The Gate, a Frequency

Tender Matter and Ventil Records Present an Evening of New Audio Works
Anniversary Compositions for Acoustic and Electronic Ensemble

The Vienna based music labels and event promoters Tender Matter and Ventil Records joined forces for a collaborative event to mark their respective fifth and tenth anniversaries. The program will feature three premieres of new works, specifically commissioned for this occasion, by artists creating music within the fields of experimental electronic and classical composition.

The architectural and acoustic properties of the AIL – with the former cashier hall – are a constitutive element in the conception of the works being presented. The program explores the perceptual boundaries between composed music and sound performance, with pieces anticipated to engage with methodologies and aesthetics of ambient, drone, noise, and contemporary classical music.

The selected date, set in a period of seasonal transition, informs a conceptual framework examining themes of structural permeability, communal gathering in response to external conditions, and the potential for auditory experience to serve as a site for collective imagination and discursive disruption. The event positions itself as an inquiry into the capacity of sound to reshape the perception of architectural and social space.

PROGRAM (in alphabetical order)

aloisius: a gesture of a triangle
Improvisational artist aloisius presents a new piece in which he explores the interplay of live improvisation and pre recorded composition, via saxophone, percussion and live cello.

Tony Wagner: Chromatic Circles
The subject of the work is a tonal topography, which is drawn by the systematic chromatic shift of four cello parts, thereby unfolding a dense network of dissonances and floating overtones. The specially designed graphic score functions not only as a procedural playing instruction, but also as an artifact accessible to the listener, transgressively crossing the boundaries between musical notation, visual art, and spatial intervention. The focus is on exploring a collective, space-bound form of deep listening in which the architectural resonance space is understood as an integral, co-composing actor.

Line-up

Emil Huppenkothen - cello

Ahoo Maher - cello

Tony Wagner - cello

Pheno Wischer - cello

Ursula Winterauer: When Dust Settles
When dust settles explores the sounds of a city in transformation and turns them into an acoustic reflection. At the heart of the piece are the everyday noises of construction and redevelopment, often perceived as disruptive or even unbearable. They not only stand for change and transformation, but also symbolize the speed and impermanence of contemporary life. In the sound piece these urban sounds, arising from the process of city restructuring, are treated as an archive of collective memory, reinterpreted through careful arrangement and attentive listening. Field recordings of old, still-standing buildings, new machines, and the voices of those involved in the transformation merge within the composition. The juxtaposition of old and new – stones, earth, structures, voices, and sounds – creates an acoustic collision of different temporalities. Demolition and reconstruction together tell a story of transition.

Line-up

Larry Meyer - voice

Karo Preuschl - voice

Ursula Winterauer - electronics

Tender Matter (5 years) and Ventil Records (10 years) have established themselves as significant institutions within the Austrian experimental music scene. This collaboration underscores their ongoing commitment to the facilitation and documentation of avant-garde practices, providing a platform for the development and presentation of new work by both local and international artists.

About Ventil Records:
Ventil Records is an Austrian independent label dedicated to the documentation and promotion of avant-garde and improvised music. For a decade, it has served as a critical archive for innovative sonic practices emerging from Vienna and the international community.

About Tender Matter:
Tender Matter is a Vienna-based platform focused on the curation and dissemination of experimental music. Its activities encompass label operations and event promotion, with a specific focus on works that interrogate the boundaries between electronic and acoustic domains.