Wednesday, September 4, 2024, is not only the first day of the Festival, but also the 200th birthday of the Upper Austrian composer and organist Anton Bruckner. This is a fitting reason to hold this year’s festival opening in the Mariendom, where a team of artists, organists, computer scientists and physicists will not only perform Bruckner’s Perger Prelude, but have it conducted by entangled photons.
Free admission! Participation in the Opening on September 4, 2024, is free.
Starting in the early morning hours, Bill Fontana’s Silent Echoes can be experienced in St. Mary’s Cathedral—the sound installation was created in collaboration with the European Capital of Culture Bad Ischl Salzkammergut 2024 and OÖ KulturEXPO Anton Bruckner 2024 and serves as a poignant artistic statement on the climate crisis.
This year, the official opening of the Ars Electronica Festival pays tribute to a composer and organist who would have celebrated his 200th birthday on September 4: Anton Bruckner. The event starts at 8 pm and takes place at the St. Mary’s Cathedral in Linz.
The event starts at 10 pm with the organ concert “BruQner – The Sound of Entanglement”. Two church organs will play Anton Bruckner’s “Perger Präludium”, with entangled photons taking on the role of conductor. Lasers, mirrors, polarizers, non-linear crystals – an experimental set-up from the high-tech laboratory in the middle of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Linz, developed and set up by a team of artists, organists, computer scientists and physicists makes this possible.
At 11 pm, the stage belongs to the chamber musicians of the Bruckner Orchestra Linz. They will play Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 WAB 107 in E major in the arrangement for ensemble (“Schönberg version”) by Hanns Eisler (movements I and III), Erwin Stein (movement II) and Karl Rankl (movement IV).
At 11.30 pm, the 12-piece ensemble “NoFive” then performs “Bruckner x Pop x No Wave”. Bruckner’s Fifth fuses with the iconic “Seven Nation Army” riff by the White Stripes, is shaken and stirred in Glenn Branca style and forms an avant-garde soundscape somewhere between high and pop culture.
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Bruckner Sinfonie Nr. 7, Bearbeitung für Ensemble
Kammermusiker*innen des Bruckner Orchester Linz (AT)
Musicians from the Bruckner Orchester Linz will perform the two inner movements of Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony in the arrangement for ensemble.
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Bruckner x Pop x No Wave
NoFive (AT)
How do Upper Austrian composer Anton Bruckner and American rock duo The White Stripes fit together? The NoFive project aims to explore this intriguing question. Notably, there is a striking similarity between a recurring theme from Bruckner’s 5th Symphony and the White Stripes’ iconic Seven Nation Army riff.
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BruQner – The Sound of Entanglement
The second quantum revolution as a musical spectacle: Lasers, mirrors, non-linear crystals—an experimental setup from the hi-tech laboratory in the middle of Linz’s new cathedral. Entangled photons—the quanta of light—become conductors and direct Bruckner’s Perger Präludium in a way that no human could.
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Echoes of Light
Kepler Observatory Linz (AT)
The astronomers of the Kepler Observatory Linz will accompany you on a journey through the night sky this evening—both with the naked eye and through professional telescopes.
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Electromagnetic Street Bon Dance Festival
ELECTRONICOS FANTASTICOS! (JP)
The Electromagnetic Street Bon Dance Festival will honor the tradition of ancient Japanese festivals of fire, water, wind and earth, and will be dedicated to electricity, essential in the modern age. Join us in a frenzy of playing and dancing around a solar-powered, off-grid stage, where old electrical appliances are revived as new electromagnetic instruments.…
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Lou Asril
Lou Asril (AT)
Numerous styles have found their way into Lou Asril’s work: in addition to soul and RnB, which initially dominated, pop, hip-hop and electronic music are strong influences that continue to help him find his very own style. Lou Asril released his second EP RETROMIX21 in March 2023. It was followed by some exciting live performances:…
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Silent Echoes: Dachstein
Bill Fontana (US)
In 2019, Notre-Dame, the “soul of Paris” and a symbol of European culture, burns down. The bells are spared, but remain silent for years. They silently “listen” to the bustle of the city and the sounds of the construction site. US sound artist Bill Fontana uses vibration sensors to make the bells’ harmonious response audible…