Ars Musica - BIG SCIENCE

Science – it’s the perfect balance between mathematics and musical composition; a fresh impetus to use computers and technology to find new sounds; the poetry of fantasies; inspiration from the stars and the cosmos… Science has deep and rich connections with music, and it is the theme of the 2022 edition of Ars Musica, the international biennial festival of new music. Whether a means of working or the object of our dreams, science has long offered countless ingenious paths into artistic and musical creation. The 2022 programming of Ars Musica explores the topic of science, with, amongst other works: an improvisation on texts written by Galileus (‘And yet it moves’), a mythical opera about Albert Einstein (‘Einstein on the Beach’ by Philipp Glass), a visionary taste of the cosmos (‘Apollo’ by Brian Eno), and science-fiction from Jean-Luc Fafchamps, alongside work that explores the poetic, artistic, and “robotic” links between images and sound in futurist cinema (Fritz Lang’s ‘Metropolis’, by Martin Matalon). The festival will also welcome Laurie Anderson, whose album ‘Big Science’ celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2022. Anderson’s album is also the inspiration behind the title of this edition of Ars Musica, where science acts as a vector, offering a dynamic and transdisciplinary route into new music. At this, the dawning of the third millennium, with its countless hopes and worries… From now on, all expressions of music and sound seem to come together in one stream: experimental, searching, minimalist, improvised, savant, electronic music alongside ‘sound installations’ or musical theatre. The topic of science encompasses the diversity of the world and the spirit of curiosity that is at the very heart of Ars Musica’s biennial festival: We invite you on a journey through sound, music, and the cosmos.