Lunch Concert 4A
Concert 4A marks a special moment of collaboration between Hamburg’s local music scene and international composers. A particular highlight are two world premieres written especially for the renowned Hamburg-based double bassist John Eckhardt. Known for his explorations at the boundaries between new music and sound art, Eckhardt here pushes the sonic extremes of his instrument in dialogue with the computer.
Alongside the focus on the double bass, the audience can expect a journey ranging from “electroacoustic romanticism” to AI-driven violin improvisations.
This Lunch Concert is open to the public. Those without a conference pass can purchase a ticket here.
Program Overview
X6 – Hexaphonic Spatialized Guitar
Francesco Perissi and Giovanni Magaglio
The Water lily in the blaze
Natsuki Kambe
Double bass: John Eckhardt
confim, assim, sem fim
Rodrigo Pascale
Double bass: John Eckhardt
ULYSSES II
Roberto Cipollina
Violin: Eleonora Podestà
The Week
Henrik von Coler
Empress Luo
Yao Hsiao
Resonant Thresholds
Cecilia Suhr
About the pieces & artists
Francesco Perissi and Giovanni Magaglio: X6 – Hexaphonic Spatialized Guitar
The “X6 – Hexaphonic Spatialized Guitar” project is about an augmented electric guitar designed for 6.1 channel spatialization. With the X6 setup and a special breakout cable, it is possible to manage the sound from a hexaphonic pickup, which separates the guitar signal into six independent channels, one for each string. These signals are sent to a computer, where Max/MSP processes them in real time with filters, loops, sound manipulation, and spatial projection. The first version of the project had a fixed structure controlled by a sequencer that automated the filters. In the latest version, a flexible multi-channel filter matrix has been added, together with inputs for voice, electronic instruments, and samples. This makes the performance more open and improvisational, allowing for control over time, sound layering, spatial gestures, and vocal or electronic transformations. The idea is to build a self-made hyper-instrument where the performer and the algorithms influence each other, creating electroacoustic music distributed in space and combining different musical practices. The newest patch, version 20, also uses artificial intelligence. With machine learning tools (FluCoMa), the system can recognize instrumental gestures and automatically change filter settings. With neural synthesis (RAVE), it can modify the sound of each string by acting on the latent spaces of the model, producing deep timbral changes. The project also includes an interactive audio-visual part made with software TouchDesigner, where the screen is divided into six sections that represent the six guitar strings. The visuals are generated with AI using prompts inspired by Renaissance painting, but mixed with modern themes such as social distortion, bias, and the perceptual effects of today’s hyper-technological world. Overall, the concept points to a kind of “second Renaissance.” It suggests that we are living in a new era in which imagination is shaped not by traditional art forms or systems of patronage, but by digital technology. This new technè inaugurates unprecedented creative possibilities, while also raising ethical, cognitive, and epistemological questions that we are only beginning to grasp.
About the artists
Natsuki Kambe: The Water lily in the blaze
About the artists
Natsuki Kambe was born in 2004 in Yokohama, Japan. They began studying piano at the age of five and started composition studies with Kazuo Mise at the age of fifteen. In 2020, she graduated from the Music Department of Toho Girls’ High School.
In the same year, they entered Toho Gakuen College of Music as a composition major and are currently a third-year student (as of January 2026). Since April 2024, she has been studying computer music under Takayuki Rai.
Double bass: John Eckhardt
Rodrigo Pascale: confim, assim, sem fim
“confim, assim, sem fim” was composed in 2024 during the Laboratorio de Composición Mixta of Resonancias Iberoamericanas. It is dedicated to the Festival Expresiones Contemporáneas and to Francisco. This composition explores the concept of infinity within limited systems.
The pre-compositional research involved extensive explorations of harmonies based on mathematical ratios. I established a structure featuring 15 harmonies, beginning with two frequencies at a ratio of 16/15. Each subsequent harmony added a new frequency derived from the initial ratio, multiplied by a series of ratios following the sequence [16/15, 15/14, 14/13, 13/12, 12/11, 11/10, 10/9, 9/8, 8/7, 7/6, 6/5, 5/4, 4/3, 3/2, 2/1]. Notably, some harmonies—including the second—utilized this sequence in reverse. For instance, the ratio [15/14] was employed as the foundation for the first two frequencies, while the third harmony emerged from multiplying [15/14] by [16/15], yielding [8/7].
The forward sequence often led to more dissonant harmonies, while the backward sequence inclined towards consonance, and I frequently juxtaposed the two. An exception occurred between harmonies 13 and 14, where both utilized forward sequences to create heightened tension, concluding in a consonant 15th harmony. The sequence employs a set of regressive numbers, each divided by its preceding integer. This approach allows for the potential to extend beyond 2/1 to 1/0, thus engaging with a well-known mathematical problem. As the results of division increase when the denominator decreases, division by zero is said to “tend to infinity.”
