Homage à Robert Ashley by Bernhard Lang
“I saw Robert Ashley for the first time at the Annenhof cinema in Graz with ‘Perfect Lives’ in the 80s: nowadays, I consider his works to be perhaps the most influential work of new music theater in the 21st century. This little homage is based on a loop, the enigmatic voice of one of Ashely’s artistic relatives and the crazy piano transcription of the selfsame, somehow quoting Blue Gene Tyranny’s playing.”
Bernhard Lang
Bernhard Lang, born in Linz in 1957, has been regularly invited to present his work at the musikprotokoll Festival for years. After studying in Graz, he went on to work as a composer, arranger, and pianist with different jazz bands for several years, and has experimented generating software for computer-assisted composition at the Institute of Electronic Music Graz. Today he teaches at the University of Music in Graz as well as internationally. Lang’s comprehensive examination of music and dance theatre began with the world premiere of his Theater der Wiederholungen (Theatre of Repetitions) at the steirischer herbst Festival in 2003 and has paved the way for collaboration with Xavier Le Roy, Willi Dorner, Christine Gaigg and Silke Grabinger (Moving Architecture). Currently Bernhard Lang is continuing his Differenz/Wiederholung series of compositions based on loops.