My material is not sound. My material is audibility.
Peter Ablinger
Like others who work with sound — setting a sound, then a pause — I set audibility, then inaudibility. (…)
The sounds are there to hear. Not to be heard. That’s something else.
Book of Returns is a utopian work by composer Peter Ablinger, grounded in his belief that a fragmentary composition can speak more profoundly than a complete, systematic one.
This modular collection, Book of Returns, offers musicians a set of fragments from which they can assemble their own version of the piece. Each module is typically 40 seconds long, or a multiple of that duration. The modules range widely in form: solo pieces, electronic solos, cassette playback, a single note or scale, performative actions, microphone experiments, field recordings, visual projections, and ensemble settings.
Each module invites a distinct mode of listening. The work’s power lies in the abrupt yet seamless transitions between these modules—each collision reshapes how we hear and perceive.
MAZE performed Book of Returns on Sunday, May 21st, 2017, with Peter Ablinger present, during the MAZE Festival at Splendor, Amsterdam.