The moebius cantata “Zart” (2008) by Hofstetter Kurt is a composition of four movements with especially created sounds, the so-called moebius sounds, which sound the same when played forwards or backwards. When overlaid, these sounds provide a pendant to the timeless principle of moebius loop. “Zart” mediates a musical experience on the ‘horizon of contemporary events’. At the moment of their acoustic perception, electronically generated moebius sounds unfold their sonic potential which is directed both at the past and the future.

The sound and moving image composition “Nowhere” (2012) by Hofstetter Kurt and Barbara Doser is the synthetic interlacing of the moebius cantata “Zart” played backwards with video feedback materials. Since the composition “Zart” follows a strictly musical dramaturgy, as a totality, it is not a moebius sound. By means of the identically sounding moebius sounds, its experimental reverse playback simulates a forward movement, and carries off the recipients through a dramaturgical change in direction to nowhere. In the process, the moebius sounds enter into new connections and effective relations, which repeatedly flow into unexpected sound process. The synaesthetic connection to the moving picture is not capable of giving orientation – it far rather endorses this aspect. Video feedback materials are used which, owing to their methods of generation, represent a conceptually stringent pendant to the moebius sounds. Here, both optical as well as acoustic principles of potential infinity are applied.

Through abstract, synthetic sound and image processing “Nowhere” compels the listener to unconditional sensual devotion, leaving narrative moments infinitely far behind. The recipients are thrown back on themselves – alone in the here and now.

Organization / Institution

ZKM