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.

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

Featured artists

• Performer Ensemble Offspring
• Music of Pimmon

Featured non-Australian music

Stockhausen