In this exploration, I realized that the logical conclusion of the composition was to approach infinity musically. However, I confronted the challenge that the double bass can only produce a finite range of sounds, and that the human hearing spans approximately from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Faced with this problem, I sought solutions that transcended the confines of the system itself. This led me to investigate how the limitations of our auditory perception could be brought to the forefront, creating illusions of seemingly ever-rising glissandi and of rhythm turning to pitch. The transformation of percussive sounds into frequencies and the use of Shepard tones played a crucial role in this composition.
confim, assim, sem fim delves into the boundaries of auditory perception, aiming to investigate the concept of infinity within limited systems. This composition begins with a sequence of harmonies, where subtle facets of infinty aer explored through the techniques of the double bass. In its culminating section, the work unveils the full potential of this exploration by incorporating exceptionally high frequencies and an enduring reverberation, creating an immersive sonic landscape that invites listeners to experience the infinity within these media.
About the artists
Rodrigo Pascale (b. 1996) is an internationally awarded Brazilian composer whose works have been performed worldwide by leading ensembles including JACK Quartet, ICE, MCME, Splinter Reeds, loadbang, Hypercube, Hinge, and Sound Icon. A Prix CIME 2025 recipient and Gaudeamus Award 2026 Finalist, he is pursuing a DMA at Peabody and has studied with Haas, Kampela, Fineberg, Wubbels, and Hersch.
Double bass: John Eckhardt
Roberto Cipollina: ULYSSES II
Ulysses 2 is a project conceived by composer Roberto Cipollina. The work serves both as a performative and technological exploration of real-time performer-machine interaction, emphasizing the role of AI not as a passive tool, but as an active and adaptive musical agent within the creative process.
The work is conceived as a closed-form improvisational structure for acoustic instrument and real-time interactive electronics, developed specifically to explore the creative potential of artificial intelligence in relation to the performer’s improvisation.
At the core of Ulysses 2 is the integration of Somax2, a real-time generative system developed within the Max environment, which enables responsive electronic behavior through the analysis and transformation of live performance data.
While the project fully embraces aleatory elements and the concept of extemporaneity, it also adheres to an organized formal structure that guides its overall development. In fact, the performer engages with a series of prompts provided by the composer, ensuring a coherent trajectory.
The electronic component, built from a database of sampled sounds recorded by Eleonora Sofia Podestà, responds and adapt to the performer’s expressive gestures in real-time. Through Somax2’s processing, the system generates musically congruent textures and transformations.
This piece highlights the software’s ability to translate performance parameters into musically coherent electronic answers, fostering a dynamic and co-creative dialogue between human performer and machine intelligence.
About the artists
Roberto Maria Cipollina is a composer and researcher in immersive technologies applied to music, whose works have been performed across Europe and America. His compositions include A Lover’s Tale (2018), Alchimie (2020), Lu Re d’Amuri (2022), and Al-Qantarah (2024). Author of two musicological books and lecturer on palazzi della memoria in music, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality, his works are internationally performed and published by Da Vinci Records.
Violin: Eleonora Podestà
Henrik von Coler: The Week
One Week is an acousmatic composition that integrates a staged reading in live performance. Drawing on an introspective autobiographical text, it reflects on emotional states and personal experiences during periods of transition and uncertainty. The work may be understood as a form of Electroacoustic Romanticism: in line with the 2026 ICMC theme, One Week translates romantic ideas into the language of electroacoustic music. In doing so, it explores a balance between technological investigation and personal expressivity. At the same time, the piece seeks to reach a broader range of listeners by foregrounding emotional engagement and incorporating a contemporary text that resonates with present-day cultural contexts.
The tape part of One Week is constructed from autobiographical field recordings combined with analog signal processing and experimental sound synthesis. In addition to conventional contemporary techniques, the production draws on echo chambers, analog and digital tape machines, and vintage synthesizers and effects units. This process produces dense, noisy, and organic timbres and textures while consciously engaging with recognizable tropes of acousmatic music. During performance, the tape part is live-diffused by the composer. Delivered in Ambisonics (up to seventh order), the work can be realized on a wide range of spatial sound systems, in both 2D and 3D configurations.
The staged reading is performed by a musician and multimedia artist zl!ster, who collaborated closely with the composer to refine the original text for performance. Through this revision, the text is reshaped for the present moment while remaining anchored in the work’s autobiographical framework.
About the artist
Performer: zl!ster is a Panamanian-American artist based out of Atlanta, Georgia. His music embodies self-exploration through misinterpretations and exaggerations of real life. At times, his work is a direct reflection of self; at others, it is distorted, shaped more by perception than reality. Rooted in curiosity and at times bravado, his music lives in the realms of alternative rap and indie rock.
