In their first collaboration, Beat Furrer and Isabel Lewis explore the voice as a dynamic foundation for an architecture of sound. The voice – central to Furrer’s compositional work over the past several decades – is rendered here as something spatial, embodied in and as space by the renowned vocal ensemble Cantando Admont, directed by Cordula Bürgi, and accompanied by a saxophone – the wind instrument closest to the human voice. The ensemble, known for its focus on both contemporary and early vocal music, moves through the top floor of the Sterntor parking garage like pillars of sound. Around and between them, a choreography of the audience unfolds, guided by lines of sight and sound.
Isabel Lewis, a Dominican-American artist, curator, and professor based in Berlin and Vienna, is known for her “occasions” – multisensory formats that foster alternative modes of sociality between human and more-than-human agents. For this festival, she engages with the format of the music installation, drawing on and extending the logic of the occasion to explore how sound and movement activate urban space.
Beat Furrer’s compositional work has always been shaped by a spatial approach to sound – sound appears not only as a temporal, but also as a spatial phenomenon. His musical gestures open spaces, they suspend time, expand – removed from any narrative progression, they unfold a sonic architecture of the moment. The starting point for the conception of this music installation was the seventh scene of Furrer’s opera FAMA, in which the ensemble is spatially distributed. From this experience emerged the question: How can a space be opened through a vocal ensemble – a space structured by voices and at the same time traversed by them?
Set in a public parking garage, this project probes the politics of musical sociability – intimacy and distance, virtuosity, over- and understimulation. It maps resonances and co-resonances between voices, bodies, and the contemporary urban landscape, weaving together musical material from across centuries.


The music installation with Isabel Lewis & Beat Furrer is supported by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia.
With the kind support of PS Parkhaus Service Nürnberg GmbH.




SENSORY INFORMATION
Location & surroundings
The music installation takes place on the top 8th floor of a multi-storey car park, is covered and has half-open walls that protect against wind and rain but allow city sounds to enter. Floors 1-7 are still in the car park and can be bypassed via the lift.
Duration
3 hours
Recording
There is video, sound and photo recording.
Sensory stimuli
Interaction: The audience can move freely around the singers and the musician on the park level.
Visual: Costumes and a few individual objects
Light: In addition to the car park lighting, there will be additional light sources.
Sounds: Continuous choral singing of various works and a saxophone. No additional electronics.
Seating
Individual chairs and seat cushions will be provided.
Language
No language
Contact persons**
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