Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Samuel Favre, Marco Stroppa

A sonic tennis match for electronics and live performers, Kontakte is a 20th century musical icon, one of the crowning glories of the first wave of electronic music composition. An inspiration for artists ranging from Jonathan Harvey to Aphex Twin and written in 1958–60, before the invention of musical synthesizers, Stockhausen’s piece was created using technology designed for radio broadcasting.

This version of the piece, combining electronic sounds with acoustic piano and percussion, is the pioneering work which has provided the starting point for the myriad of artists who have explored this rich world of possibilities ever since. The ‘contacts’ of the title emerge as volleys of sound, ‘hit’ between the electronic and the live participants.