Composer: Henrik von Coler is a musician and researcher, working at the intersection of art, science and technology. In 2024 he founded the Lab for Interaction and Immersion (L42i) at Georgia Tech’s School of Music. Before that he was the director of the Electronic Music Studio at TU Berlin and head of the Computer Music Team at the Audio Communication Group. In his research and creative work, Henrik has explored various aspects of electronic music and musical instruments. This includes interface design, algorithms for sound generation and experimental concepts for composition and performance. Most of his projects treat space as an integral part of music. In 2017 he founded the Electronic Orchestra Charlottenburg – an ensemble of up to 12 electronic musicians – to explore music interaction on immersive loudspeaker systems. He has since worked on ways to enhance how musicians and audiences experience spatial music and sound art.
Yao Hsiao: Empress Luo
Empress Luo is a mixed-media electroacoustic composition inspired by the historical and literary figure Zhen Mi, whose image is intertwined with the Luo River Goddess depicted in Cao Zhi’s poetic work Ode to the Nymph of the Luo River. Drawing from Peking opera traditions associated with this narrative, the piece explores themes of political power, gendered violence, and silenced agency through an integration of live voice, processed sound, and gestural control.
The work incorporates melodic and expressive references to the Peking opera Ode to the Nymph of the Luo River, particularly scenes associated with the guqin and the lament Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute, historically attributed to Cai Wenji. These materials are recontextualized within an electroacoustic framework to highlight parallels between women whose lives were shaped by forced displacement, marriage, and warfare.
A Wacom tablet is employed as a gestural controller, functioning both as a performative interface and as a symbolic extension of the protagonist’s corporeal presence. Through touch-based interaction, the performer shapes selected sonic parameters in real time, evoking both the physical posture of guqin performance and the imagined divine authority of the Luo River Goddess. This interface mediates control between the performer and the system, reflecting fluctuating degrees of autonomy and constraint.
The sonic structure combines live vocal performance with pre-recorded and live-triggered audio materials. At times, the voice assumes a dominant role; at others, it is fragmented, processed, or submerged within the playback system. This dynamic relationship mirrors the tension between personal expression and externally imposed forces, suggesting a trajectory from presence and agency toward erasure.
Textual fragments drawn from classical Chinese poetry appear within the work, referencing fraternal conflict, political rivalry, and lamentation. Through the interaction of voice, gesture, and electronic sound, Empress Luo reflects on historical narratives of loss and power while reimagining them within a contemporary performance context.
About the artist
Yao Hsiao is a performer-composer and voice artist from Taiwan, specializing in music, theater, and multimedia art. They are the First Prize winner of the 2025 SEAMUS Student Commission Competition for Daiyu, and a finalist in the 2024 Sweetwater/SEAMUS Student Commission Competition for Consort Yu. Hsiao has performed at international festivals including NIME, SEAMUS, ICMC, NYCEMF, MOXsonic, EMM, SPLICE, CampGround, and Click Fest.
They hold a Master of Music in Composition from Indiana University and are pursuing a Ph.D. in Data-driven Music Performance and Composition at the University of Oregon under Jeffrey Stolet, where they also serve as a Graduate Employee.
Inspired by literature—from Western poetry to Chinese verse and Japanese haikus—Hsiao creates interdisciplinary works that blend traditional vocal techniques, Peking and Yue Opera, and Chinese dance with live electronics, reflecting their cross-cultural and technological vision.
Cecilia Suhr: Resonant Thresholds
Resonant Thresholds explores the liminal space between human expression and technologically mediated sound. Structured around a fixed audio score, the work unfolds as a slowly transforming audiovisual environment in which live violin performance interacts with real-time electronic processing. Noise, resonance, and breath-like textures blur distinctions between acoustic intimacy and digital vastness, allowing the materiality of sound to become porous and unstable. Through structured live comprovisation (composed improvisation), the performer actively shapes the unfolding sonic landscape, while the processed audio simultaneously generates an evolving visual score that functions as a symbolic translation of sound. The work invites listeners to inhabit a threshold between perception and imagination, where meaning emerges through the continuous negotiation between composed structure, live performance, and technological extension.
About the artist
Cecilia Suhr is an award-winning intermedia artist, multimedia composer, researcher, author, and multi-instrumentalist (violin, cello, voice, piano, bamboo flute). Her honors include the Pauline Oliveros Award (IAWM), a MacArthur Foundation DML Grant, the American Prize (Honorable Mention), Global Music Awards, Best of Competition from BEA, among other distinctions. Her work has been presented at ICMC, SEAMUS, NYCEMF, EMM, SCI, ACMC, Mise-En, MoXsonic, and many more. She is a Full Professor at Miami University Regionals.