ECLAT begins with a musical celebration that brings the wonderful ensemble C Barré together again with the Neue Vocalsolisten. SONGS AND VOICES is inspired by Franz Kafka’s »Silence of the Sirens«; instruments and voices bring to life all kinds of messages that can lie in the unsaid, in song, or in pure vocal power beyond language. It also tells of farewells and transitions, brutal and tender, fragile and flooded with love. In this way, it opens up space for a polyphonic festival in which artists engage in a wide variety of ways with the transitions and changes we are all currently experiencing. Late in the evening, NACHTMUSIK explores all the nuances of darkness, draws transitions between reality and dreams, and portrays the night as a time of silence, but also of nightmares and violence—as a space between vulnerability and security.

FUTURE FOREST transforms scientific findings into a landscape of sounds that the composer and ecoacoustician have listened to in the forests around Stuttgart and Freiburg using contact, hydro, and sensor microphones, and which tell of the changes in nature.

»The future belongs to those who hear it coming.« David Bowie’s observation inspired the HEAR IT COMING team to listen to the body of the music itself and send acoustic beings and sound sculptures through the space independently of the musicians.

Curious discovery: how young composers from autocratic countries in Eastern Europe present themselves to our serene scene. Exciting dialogue: between a singer struggling with her memory and a relentless, uncontrollable AI organ machine. Joyful reunion: with wonderful compositional voices, played by the world’s greatest orchestra of new music and an impressive percussion magician. Skilful abduction: into a fluid hybrid club night between DJ art and dance orgy.

The ensemble Ascolta energetically opens an eventful day, which begins with the satirical chamber play EINE METAKRISE (A METACRISIS), revealing the ambivalent role that social media plays in world affairs. In BALKAN AFFAIRS, young composers from the seven republics of the former Yugoslavia offer highly emotional, soberly analytical, and ironically sarcastic commentary on the period of the Balkan Wars and the consequences that continue to shape their societies to this day. The day ends on an equally stirring note with a musical celebration of queerness. It includes everyone who longs for an open, tolerant, and supportive coexistence.

Inspired by the Eocene epoch, which was marked by dramatic climate change, Azione Improvvisa, with its unique combination of accordion, theorbo, electric guitar, and electronics, invites us to reflect on cycles of change and adaptation. The different concepts of guitar and choral music also promise a varied listening experience. And to round off the festival in style, we celebrate the three heroines of this year’s Stuttgart Composition Prize.