Reinhold Friedl & Lars Åkerlund
At EMS September 28–29, 2026
Reinhold Friedl, pianist, composer and ensemble director, is a pioneer of international avant-garde music, opening up new physical sound qualities ranging from precise sensuality to noisy harshness: He taught the piano to sing, his internationally acclaimed ensemble zeitkratzer opened up new horizons for ensemble playing, from Xenakis to Lou Reed, from folk music to Stockhausen, from young composers to numerous transdisciplinary collaborations, including film, dance and video cooperations. Reinhold Friedl’s compositions profit from these experiences: orgies of sound for orchestra, noise choreographies for string quartet, recorded by Quatuor Diotima, extended techniques worthy of the name and transforming the solo piano into an orchestra.
Friedl studied mathematics, composition (Mario Bertoncini and Witold Szalonek) and piano (Renate Werner, Alan Marks, Alexander von Schlippenbach) and has released more than a hundred CDs and LPs. He holds a PhD from Goldsmiths University London and has been commissioned by international festivals such as Wiener Festwochen, BBC London, the French State, Berliner Festspiele, ZKM Karlsruhe, etc. and has published numerous articles and radio features (Westdeutscher Rundfunk) on electronic music and other topics. Recent book published a mdw press (music university Vienna): Xenakis – Back to the Roots, towards a philology of electroacoustic music.
Lars Åkerlund is known for his sensual and physically stirring electronics. The tangible qualities of his textures and sound worlds have established him in the international avant-garde music scene and far beyond. He has collaborated with institutions such as the Finnish National Ballet, Rambert Dance Company (London) and the Göteborg Opera House, as well as with experimental noise musicians such as Zbigniew Karkowski and Dror Feiler. Åkerlund’s roots as an instrumentalist are always present – he studied classical guitar in Barcelona and at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. He has received commissions and invitations from the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (UK), ZKM, Karlsruhe (DE), The Nobel Prize Foundation (SE), Musashino University (JP), EMS Stockholm (SE), Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (FR), and Experimental Intermedia (US) among others.