Itinerari Insoliti brings into dialogue two figures from different, even contrasting, realms of the European experimental scene: the Viennese Robert Schwarz with a journey into the microcosm of insect sound signals, and the producer and sound artist Dasha Rush, here engaged in an ambient live set specifically conceived for the context. Trained between Vienna and Berlin, with studies in architecture and music, Robert Schwarz has been working for years on the relationship between space, perception, and sound. His latest work continues his exploration into territories where field recordings, electronic processes, and spatialization of sound merge into dense and layered acoustic environments, where the boundary between real and artificial is intentionally blurred. His compositions are designed not only for listening but to be inhabited: as sonic architectures that one enters and remains within. Schwarz uses sound materials collected in natural settings—particularly rhythmic and timbral patterns derived from insect behavior—which he reworks through digital synthesis, creating structures that balance contemplation, hallucination, and analytical precision. His performance will be a rare opportunity to experience live this new work, which represents his most mature and complex production to date. Through isolated acoustic signals and collective syncopated structures, insects and arthropods communicate via “stridulations”: sound signals produced by rubbing two chitinous parts of their bodies together. In Stridulations 1–14, Viennese sound artist Robert Schwarz presents a speculative resynthesis of these signals, integrated with ethological field recordings from real entomological ecosystems. Continuing research initiated with Clear Cues (ETAT, 2022) and partly developed from a composition commissioned by ORF Musikprotokoll in 2023, this work investigates the acoustic properties of insect communication, focusing particularly on the spatiotemporal patterns generated by collective phenomena such as swarming and synchronization.

Supported by over twenty years of field recording experience, Schwarz constructs an acoustic continuum in which abstract and densely layered sound entities demand a dissociated listening, liberated from conventional perceptual modes. Stridulations 1–14 continually redefines the boundaries between natural and synthetic, following an autonomous compositional logic informed by principles of intra-species acoustic communication. The result is an immersive and destabilizing sound environment that opens alternative perspectives on the relationship between biological organisms, technological systems, and human agents.

Dasha Rush, active for some time between Berlin and the rest of the world, is widely known to audiences for her sculptural and visionary techno productions. However, alongside this profile, her work also includes an intense production of ambient, installation, and performance pieces that emphasize a stretched-out, meditative, and sometimes unsettling listening experience. For this occasion, Rush presents an ambient live set built on atmospheric layers, refined electronic textures, and a subtle use of spatialization. Far from any new age aesthetic, her ambient music explores dark and unstable zones where digital sensitivity confronts perceptual and bodily aspects of listening. The result is an immersive experience that, while maintaining strong formal coherence, leaves room for the unexpected and emotional engagement.