The 20th century was the century of percussion, and thanks to the musical avant-garde, everything became percussion. The situation undoubtedly favours bands such as the Wrocław collective Repercussion, which specializes in instrumental theatre, uses a wide variety of percussion instruments and is not afraid of musical madness. During their concerts, the right question to ask is: is there anything else that cannot be made into music?

John Cage asked about the limits of music over seventy years ago, composing the famous piece 4′33″ composed of rests only. However, the same question was asked in a similar way by other composers, who noticed the possibility of musical use of objects that had not previously been assigned the function of a musical instrument. The Repercussion programme will present a whole range of such compelling works.

As early as 1940, Cage composed Living Room Music for a quartet of musicians playing on objects that could be found in the living room of a typical American home. Manfred Menke certainly followed the patterns of Cage. When performing his Eine Kleine Tischmusik, the group of performers makes music using tables and wooden spoons. The ingenuity of various imitators of composer of 4′33″ has no limits. Wally Hackmeister uses metal and plastic buckets to create music, Matthias Schmitt bottles, Emmanuel Séjourné lighters, Wolfgang Reifeneder playing cards, boxes, balls and even, just as William Schinstine, the human body. Compared to all of them, Richard Fliz returning in Beam Me Up! to the percussive aspect of the human voice, comes off as quite conservative, even if he creates a techno-style piece as a result.