco Palmieri, E-Gitarre
Roland Schueler, Cello
Alexandra Dienz, Kontrabass

Nontobeko Bhengu, Sopran
Florian Stern, Tenor
Julien Horbatuk, Bariton
Andrea De Majo, Musical, Tänzer, Countertenor

Zara Ali
Codeborn – musc theatre (2025/26, wp)

In “Codeborn,” the world is exposed to an artificial intelligence. An unstoppable transformation process begins, defying all explanation and simultaneously evoking fascination and unease. Power fantasies escalate to boundless proportions, old hierarchies crumble, and impossible encounters become reality.

Zara Ali’s music theater rejects both apocalyptic sentiment and cultural pessimism—it is neither utopia nor dystopia. Her music encompasses the full spectrum of upheaval and makes the unimaginable audible.

A co-production of the Munich Biennale and the Tyrolean State Theatre Innsbruck, in cooperation with the Bavarian State Opera, Ars Electronica Linz, and Klangspuren Schwaz. Commissioned by the City of Munich for the Munich Biennale.

PROGRAM

Bernhard Lang
The Travel Agency is on Fire for voice, five instruments and electronics, 2021 (ÖEA)
​​Text: William S. Burroughs

Loops and samples repeatedly wander through the ear canal, distorted and doubled by electronics and effects, deformed and restructured by patches and digital algorithms, until perception shifts and a different meaning emerges from the superposition. Repetition and mutation are part of the program in the works of Bernhard Lang, powerfully supported this evening by Sarah Maria Sun, arguably one of the most outstanding vocal interpreters of our time. The Travel Agency is on Fire is based on a selection of “cut-up” experiments by William S. Burroughs on texts by a range of canonical authors, from William Shakespeare and Arthur Rimbaud to William Wordsworth and James Joyce. Burroughs selected the source texts, cut them up, and juxtaposed the fragments to select random word combinations and create new word compositions. The Travel Agency is on Fire, which has only been available in the archives since 2010, fascinates scholars and Burroughs fans alike, as it illuminates the experimental processes underlying Burroughs’ work. Musically, the cut-up strategies that Burroughs developed together with Brion Gysin and visualized in the films with Anthony Balch and Ian Sommerville are referenced in various ways: essential here is Burroughs’s maxim: “Play it back, play it back, play it all back,” which points to a change in consciousness through the overlaying and doubling of reality with samples and loops.

PROGRAM

Malika Kishino
Sensitive Chaos for electric guitar, trumpet, trombone, 2 percussionists, piano and cello, 2010  (austrian premiere)

Zara Ali
Isolation Forest  for eleven instruments and electronics, 2023

Emre Sihan Kaleli
Adjacent Rooms, a Part of a Labyrinth for ensemble  (wp of the expanded new version), 2025
comissioned by PHACE and Wien Modern, with support ba SKE-Fonds

schtum– Manu Mayr & Robert Pockfuß
loom for e-guitar, e-bass and ensemble, 2024

“The sound of the sea reaches far,” writes Maliko Kishino about her piece Sensible Chaos, finding similarities between water and music in the Buddhist sutra: resonance and diffusion. Like raindrops on the surface of a lake, the composition shows how individual events branch out into incredibly expansive patterns and, through mutual interference, create a delicate and fragile beauty from the chaos. In Adjacent Rooms, a Part of a Labyrinth, the music of Emre Sihan Kaleli often takes abrupt, unexpected detours, but reveals a continuous flow as it travels through very different corridors, one thing leading to the next. The labyrinthine progression offers a clear view of time and infinity. In Isolation Forest, Zara Ali delves into the digital wilderness, discovering algorithmic grace with the help of rigid instructions and the sorting out of anomalies, allowing the AI to reveal its wildest dreams and lyrical fantasies. An organically pulsating web of electroacoustic sounds is revealed in the work loom by the experimental electronic duo schtum. Rhythmic permutations chase each other in circles, building each other up into ever new, intense patterns. And somewhere, restlessness resonates, a fascinating, almost threatening sonic shadow lurking underground.

