A deep dive into the world of spectral music, acoustic experimentation and free improvisation awaited audiences at a concert held on Tuesday at Brno’s Besední dům as part of the 38th Exposition of New Music festival, subtitled Ars Spectrum. The evening brought together three works exploring the limits of listening, the inner structure of sound and the interplay between the concert hall and the world outside. A defining feature of the concert was the unconventional use of space: rather than sitting on stage, the musicians were positioned in the middle of the hall, surrounded by the audience, microphones and loudspeakers.
The Exposition of New Music, held since 1987, is a contemporary music festival that understands the “exposition” in its name not simply as presentation, but also as interaction, participation and direct engagement with the public and public space. It brings innovation and tradition together, with each sound opening up new horizons and offering fresh perspectives on sound and silence for those who want not merely to listen to music, but to discover through it.
This year’s edition, entitled Ars Spectrum, offers a journey through the world of spectral music, taking audiences from its early forms to contemporary experiments with spectral analysis, algorithmic composition and AI-directed improvisation. From this year’s 38th edition onwards, the festival’s programming will be shared by Otto Wanke and Matej Sloboda, who will alternate in shaping the programme. This year’s edition was devised by Otto Wanke (b. 1989), a Czech composer based in Vienna whose work combines vocal and instrumental composition with electronics, multimedia and sound art.
The evening opened with American composer James Tenney (1934–2006) and his In a Large, Open Space (1994). Tenney emerged from the tradition of American experimental music and developed a strong interest in acoustics and perception. He worked closely with John Cage and, in the 1960s, was involved in early computer-synthesis systems at Bell Laboratories. From the 1970s onwards, he increasingly focused on microtonality and the harmonic series. In a Large, Open Space uses the first 32 partials of the harmonic series on F as its sole pitch material, exploring duration, timbre, pitch and dynamics. The performers introduced the tones within a delicate pianissimo texture and sustained them until the sound naturally faded. Vocalist Jana Vondrů gradually joined this continuous stream of sound. With her own voice difficult to hear amid the surrounding mass of tones, the task was a demanding one, yet she handled it so successfully that the human voice became a natural part of the overall soundscape.
The following work, Outside (2007/2019) by Austrian composer Peter Ablinger (1959–2025), radically shifted the perspective of the evening. From the 1990s onwards, Ablinger consistently explored noise, environmental sound and the boundary between music and non-music. In Outside, this principle became the basis of the entire piece: a microphone positioned outside the building transmitted sounds from around Besední dům into the hall in real time. Listening through headphones, the musicians attempted to reproduce them as closely as possible on their instruments, whether passing cars, trams, motorcycles or ringing church bells. The performance responded dynamically to what was happening outside: as a tram approached, the playing swelled towards forte, and at one point the external sound became so intense that it created the impression of the vehicle passing directly through the audience. The players also used unconventional techniques, including blowing across the marimba bars and striking cymbals with their hands.
The final and climactic part of the programme was an extended collective improvisation led by Venezuelan composer, turntablist and performer Jorge Sánchez-Chiong (b. 1969), who has lived in Vienna since 1988 and works at the intersection of contemporary classical music, electronics and free improvisation. Together with the ensemble Dust in the Groove, he created an open musical situation based on immediate reactions and the interplay of different musical languages, from classical music to noise. The piece resembled a chaotic merging of disparate sounds and timbres, with the musicians abandoning conventional playing techniques altogether. The saxophonist tapped the instrument with his fingers, the drummers used their hands and jazz brushes, while Martin Opršál experimented on the marimba with a chain dragged across the bars, a rolling ball and thin plastic tubes that he squeezed. Sánchez-Chiong himself, working with turntables and a mixing desk, played a central role in directing the flow of the music. When he slowed or stopped the records, the rest of the ensemble reduced their sound before building it up again with renewed intensity.
The overall impact of the concert owed much to sound designer Ladislav Mirvis Mirvald, as well as to Otto Wanke on electronics. Their technical solutions and sensitivity to the acoustics of the space allowed the three works, all of which relied on working with the surrounding sound field, to come together as a coherent whole.
Specula Sonorum
Tuesday 6 October 2026 at 7 pm
Besední dům, Brno
Performers:
Jorge Sánchez-Chiong – turntables
Dust in the Groove:
Jana Vondrů – vocals
Žaneta Vítová – accordion
Martin Opršál – marimba
Radim Hanousek – bass clarinet, saxophone
Jan Přibil – trumpet
Yoram Rosilio – double bass
Valentin Duit – percussion, drums
Jakub Švejnar – percussion, drums
Otto Wanke – electronics
Ladislav Mirvis Mirvald – sound design
Programme:
James Tenney: In a Large, Open Space
Peter Ablinger: Outside
Jorge Sánchez-Chiong: Some Ways of Music Making
No comment added yet..