In association with Dialogues, this concert features music by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Helmut Lachenmann, David C Johnson, and Sean Williams, performed by Simon Smith, and Grey Area.
This programme is based around ideas of separation and re-integration, interruption and re-constitution. Sound projection will be mainly 4 channel but with added use of the spatial characteristics of the McEwan Hall.
David C Johnson occupies a rare position in 20th Century music history, having worked with many composers and musicians from Lachenmann to Can. From 1966-1970 he worked at the WDR Studios for Electronic Music in Cologne, assisting Karlheinz Stockhausen with the realisation of Hymnen and other works, and was one of the musicians who performed for 6 months in the West German pavilion of the 1970 World’s Fair in Osaka.
In 1970, along with Rolf Gehlhaar and Johannes Fritsch, Johnson set up the Feedback Studio out of which a wide range of innovative music practices and research flourished.
Telefun was composed and realised during a break in the realisation of Hymnen when Stockhausen was in Tokyo creating Telemusik.
Klavierstück XVI was written for piano or synthesizer as a scene from Friday from the Licht operas.
Gemini 8 is a new work by Sean Williams for Grey Area based on NASA’s Gemini missions of the 1960s which paved the way for the Apollo missions to the moon.
Unlimited was written by Stockhausen in 1968 as part of the Aus den Sieben Tagen text pieces and was performed by the ensemble on various occasions. Questions of distributed creativity and the roles of interpretation and performance surrounding these text-based works contributed to the separation of Gehlhaar, Fritsch and Johnson from Stockhausen’s ensemble to form the Feedback Studio in 1970. This piece can last for a very long time…