PROGRAM

Arturo Fuentes
SKULPT for instruments and automata, 2025/26 (wp)
comissioned by PHACE, with financial support by BMKOES

Yuheng Chen
To a Bubbling Fountain Stirr’d with Wind,for saxophone, E-guitar, keyboard, percussion, and contrabass, 2025/26 (wp)
comissioned by PHACE

Zara Ali
thermo_doxa for clarinet, viola, drum set and electronics, 2024

Enno Poppe
Fleisch for saxophone, electric guitar, piano and percussion, 2017

In Fleisch, Enno Poppe systematically and purposefully dissects the idioms of rock music. The resulting phrases and snippets, which only vaguely recall oft-heard clichés and stereotypes, create an entertaining soundscape that combines and unpacks the expressive power of rock in a new way. With his music, Yuheng Chen attempts to explore the possibilities of tonal-instrumental modulations and push their boundaries. His works often contain image-forming moments that almost create concrete situations upon listening. We are already excited to see what the premiere of his new work has in store for PHACE. In thermo_doxa, Zara Ali opens up a thoroughly fascinating soundscape: driving, exhilarating, energetic, yet balanced and nuanced. She shows little hesitation or reservation in utilizing musical expression techniques from EDM to techno, creating a brutally sensitive sonic hybrid that combines the strengths of instruments and electronics. Arturo Fuentes, with whom we’ve realized numerous exciting projects over the years, also contributes a new work. His music exists at the intersection of genres and aesthetic forms and is often enhanced by a mix of digital, visual, acoustic, or material media. Which automatons will set the tone in SKULPT remains unclear for now.

PROGRAM

Georg Friedrich Haas
Solstices for ten instruments, to be performend in complete darkness, 2018

Enveloped in absolute darkness, the sounds in Solstices by Georg Friedrich Haas emerge with unexpected intensity and brilliance. The musical events unfold as if in slow motion, drawing the listener into a meditative vortex of long-term undulating movements and developmental processes. The idiosyncratic interplay of the instruments, the tuning, the microtonal shifts – which often seem so imprecise in the usual, tempered context – emerge here with absolute clarity as sonic entities with a completely independent character and reveal rarely heard harmonies.
The complete darkness is a challenge not only for the musicians, who must learn the entire piece by heart. The listeners should also prepare themselves for an intense, demanding listening experience in which attention wanders and thoughts perhaps travel to surprising realms, only to return with the dawn. The solstice in the title probably only partially refers to the darkness in the concert hall, which Haas has long explored in his works. The composer described the work as a love song, dedicated to his wife Mollena, whom he met at the winter solstice and married at the summer solstice.

Michael Wendeberg, conductor
Ivana Pristašová Zaugg, violin

PHACE
Doris Nicoletti, flute
Walter Seebacher, clarinet
Michael Krenn, saxophone
Mathilde Hoursiangou, piano
Ivana Pristašová Zaugg, violin
Petra Ackermann, viola
Roland Schueler, cello
Alexandra Dienz, double bass

PROGRAMM

Thomas Wally
Concertino for violin and ensemble, (2024, wp)
Commissioned by PHACE, with financial support by BMKOES and SKE-Fonds

Bruno Strobl
Schatten for ensemble, (2024, wp)
Comissioned by PHACE, with financial support by SKE-Fonds

Daniela Terranova
Notturno in forma di rosa for Flute, Clarinet in Bb, Piano, Violin and Cello (2016, ap)

Pasquale Punzo
Immagini d’orizzonte for flute, clarinet, piano, violin and cello (2021, ap)

Chaya Czernowin
Fast Darkness III: Moonwords Sextet for amplified flute, clarinet, piano, violin, viola and violoncello (2022, ap)

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.