PHACE⎹ ILLUSIONS

Helēna Sorokina, voice

PHACE
Doris Nicoletti, flute
Walter Seebacher, clarinet
Reinhold Brunner, clarinet
Michael Krenn, saxophone
Spiros Laskaridis, trumpet
Stefan Obmann, trombone
Mathilde Hoursiangou, piano
Manuel Alcaraz Clemente, percussion
Francesco Palmieri, e-guitar
Ivana Pristašová Zaugg, violin
Petra Ackermann, viola
Roland Schueler, cello
Maximilian Ölz, double bass
Alexandra Dienz, double bass
and many more …

SOUND DESIGN
Alfred Reiter

In Illusions, Philip Venables, together with LGBTQIA+ performance artist David Hoyle, has developed a multimedia work for speaker (video) and ensemble. Hoyle’s video performance confronts the audience with a torrent of political tirades, personal attacks, grotesque humor, and provocative sexual directness. He attacks hypocrisy, social inequality, toxic masculinity, and consumerism, shifting linguistically between bitter seriousness, deliberate taboo-breaking, and cabaret-style mockery. And the music? It reacts with equal intensity: rhythmically aggressive, eruptive, then shimmering and disconcertingly smooth. Soundscapes and gestures function like distorted advertising messages or political slogans, interlocking with the images in a jerky, almost violent interplay that inevitably draws the audience in. Illusions is a merciless mirror that puts the audience to the test, questioning their attitudes as well as their role as consumers of art. New works by Alexander Schubert, who in AUTO FICTION blurs the line between documentary and fiction, wandering through an altered archive of the most formative, intense, and outstanding memories, and Marco Döttlinger promise a captivating and likely also haunting listening experience. The eleventh movement of Corie Rose Soumah’s States of Intermeshing series also thematically completes the cycle, bringing it full circle to its beginning. xi. épilogue explores eschatological forces, ecological crises, and self-discovery. “There are flowers blooming in Antarctica” – a poetic, fragile, sonically sensual piece, like a strangely peaceful echo after the catastrophe, revealing a glimpse into another fragile reality.

Philip Venables
Illusions (feat. David Hoyle) for ensemble und video, 2017 (ap)

Marco Döttlinger
New Work, 2026/27 (wp)
Commissioned by PHACE

Corie Rose Soumah
States of Intermeshing: xi. épilogue for violin, cello, piano and electronics, 2024 (ap)

P A U S E

Alexander Schubert 
AUTO FICTION for voice, ensemble, electronics and video, 2026
Commissioned by Radio Österreich 1 in cooperation with ORF musikprotokoll, PHACE and Biennale Zagreb