points of no return

points of no return is a composition for 7 performers with mini-synthesizers and live visuals. The score is the result of a practice based research and experimentation process as a subproject of Spirits in Complexity - Making kin with Experimental Music Systems (funded by the Austrian Sience Fund FWF AR-821).

This work was created for the 10th anniversary of the NAMES Ensemble and premiered at Klangspuren Festival 2024 in Schwaz, Tirol Austria.

The title points of no return attempts to describe several perspectives: on the one hand, it references the generative nature of all components involved, be it the live visualization in the form of a particle system or the play with seven mini-synthesizers, which resist an exact, repeatable reproduction of a musical text by design.

In addition, the auditory and visual components are placed in a recursive dependency, conceived as a feedback loop of interaction: the visuals autonomously generate their macro-temporal, formal development and thereby imply various possible behaviors of the synthesizers/musicians.

Conversely, the performers are encouraged to play the synthesizers according to certain instructions, not to control them, but rather to understand them as accomplices, to listen, to explore the smallest changes. These sonic results in turn generate the micro-temporal visual details.

I want to understand this work as a contribution that deals structurally with today's digital reality, a world that is increasingly shaped by adaptive feedback processes between algorithmic and human action.

“This research was funded in whole or part by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [10.55776/AR821]”

Performances

10. September 24 –  “Points of no return”, festival Klangspuren, Schwaz, Austria

15. February 25 – “Points of no return”, Toihaus theater, Salzburg, Austria

17. February 25 – “Points of no return”, Impuls Festival 2025, MUMUTH, Graz, Austria (LINK to video) or ->