Labyrinth by Alex Nowitz

for 8 loudspeakers and no light

The piece was written for an 8.1 surround sound system in high resolution. The audio file here is a mix-down to stereo in the format of a mp3 file.

Duration in total: 14' 22''

The Labyrinth is based on the live performance work 'Minotaurus', for voice and gesture-controlled live electronics (stimmflieger) in a quadrophonic speaker setting. The 'stimmflieger' is a wireless, digital musical instrument consisting of two Wii controllers and a software patch developed together with Daniel Schorno at STEIM, the studio for electro-instrumental music in Amsterdam. For further informations on the instrument see the article 'Voice and Live-Electronics using Remotes as Gestural Controllers', retrievable at
https://econtact.ca/10_4/nowitz_voicelive.html

As a result of the first prize of the ECPNM competiton for works composed and performed with live electronics at Gothenburg during the ISCM World New Music Days in 2009, Alex Nowitz was invited by EMS, the Elektronmusikstudion Stockholm, to work with an eight-channel system. Started in May 2010, continued for a couple of days in April 2012 and finished on 6 June 2013 in studio 2, the piece 'Labyrinth' emerged.

Composition and sound poetry: Alex Nowitz
Poem 'Minotaurus': Sonja Kloevekorn
Translations of the poem: Ilka Seifert

Countertenor, voices and stimmflieger: Alex Nowitz
Bass- and doublebass clarinets: Theo Nabicht

Voices from Berlin, Wiesbaden(Germany) and Gothenburg (Sweden)reciting the poem "Minotaurus"
Arabic: father of Fatma Bektas
English: Alex Nowitz
Finnish: Tomi Mäkelä
French: Anne Jardin
German: Alex Nowitz, Ilka Seifert
Greek: Xenia Kourkoumeli
Hebrew: Ophira Zakai
Italian: Brigitte Reineke
Portuguese: Maria Teresa Corceiro (Wiesbaden)
Spanish/catalan: Bibets Ramos
Swedish: Anna Svensdotter (Gothenburg)
Turkish: Fatma Bektas

Premiere: 14 September 2013 at the fabrik Potsdam during new music festival 'intersonanzen' 2013

Acknowledgements:
Daniel Schorno, Frank Baldé (both STEIM, Amsterdam), Sonja Kloevekorn (Berlin), Ilka Seifert (Berlin), Theo Nabicht (Berlin), Mats Lindström (EMS, Stockholm) and Henk Heuvelmans (Gaudeamus, Utrecht).