(1959–2025) 

first studied graphic arts and became enthused by free jazz. He  completed his studies in composition with Gösta Neuwirth and  Roman Haubenstock-Ramati in Graz and Vienna. From 1982  he lived in Berlin, where he has initiated and conducted numerous festivals and concerts. In 1988 he founded the Ensemble  Zwi schen töne. In 1993 he was a visiting professor at the University of Music, Graz. He was guest conductor of Klangforum  Wien, United Berlin, and the Insel Musik Ensemble. Since 1990  he worked as a freelance musician. He was Research Professor  at the University of Huddersfield (2012–17), Guest Professor at  the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague and Leiden University  (2019), and was engaged in various forms of noninstitutional  teaching and work with private students from 2000.

His compositions have been featured notably at the Berlin and  Vienna Festwochen, Darmstadt, Donaueschingen, and festivals in  Istanbul, Los Angeles, Oslo, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, London,  New York. The Offenes Kulturhaus Linz, the Diözesanmuseum  Köln, Kunsthalle Wien, Neue Galerie der Stadt Graz, the Kunsthaus Graz, the Academy of Arts, Berlin, the Haus am Waldsee  Berlin, the Santa Monica Museum of the Arts have shown his  installation work over the last few years.

Peter Ablinger was one of the few modern artists who used noise  without any kind of symbolism – not as a signifier for chaos, energy,  entropy, disorder, or uproar; not for opposing something, or being  disobedient or destructive; not for everything, for eternity, or for  what-have-you. As in all these cases of music deliberately involving  noise, noise is the case, but for Ablinger: this alone. Peter Ablinger  has also come a long way in questioning the nature of sound, time,  and space (the components usually thought central to music),  and his findings have jeopardised and made dubious conventions usually thought irrefutable. These insights pertain to repetition and  monotony, reduction and redundancy, density and entropy. (Christian Scheib)

“Sounds are not sounds! They are here to distract the intellect  and to soothe the senses. Not once is hearing ‘hearing’: hearing  is that which creates me.” The composer Peter Ablinger (born  in Schwanenstadt, Austria in 1959) is, as Christian Scheib once  put it, a “mystic of enlightenment” whose “calls and litanies are  aimed at cognition.” At the same time, the composer, who –  after studying graphic arts – studied with Gösta Neuwirth and  Roman Haubenstock-Ramati, and since 1982 lives in Berlin, is  also a skeptic who understands the cultural rules and (destructive) habits enforced by tradition: “So let us play further and say:  sounds are here to hear (— but not to be heard. That’s something  else). And that hearing is here to be ceased (“Das Hören ist da um  aufzuhören”). More I can’t say.”  

Text: Christian Baier, translated by Bill Dietz

Selected works: Cycles: Weiss/Weisslich for various media:  instruments, installations, objects, electroacoustic media, prose,  soundless music (1980–99), Stücke 1989–94, pieces for 1–25  instrumentalists and seven voices (1989–94), Sehen und Hören,  photographs, projections (1995–),IEAQV for instruments and  electroacoustic media; site-specific works (1994–), Instrumente  und Rauschen for instruments and noises from a CD (1994–),  Quadraturen for electroacoustic media, ensembles and orchestras  (1994–), Das Buch der Gesänge, acoustic photographs (1997–),  Voices and Piano for piano and CD (1998–), Klänge auf Papier,  objects laid out on paper (1999–), Opera/Werke, operas, installations, concerts and other artistic forms (2000–), Orte, installations (2001–), Instrumente & for instruments and other sources  of sound (2006–), Augmented Studies (1983–).  

Other works: 10 kleine Stücke for six voices (1995, 2002), Übersetzungen 1–8 for rubber and cardboard (1997), Grundierungen 1–6 for organ (1997), Hotel Deutsches Haus for bass flute,  English horn, clarinet and CD (2000–1), 1–127 for electric guitar  and CD (2002), Altar for speakers, microphones, headphones,  electronics, cello and orchestra (2002–3), Akt/Rückenansicht for  actors and CD (2003), Three Easy Pieces, installation (2003–4),  6 Linien for piano (2004), From Inside Out for window display, microphone and speaker (2004–6), Ohne Titel 1–10 for  any instruments (2005), 11 Intermezzi aus Opera/Werke, “Das  Orchester” for orchestra and CD (2005), Kleine “Publikum” Suite  for ensemble, computer-operated keyboards and CD (2005),  “Tanz” aus Das Publikum/ Stadtoper Graz for two pianos, nine  instruments and CD (2005), Gehörgang, a “walk in the labyrinth” (2007), Fallstudie, cinema for one person (2004–8), Weisse  Wäsche for underwear and towels (2003–8), Amtssee bei Regen  for 3–8 voices or instruments (2008), A + O for harp and CD  (2005–9), Selbstportrait mit Mitersill – eine Skizze in 3 Sätzen for children, teenagers, performer, CD and objects (2009), Canon for  six cellos or cello and five delays (2017), 1111 Vögel, radio sound  sculpture (2017–18), Outside & for instruments and microphones  (2015–18), Not Available for clarinet and tape (2016–18), Canon  22.12.2018 for nine identical instruments (2018), 4 Weiss for  large string orchestra and white noise (2018–19), Vokalschleuse  for five pairs of speakers (2018–19), Public Litanies, procession for  choir leader and audience (2018–19), Doo-Doo-Dooh for voice,  five instruments, recorded sounds and objects (2019), Etablissement Gschwandtner for children’s orchestra and three loudhailers (2019), “A.W.-Memorial” for clarinet and radio (2019),  Ohne Titel for violin, bass clarinet and piano (2019), Es summt  der See for the sounds of Lake Summt, three orchestral groups  and three loudhailer operators (2019), Decisions 3 / I Love Freedom for Roman Haubenstock-Ramati, sound to be played back  over the loudhailer (2019), Concerto for bassoon, ensemble and  two musicologists (2016–20), Corona Suite, Pieces to Entertain  Myself (2020), Corona Blog (2020), Verdopplung 4.01/4.02/4.03,  field recording (2020), Sonate for two voices (2021), anophony  for any quiet sound(s) and strong electroacoustic amplification  (2021), The Cultural Treasures of Humanity, collective work  within GFFKM (2022), Violinstück für Nurit for violin (2022),  CO2-Countdownfor one or more voices (2022), Das ökologische  Manifest for instrument(s), materials and voice(s) (2022), Oracle (“Conversation”) for two performers, flints and microphones  (2023), Lola Kiepja for piano and tape (2023), The Absolute  Absolute for four instrumentalists, their voices and electronics  (2023–24), Moment of Leaving the Room for three rooms and  variable instrumental forces (2024–25), Wendel for 24 instruments and electronics (2024–25).