Any performance of Stockhausen’s seminal 1968 work for 6 vocalists and 6 microphones is an important, nowadays rather rare, event. Sitting in a circle in a darkened room, the singers build a trance-like meditation from a single chord and its overtones. The atmosphere of ritual is powerfully evocative and spiritual, the sonic web of constantly changing vowel sounds deeply moving. Time seems to stand still. As the composer himself said: ‘In the beauty of things sensual shines the beauty of things eternal.’
