Xenakis vs. Scelsi
an exploration of spectralism: from the highest frequencies to the lowest tones and back again
Living sound sculptures as acoustic meditation.
From the highest frequencies to the lowest tones and back again – an exploration of spectralism, pushing the limits of the human voice within the soundscapes of Iannis Xenakis and Giacinto Scelsi.
Both were uncompromising, never choosing the middle ground: Iannis Xenakis and Giacinto Scelsi carved their paths along the ragged edges of the post-war avant-garde, each guided by a radically distinct compass. Xenakis built music like architecture, inspired by natural processes – raw, mathematical, and physical. The minimalist Scelsi zoomed in on the core of a single note, as if unfolding time itself.
In this concert, two complementary worlds collide: sound as mass versus sound as meditation. An intense listening experience, with music that does not gently seduce, but sweeps you away relentlessly.
concert
programme
Iannis Xenakis Serment (1981)
Giacinto Scelsi Tre Canti Sacri (1958)
Giacinto Scelsi Yliam, per coro femminile (1964)
Joanna Bailie Harmonizing (Artificial Environments No. 7) (2012)
Iannis Xenakis Nuits (1968)
Justė Janulytė “Iridescence” for choir and electronics (2023)
concert without interval (65')
artists
Alexander Lüken conductor
Vlaams Radiokoor
Alex Fostier (Ictus) sound engineering & electronics
with the support of Beside Tax Shelter and the Belgian Tax Shelter
location
Muziekcentrum De Bijloke ∙ Bijlokekaai 7, 9000 Ghent ∙ how to reach the venue
tickets
€30 (standard) ∙ €10 (student & -26)
Iannis Xenakis
"Among the closest Xenakis comes to a direct emotional utterance is in his Nuits for chorus; music that sounds like a primordial cry, an impassioned scream." The Guardian
Nuits is Xenakis in his purest form. Drawing on his long nights as a political prisoner – filled with the harsh cries of guards and the screams of tortured companions – he strips vocal music of every familiar shape of language. Nuits is not a narrative, but an intense exploration of sound: darkness, fear, and the raw power of the human voice, rooted in Xenakis’s personal history and his mathematical vision.
For Serment, based on the Hippocratic Oath, Xenakis weaves a vivid tapestry of refined vocal textures: solo voices, shifting sonic blocks, and broad repetitive gestures form the framework of a work that is austere, yet remarkably powerful and direct.
Giacinto Scelsi
"Music cannot exist without sound, but sound can exist without music. It would seem, therefore, that sound is more important. Let us begin with that." Giacinto Scelsi
Nuits The music of the Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi was first performed live – and thus truly discovered – only in the late 1980s, shortly before his death. Convinced that each listener would perceive the same note differently depending on their position and distance from an instrument, Scelsi considered performances unnecessary.
In Yliam, Scelsi applies his characteristic focus on a single pitch or sonic core to a vocal mass. The work becomes a living sound sculpture, constantly breathing and transforming. His earlier Tre Canti Sacri already explores this technique. Nourished by religious and transcendental themes, it is an acoustic meditation in which the human voice becomes a medium of sacred intensity.
Nuits
live at Tectonics 2026
Get a taste of the raw, primal power of Xenakis’ masterpiece. This live recording of Nuits offers a striking preview of the overwhelming experience awaiting you in the concert hall.
Vlaams Radiokoor conducted by James Wood
singers: Jolien De Gendt, Kristien Nijs, Sarah Van Mol, Estelle Lefort, Hellen Cassano, María Gil Muñoz, Michiel Haspeslagh, Ivan Goossens, Paul Schils, Thomas Vandenabeele, Jean Manuel Candenot, Andrés Soler Castaño
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Joanna Bailie
“Sound waves live forever - they are only getting quieter as time goes by.” Joanna Bailie
Harmonizing (Artificial Environments No. 7) focuses on music and the processes surrounding it – in this case, the harmonization of fragments from field recordings into six voices. It is also an attempt – albeit in a small and modest way – to introduce the outside world into the concert hall: the idea that a raw, unedited field recording can form the foundation of a composition lies at the very heart of Joanna Bailie’s work.
The sounds captured in Harmonizing were recorded in Umbria (Birdland), near the carousel in the London Zoo (William Tell), and in Brussels (Three planes). With thanks to Els Viaene for donating the second of the airplane recordings.
Justė Janulytė
“I sit here on the perfect end of a star, watching light pour itself toward me.” Richard Brautigan
Justė Janulytė created a musical quest for the metaphor of light, inspired by Lux aeterna by György Ligeti (one of her favorite composers). Iridescence refers to the optical, light-based phenomenon of iridescence in nature. The text, pronounced entirely without consonants, is a line from Richard Brautigan’s poem Star Hole – repeated infinitely like a mantra until it adds a melancholic, slightly apocalyptic dimension to the Lux aeterna theme.
I sit here on the perfect end of a star, watching light pour itself toward me.
The light pours itself through a small hole in the sky.
I'm not very happy, but I can see how things are faraway.