Latent Diffusion

Alvaro Carlevaro: Taschenstücke (Pocket Pieces)

for ensemble (2022) ^WP

Commissioned composition by Ensemble Ascolta

Bernhard Gander: Sludgelines

for ensemble (2024) ^WP

Aida Shirazi: Shūr

for trumpet, trombone, violin, cello, electric bass and piano (2025/26)^WP

Malte Giesen: Latent diffusion with slop

for ensemble and electronics (2025) ^WP

Ensemble Ascolta

Malte Giesen, sound engineer

Conductor: Friederike Scheunchen

Alvaro Carlevaro composed ‘small musical frescoes’ for Ascolta’s chamber musicians, in which he draws on various dance styles that have influenced immigrants to the Río de la Plata. Bernhard Gander’s Sludgelines are ‘sluggish, muddy, sloppy and mostly deep-sounding lines that have been transformed into sound, slowly and sluggishly meandering through the sonic underground to ultimately become purified and clarified melodies.’ Aida Shirazi also sticks to analogue sound in her new work. Things become completely digital at the end with Malte Giesen, who uses AI to generate music through diffusion from white noise.

Broadcast on SWR Kultur JetztMusik

24 February 2026, 9:00 p.m.