Electronic music has long drawn inspiration from technological innovation, yet even more significant to its development has been the integration of new contexts and the transformation of familiar perspectives. The technoid and at times sterile character of synthetically generated sound has lost much of its relevance in a landscape where the boundaries between artistic disciplines have become increasingly fluid. Within the concert hall, for example, entirely new experiential spaces can emerge through the interaction of sound and light alone. And as hybrid textures dissolve the boundaries between human and machine, electronic music increasingly turns its attention to political questions. The opening panel will explore some of the key issues currently shaping the field today.

Music performances often focus on the essential elements of music theater: the voice, the performer’s physical presence and the specific – often performatively interpreted – techniques of sound production. Rather than relying on complex, extended dramatic narratives, they foreground concrete, elemental situations whose musical and performative potential unfolds in precisely shaped interactions. In doing so, psychological, social and political dimensions frequently come into play. Using music performances presented at the festival as a point of reference, composers and performers will discuss current developments in this evolving artistic field.

For many musicians, the sonic dimension forms an aesthetic universe that is as fascinating as it is complex. Today, the creation and manifestation of electronic sound can take an extremely wide range of forms. Not only is a broad spectrum of synthetic sound generation techniques available, but the spatial arrangement of loudspeakers alone introduces a quality previously unknown in traditional concert music. Similarly, the shaping of electronic sound allows for surfaces that can be rough or smooth, bodies that feel dense or sharp, and sonic forms that can even be translated into the visual domain. The panel invites discussion on current compositional strategies as well as the performance and staging concepts that emerge from them.