A concert that brings into dialogue two sonic universes that appear distant, yet are united by a shared drive toward exploration and the search for the limits of listening. The program features the performance of selected pieces from Das Buch der Klänge by Hans Otte, entrusted to pianist Alfonso Alberti, with the piano’s resonances reworked in real time by the electronics of the Ars Discantica group, followed by a performance by the duo Emptyset with Disserver.

Hans Otte (1926–2007), a central figure in German contemporary music, devoted much of his life to the pursuit of a musical language that was both essential and spiritual. Das Buch der Klänge, composed between 1979 and 1982, stands as one of his most significant works: a cycle of twelve parts that unfolds as a meditative journey, an inner voyage through sound and silence. Otte conceives the piano not as an instrument for virtuosity, but as a means to open spaces for listening, to create a suspended time in which perception expands and intensifies. The writing is simple and transparent, yet charged with depth: repetitions, minimal variations, essential rhythmic figures that slowly transform, inviting the listener into a contemplative experience.

On this occasion, Alfonso Alberti will perform a selection of pieces from Das Buch der Klänge, offering an interpretation that highlights the intimate and meditative dimension of the score. The novelty of this concert lies in the intervention of Ars Discantica, who will rework the piano’s resonances live through electronics. This is not a mere accompaniment, but a true dialogue: the acoustic sound of the instrument extends, transforms, and multiplies in space, creating a sonic landscape that amplifies and enriches Otte’s writing. The electronics become a natural extension of the piano, capable of revealing subtle vibrations, bringing out hidden harmonics, and constructing an immersive environment that envelops the listener. It is a way of bringing Otte’s work into the present, showing its vitality and its ability to converse with contemporary technologies without betraying its original spirit.

The concert continues with Emptyset, a British duo formed by James Ginzburg and Paul Purgas, who have long explored the boundaries between electronic sound, visual art, and architecture. Their aesthetic is radical: starting from essential sonic materials—impulses, noise, frequencies—they build structures that stretch the acoustic space, transforming listening into a physical, almost tactile experience. Disserver, the project presented on this occasion, fits within the line of research that characterizes Emptyset: a work that interrogates sound matter in its most primary dimension, deconstructing and recomposing electronic signals into forms that challenge perception.

Emptyset’s music is not merely heard: it acts upon the body, sets the environment into vibration, and creates a sense of instability that forces the listener to continually redefine their relationship with sound. It evokes the energy of electronic avant-gardes while engaging with the present, with the possibilities offered by digital technologies, and with the need to rethink the role of sound art in contemporary society.

Disserver is a work that operates on the threshold between construction and destruction, order and chaos, form and matter, inviting us to consider sound not as language but as force—as energy that shapes space and time.

The work is a sonic exploration rooted in the traditions of electronic music, noise, and the material culture of sound. The title itself, Dissever, suggests an idea of separation, cutting, fracture. This concept is reflected in the structure of the work, articulated in seven tracks: Gloam, Aether, Penumbra, Dissever, Lucent, Antumbra, and Dawn. Each track is built as a field of tension between form and disintegration, structure and entropy. The duo works with abrasive sound materials, saturated bass, controlled distortions, and loops that progressively break apart, generating unstable and hypnotic acoustic landscapes.

Emptyset employs a combination of analog synthesizers, contact microphones, feedback processes, and digital manipulations to construct a sound that is both physical and conceptual.

From a stylistic perspective, Dissever aligns with power noise and industrial electronics, yet with a depth that transcends labels.

The concert on February 16 at the Auditorium San Fedele thus becomes a true journey through two opposing ways of understanding music: on one side, the meditative and spiritual writing of Hans Otte, inviting introspection and contemplation; on the other, the radicality of Emptyset, which foregrounds the physicality of sound and its capacity to destabilize and transform.