Prism #22  FLÆSH

Programme:

Maximiliano Alejandro Soto Mayorga (CL, 1991): a moon swims out of a cloud – vuelapluma

for flute, recorder, harp, harpsichord, 2025, Austrian premiere, 10‘

 

Soyeon Park (KR, 1989): AirBone

for flute, recorder, harp, harpsichord, 2026, world premiere, 10´

supported by BMWKMS

 

Michal Talma Sutt (PL, 1969): Prisma

for Paetzold and tape, 2006, 8´

 

Brendan Champeaux (FR, 1995): Seem

for alto flute, recorder, harp, harpsichord, 2026, world premiere, 12´

Commissioned by ensemble airborne extended with the support of Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation and

„Société des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Éditeurs de Musique“ (SACEM)

 

Petra Strahovnik (SI, 1986): FLÆSH

for contrabass flute,Paetzold, harp, harpsichord, objects and fixed media, 2026, world premiere, 16´

supported by Fonds Podiumskunsten, the Netherlands

 

 

Elena Gabbrielli, flutes, objects

Sonja Leipold, harpsichord, objects

Caroline Mayrhofer, Paetzold/recorders, objects

Tina Žerdin, harp,objects

Alisa Kobzar, sound design

 

 

FLÆSH explores unusual combinations of sound and timbre made possible by the instrumentation of airborne extended. Through different tunings of the harps and harpsichord, each composer creates their own unique sonic universe in this very special programme.

Brendan Champeaux explores subtle boundaries and transitions between the instruments, almost turning their individual sonic qualities inside out. The instruments complement each other, or completely merge, creating a musical dramaturgy of confrontation, connection, and dialogue.

Maximiliano Soto Mayorga invites the ensemble into an intimate and poetic soundscape based on a poem by E. E. Cummings. Sound images emerge around the moon, swimming, drowning, clouds, and spider webs.

 

Soyeon Park explores the tension between sonic closeness and distance, both in sound and in the physical actions of playing. She uses the friction between physical gesture and sound as a productive musical element. The musicians act as independent sonic layers within different spatial relationships. Movements, noises, and sonic gestures become equally important building blocks, combining to create a complex and multi-layered sonic surface.

 

Petra Strahovnik’s FLÆSH connects sound with flashes of light, breath, and mental perception. Inspired by brain impulses, flashes of light, explosions of sound, and breathing rhythms become triggers for complex neural patterns and emotional responses.

In FLÆSH, the mysterious mechanisms of perception in the brain become a compositional and performative machine: every impulse or flash triggers a sound wave, a movement, or silence. Electronics carry impulses, breath, and pressure.

The piece reflects the composer’s experiences with hyperbaric oxygen therapy, where sound and breathing become intensified. The constant “shhhhhhhhh” of the air becomes a texture that shapes mental and sonic states — a sound world moving between fragile textures, dense resonance, and physical gesture, exploring the relationship between inner and outer perception.

The name airborne extended is part of this inspiration: a state carried by breath, sound, and awareness.