When we face darkness, we begin to listen. We instinctively look out for danger lurking within. What will we do when our ears catch sounds unlike anything anyone has ever heard? What if it is music? During the 61st Wratislavia Cantans, the Cologne-based Ensemble Musikfabrik will visit Lower Silesia to perform compositions recently written by Żaneta Rydzewska and Georges Aperghis, as well as a premiere piece by Anna Korsun. 

Unlike most festival events, this concert will feature works emerging from contemporary realities. Ensemble Musikfabrik, as the name suggests, specialises in materialising and shaping what is contemporary and previously unheard. Part of this mission is commissioning and presenting new work, often in close collaboration with composers. Like many other new music ensembles, Musikfabrik (recognised as one of the leading ensembles on the new music scene) provides a space for artists to collaborate and experiment with new media, performance, dance, and numerous other forms of contemporary art.

Ukrainian artist Anna Korsun lives in Germany. She admits that music is a way of thinking and perceiving the world for her. She uses instruments and her voice, and she dislikes talking about her work. Encountering her abstract sonic imagination may be a truly unforgettable experience. Żaneta Rydzewska’s Superheroines will have been performed for the first time a week earlier in Cologne. She received the commission for this work after winning last year’s Acht Brücken festival competition in this Rhineland city. The piece is inspired by dialogues from Caryl Churchill’s play Top Girls, which explores the relationship between feminism and individualism. 

The concert will conclude with Selfie in the Dark, the title given to a composition by Georges Aperghis, a renowned artist of Greek descent working in France, interested mainly in musical theatre and media syncretism. The composer dedicated this work to his deceased wife, Édith. In it, he speaks of descending into the abyss in search of those dear to us… Selfie in the Dark will be a chance for Orpheus to come close to the boundaries of his art. For in the darkness, although a loved one seems closer, they are still unreachable. Will music allow one to escape Hades?