Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Event Details

Ensemble Offspring joins forces with sound artist Pimmon in a unique concert bringing together acoustic and electronic music including the seminal Kontakte from the godfather of electronic music Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007, Germany)- one of the most important composers of the twentieth and early twentyfirst centuries. He is known for his ground-breaking work in
electronic music, aleatory (controlled chance) and musical spatialisation.

Kontakte is his revolutionary 1960 piece which retains the capacity to awe digitally-savvy audiences half a century after it was composed. The piece is very much about sound
as 'contact', in all senses of the word: between pianist and percussionist; between performers and tape; between those sounds existing on tape; and physically, between piano hammer and string, the perceptual games played by Kontakte's acoustic-electronic synthesis are yet to be bettered.

It flows, swoops and surprises in total, playful confidence.
Kontakte evolves seamlessly from start to finish like a dramatic poem. The materials may resemble natural and industrial sounds, but they move with their own rhythm and form.

Featured non-Australian music: Stockhausen

Further information for this event is available online at the event's website

Featured artists

• Performer Ensemble Offspring
• Music of Pimmon