The Cold Trip

At the end of the year, the ZKM | Institute for Music and Acoustic is presenting a concert by renowned ALEPH guitar quartet and soprano Sarah Maria Sun, who will be interpreting works by Bernhard Lang among others.

In August 2017, a new CD publication by Bernhard Lang became available on the Vienna-based label Kairos, containing »The Cold Trip' pt. I« which was co-produced by the ZKM | Karlsruhe. The 32^nd composition from Bernhard Lang’s cycle of works »Monadologie« represents Lang’s meta-compositional analysis of Franz Schubert’s »Winter Journey«. Composed for four guitars and vocals, the piece was recorded with the Aleph guitar quartet and soprano Sarah Maria Sun in the ZKM_Kubus at the start of the year.

»“The Cold Trip' pt. I« was commissioned by the Aleph guitar quartet, the Austrian Cultural Forum New York and the Berliner Festspiele and premiered last March as part of Berlin’s MaerzMusik Festival.

The ALEPH guitar quartet is considered the most renowned guitar ensemble in contemporary music. The quartet will be showcasing pieces which have been written especially for them and provide an impression of how unconventional innovation is facilitated in virtuoso style by four guitars. Founded in 1993, the quartet has made a name for itself as an ensemble making a crucial contribution to the creation of a contemporary repertoire for four guitars. In close collaboration with the four guitarists Andrés Hernández Alba, Tillmann Reinbeck, Wolfgang Sehringer and Christian Wernicke, countless composers explore the acoustic possibilities of this line-up. The ALEPH guitar quartet collaborates closely with the ZKM | Institute for Music and Acoustic and is financially supported by the Cultural Office of the city of Karlsruhe, the state of Baden-Württemberg and the Spanish Ministry of Culture.

Soprano Sarah Maria Sun is considered one of the leading interpreters of contemporary music and has performed with conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Kent Nagano, Thomas Hengelbrock, Susanna Mälkki and many others.