Bent Frequency, in conjunction with ANALOG Arts, the Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs, and the GSU College of the Arts and School of Music, will present three works ( Edentia, Himmels-Tür, and Cosmic Pulses) from Karlheinz Stockhausen's final cycle of works KLANG (Sound) during the Atlanta SoundNOW Festival. KLANG consists of 21 individual pieces called "hours." Himmels-Tür (Heaven's Door), Edentia for soprano saxophone and electronics, and Cosmic Pulses for 8-channel tape represent some of the last compositions from one of the 20th and early 21st Century’s great composers. We're excited to present this concert of his not-yet-well-known works during Atlanta’s contemporary chamber music festival.

Bent Frequency Co-Artistic Director Stuart Gerber worked with Stockhausen for many years. Himmels-Tür (Heaven's Door), the 4th hour from KLANG, was written for and premiered by Gerber in 2006. He has performed this work nearly 30 times all over the world (but only once in Atlanta in 2008).

Edentia, for soprano saxophone and electronics, is the 20th hour from KLANG. Stockhausen uses a few layers of electronic sounds from Cosmic Pulses as the background track for Edentia. In the 1970s Stockhausen became interested in the mystical Urantia book. Edentia is a planet mentioned in the Urantia Book: "There is harmony of music and euphony of expression in the orations of Edentia which are inspiring beyond description."

Cosmic Pulses (2007), the 13th hour, is Stockhausen's final purely electronic piece. Stockhausen was an early proponent of electronic music in the 1950s and helped to develop many of the techniques still used today. Cosmic Pulses is designed for an 8-channel sound system that envelops the audience. It is difficult to program this piece as most venues do not have access to an 8-channel system. Fortunately, Georgia State University’s Kopleff Recital Hall has an incredible state of the art system. Cosmic Pulses is complex and therefore difficult to mix live. BF will be collaborating with ANALOG Arts to bring the New York-based musician Joe Drew to mix sound for this performance. Joe has had extensive experience with Cosmic Pulses, and presented the US premiere as well as multiple performances in New York, Philadelphia and across the country. Cosmic Pulses has been presented to great critical acclaim all over the world. Critics have said the following of the piece: “incessant and implacable, like magnified wave crashes, cheerfully apocalyptic." "Thrilling: it felt as if Stockhausen had dropped a microphone into deepest space."

We're thrilled to be presenting the Atlanta premiere of this final electronic piece from a pioneer of electronic music. We hope you'll join us.

This program is supported in part by the Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs, Fulton County Board of Commissioners, Analog Arts, and Georgia State University College of the Arts and School of Music.