Sound and Experiment X Museum Brandhorst

Sound and Experiment X Museum Brandhorst features a multiplicity of compositional approaches to electronic music, drone and neo- ambient, alongside various techniques in speech and digital synthesis.

What happens when accuracy is subverted into new material conditions, tending more toward a transformation of the self instead of a precise recollection? The CD compilation is the result of an inquiry into form and meditation: developed in conjunction with a series of performances held at the Museum Brandhorst in 2025 by participants of Sound and Experiment (Prof. Florian Hecker, Academy of Fine Arts Munich) in the context of the exhibition Fünf Freunde: John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly. The point of departure was not the exactness of reproducibility, but the use of the CD’s format as the point of origin for an experimental approach to documentation itself.

The pieces featured on this release act like spectres of their former selves; not bound to representational objectivity and instead functioning as new compositions, only echoing the respective performances insofar as the techniques or source materials are the same, by virtue of each artist’s distinctive approach to working with sound. Through a panoply of production techniques, ranging between algorithmic decision-based processes, electro- acoustic amplification, digital frequency modulation and speech synthesis and processing, the 13 tracks function more like documents of an array of multiple interests, merged into a cohesive whole that seeks to extend the temporary nature of the performances and, instead of offering a ‘live’ CD, understands the original performances as a site for further exploration; less an echolalic instance of evidence, repeated for documentation sake and more an additional iteration of similar endeavours. Thus, authenticity is situated within the subjective, with each composition seemingly whispering: how much of the sonic palette still belongs to the various instances of performative concerts; where does the line between the intentionality of recapitulation, the scrutiny of standardized documentation and formal revisions blur into an auditory hypothesis produced for Sound and Experiment X Museum Brandhorst.

With contributions from Sofian Biazzi, Ilinca Fechete, focus baby, Daniel Gianfranceschi, Bruno Haas, Caroline Kretschmer, Bradley Leonard, Camilla Metelka, Maria Margolina, rosi and water lily.

 The pieces featured on this CD are related to the presented performances, yet newly produced and with the audio CD format in mind.