Musicians perform works exploring ecosystems at Wien Modern

The Klangforum Wien performed the world premiere of Liza Lim's "Anima Mundi, the sentient world" at the Grosser Saal of the Konzerthaus in Vienna, Austria.

Lim, an Australian composer known for transforming ecological concepts into art, created a work that explores the interactions between living beings and changing systems. Soloist Sophie Schafleitner played the violin in a piece that translated Lim's thoughts on collective swarm movements and whale behavior into sound.

The festival also featured a 40-minute piece titled "Machine for Contacting the Dead" performed by the Elision Ensemble and the Webern Ensemble of the Wiener Musikuni. This work pushed instrumental capabilities to their limits, using a variety of sounds to create a pulling effect for the audience. Other featured composers included Unsuk Chin, Franco Donatoni, and Francesca Verunelli, who presented diverse musical styles ranging from metallic electronic sounds to dense layers of audio.

Judith Unterpertinger and Katrin Hornek took the festival to a landfill in Donaustadt to explore human-caused geological changes. A group of 120 singers from the Wiener Kammerchor and the Neuen Wiener Stimmen acted as callers, using a vocabulary of waste items like bananas and shower gel to give the site a voice. The audience walked to a stone platform where the performers concluded the piece, using the wind as a natural participant in the performance.