Kontraklang X Kontakte at Akademie der Künste / Saturday, 26. & 29.09.2019

Danish composer Simon Løffler has written a piece of music so quiet that listeners can only perceive mere vibrations through their teeth. The conceptual work c (2013) offers an unusual and direct experience of non-cochlear hearing. “The Intention in c was to write an extremely quiet piece of music, so quiet that you can only hear it by putting your ear very close to the instruments. Instead of amplifying the music through loudspeakers, thereby making soft music louder, the music is “heard” through the teeth, giving the impression that the sound is right in front of you.” Simon Løffler

As a child of deaf parents, the composer Helmut Oehring considers German sign language his mother tongue, as well as a foundation for his audiovisual compositions. The dance performance of the three soloists in the audiovisual installation EURYDIKE? vol. 1, including the deaf dancer Kassandra Wedel, is thus based on Oehring’s “sign choreography”. In WRONG (SCHAUKELN-ESSEN-SAFT) from 1993/94, Oehring composed for the first time for a deaf signing soloist, who performs in the center of the instrumental ensemble. The program combines both pieces in new versions/orchestrations and sets the two early and recent pieces in an audiovisual dialog.

The cooperation between KONTRAKLANG and KONTAKTE ’19. Biennial for Electroacoustic Music and Sound Art asks whether we experience music only through our ears.