Nathalie Froehlich (CH), Photo: Jessy Machetti

For Music Lovers

The Ars Electronica Festival offers unique concerts and performances in unusual locations: During the opening in Linz’s St. Mary’s Cathedral, entangled photons conduct organs to mark Anton Bruckner’s 200th birthday, the Ars Electronica Nightline brings hyperpop, rap and techno into the abandoned railway hall at POSTCITY and the theme exhibition allows visitors to listen to the enzymatic processes of fungi.

Events

  • “Mishima” Concerto for Piano and Orchestra by Philip Glass

    “Mishima” Concerto for Piano and Orchestra by Philip Glass

    Filharmonie Brno (CZ), Dennis Russell Davies (US), Maki Namekawa (JP/AT)

    Dennis Russell Davies and his Brno Philharmonic Orchestra will conclude the Ars Electronica Festival 2024 with Philip Glass’s “Mishima” Concerto, featuring soloist Maki Namekawa in the Train Hall of POSTCITY.

  • Ars Electronica Nightline

    Ars Electronica Nightline

    2024 the Ars Electronica Nightline focuses on innovative clubmusic from Switzerland.

  • Big Concert Night (sold out)

    Big Concert Night (sold out)

    Cello Octet Amsterdam (NL), Maki Namekawa (JP), Nick Verstand (NL)

    Eight musicians and eight robots stand on stage, the human protagonists “embraced” by giant mechanical arms, forming a “robotic cocoon.” In the second part of the evening, the Cello Octet Amsterdam will perform together with pianist Maki Namekawa.

  • BruQner – The Sound of Entanglement

    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.

  • Electromagnetic Street Bon Dance Festival

    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.…

  • Festival Opening

    Festival Opening

    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…

  • Machines Inside Me

    Machines Inside Me

    Fabio Machiavelli (IT)

    Machines Inside Me is a piece for three self-built electromechanical instruments and two performers. The instruments are equipped with automated mechanical components controlled by an Arduino processor, which has been programmed to allow the instruments to interact and assist the human performers during the performance of the piece. The electromechanical components follow their own ‘score’,…

  • Pianographique—The Intertwining Lands

    Pianographique—The Intertwining Lands

    Maki Namekawa (AT/JP), Dennis Russell Davies (US), Cori O’Lan (AT)

    In celebration of Dennis Russell Davies’ 80th birthday, Maki Namekawa and Davies will perform Smetana’s MA VLAST cycle, accompanied by Cori O’Lans’ real-time visualisation.

  • Silent Echoes: Dachstein

    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…

  • SUPERIMPOSITION

    SUPERIMPOSITION

    POLISONUM (IT)

    SUPERIMPOSITION is an artistic project by Polisonum that investigates the theme of listening and sonic control. The project is realized through the encounter between multiple disciplinary fields including sound, data analysis, fashion, and visual arts.

Projects

  • Anthropophagic Myths, Biopiracy and Opera in the Amazon

    Anthropophagic Myths, Biopiracy and Opera in the Amazon

    Klaus Spiess (AT), Emanuel Gollob (AT)

    Can Amazonian myths give us hope for new modes of entanglement with our en- and in-vironment? We explore our longing for nature, seen in both the commercial collection of microbiota in the Amazon and its representation in operas. In our installation, the vibrational needs for growth of the microbiota and Caruso songs, sung by a…

  • Fu(n)ga

    Fu(n)ga

    Tiziano Derme (IT), Nadine Schütz (CH)

    Fu(n)ga is a spatial and bio-sonic experiment that explores the relationship between enzymatic processes with fungi, controlled environments and acoustic vibrations. For the first time, it reveals the creation of space as metabolic growth, stimulated, mediated and supported by temperature, humidity, air and sound. Fungal activity and visitors’ presence are entangled within an auditory landscape…

  • Maria CHOIR

    Maria CHOIR

    Maria Arnal (ES)

    Maria CHOIR is an immersive human-AI musical installation that invites participants to explore the boundaries of singing and listening through real-time interaction with an AI that evolves with each interaction, becoming a choir. This artwork is not just an artistic experiment; it is also a social experience of building novel AI musical live tools, collective…

  • Organism + Excitable Chaos

    Organism + Excitable Chaos

    Navid Navab (IR/CA), Garnet Willis (CA)

    The chaotic movements of Excitable Chaos, a robotically-modulated triple pendulum, conducts the turbulent thresholds of Organism, a robotically-prepared pipe organ. What is seen in Excitable Chaos’s motion is heard in Organism’s compositional form, as it destabilizes its own socio-historical tonality to sound its turbulent materiality. Turbulent sonifications of chaotic motion serve as emergent meditations on…

  • SONIC SATURDAY

    SONIC SATURDAY

    Anton Bruckner University (Linz, AT)

    Since 2016, Anton Bruckner University has been hosting the Sonic Saturday as part of the Ars Electronica Festival. This year, we will organize an artists’ meeting during the festival to allow for an informal, hands-on exchange of ideas between artistic researchers working on the projects concerned.