Joseph Haydn‘s Creation is a hymn of praise to the creation of the earth. His oratorio tells the biblical story of Genesis in joyful, jubilant tonal language. 222 years and several summer heat waves later, this music makes one rather contemplative. In a joint concert with the Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Ensemble Recherche places earthly beauty in the […]

„The wine that one drinks with eyes / the moon pours down at night in waves.“ The first lines in Arnold Schoenberg‘s Pierrot lunaire lead the way: things go upward to the moon, and inward into the soul brimming with emotion. The poems by Albert Giraud, on which Schoenberg‘s melodrama is based, paint fever- ish […]

A walk through the world of extinct sounds It is the year 2070 and Ensemble Recherche has just beamed its new season brochure directly to the brains of its subscribers via Neuro-telegram. Among the various goings-on there is a special invitation – the ensemble will open its “Archive of Extinct Sounds” to the public for […]

A walk through the world of extinct sounds It is the year 2070 and Ensemble Recherche has just beamed its new season brochure directly to the brains of its subscribers via Neuro-telegram. Among the various goings-on there is a special invitation – the ensemble will open its “Archive of Extinct Sounds” to the public for […]

A concert performance of semi-improvised music The work of polymath musician Stefan Paul Goetsch, AKA Hainbach, is marked by the use of historical/retro/obsolete electronic musical instruments, studio gear and telecommunications equipment (among other things) to create uniquely contemporary —yet strangely nostalgic — soundscapes. Following a week-long residency in Freiburg, Hainbach and members of Ensemble Recherche […]

Resonance of the past Six memos for the next millennium was the intended title of a Harvard University lecture series by Italo Calvino. The Italian writer and literary theorist died in 1985 having only completed his notes for five of the six lectures; this material was subsequently compiled and published as a book in 1988 […]

Music and history, in other words History – in the sense of a society’s collective memory and understanding of the past – is constructed based on decisions made by older generations about what is worth preserving (in the form of texts, images, icons, monuments...) and what is not. The authors of these decisions (politicians, archivists, […]

A deconstruction of the musical heritage Ensemble Recherche and the SWR Experimental Studio have long and illustrious histories. But as L.P. Hartley wrote, “the past is a foreign country; they do things differently there”. In recent years, Ensemble Recherche has become increasingly engaged in the broader trend of questioning the meaning, relevance and potential burden […]

Music and its meaning in the age of AI What is the difference between a work of art created by a human and one generated by AI? Recent advances in machine learning have made it objectively impossible, in many settings, to distinguish between human- and AI-authored images, texts, and even music. However, knowledge that an […]

Music from the corners of the cloud For artists in communities that were historically subjected to colonisation, the transition to the digital age has been a double-edged sword: The potential of social media algorithms to bring together people with shared languages, experiences and histories is belied by mechanisms which, by design or by mere absence […]

Music - feels real   Ensemble Recherche creates a cabinet of curiosities with pieces to amaze and doubt. Music between truth and illusion, between fibbing and effectiveness. Li-Ying Wu deals with the manipulative effect of fake news and the question of how we can communicate with each other with understanding. With Stefan Prins, we enter […]

The Helsinki Chamber Choir is visiting Freiburg!   New choral sounds from Scandinavia meet instrumental music from France and Serbia, until the evening culminates in Vito Žuraj's new work ‘INNEN’, which he composed especially for Ensemble Recherche and Helsinki Chamber Choir in collaboration with the Austrian author Klaus Händl. Vito Žuraj says of his new […]

Imagine walking down a corridor, past a door left ajar – and hearing a peculiar mix of hums, squeaks, creaks, groaning,and hammering emerging from inside the room. Curious, you take a quick peek into the room, to figure out what the source of the noise is. In this concert, we invite the audience to peek […]

© Mai Toyama The music of Farnaz Modarresifar exhibits the interplay between notation and improvisation. Her music thrives on trust and the close collaboration between herself and the musicians. Modarresifar’s works bring together touches of traditional Persian music with a contemporary musical language, characterized by the use of extended techniques, sound gestures, and a sensitivity […]

Helmut Lachenmann’s 90th birthday on 27th November 2025 is not just an excuse for celebration, but also a reason for a special, experimental jubilee concert. Lachenmann and his music have accompanied our ensemble for over fourty years. It has challenged us, inspired us and always pushed us to redefine our limits. His music is radical […]

Helmut Lachenmann’s 90th birthday on 27th November 2025 is not just an excuse for celebration, but also a reason for a special, experimental jubilee concert. Lachenmann and his music have accompanied our ensemble for over fourty years. It has challenged us, inspired us and always pushed us to redefine our limits. His music is radical […]