Monadologie XVIII

Bernhard Lang’s creative process can be described as “meta-composition”. His works include two major cycles, Differenz/Wiederholung (Difference/Repetition), composed from 1998 onward, and, from 2007, the Monadologies. In these works, the composer uses algorithms to generate loops from compressed, expanded and transformed fragments of music.
In the Monadologies series, Lang takes tiny segments of music from a wide variety of sources, ranging from Renaissance music, through the classical canon to techno. The interplay between the imprint and semantic charge of these elements forms the basis of a compositional process that resembles automated cell division.

The obsessive repetition of Bob Dylan’s Like a Rolling Stone and the texts of Rose Ausländer provide the heartbeat for Monadology XVIII, an explosive blend of pop culture and avant-garde music from one of today’s most unusual composers.