Live Space Lecture
2026-04-21. 11hr.
by Hans-Gunter Lock
The piece is inspired by the music played during the Zangbeto ceremony in West Africa. The Zangbeto were former night watchmen and policemen, and their souls live on in large conical straw masks. The magical masks dance and spin to the accompaniment of extremely fast music, sometimes they stop and when they are turned sideways everyone can see that there is no person underneath, everything is the power of ancient souls. Sometimes a surprise appears from under it, such as a small human figure or a smaller Zangbeto mask. When this large mask is upright again, it comes back to life and spins and dances on. In my work, the powerful and extremely fast music of this ceremony, played with rattles, five bells and several drums, is transformed into a different kind of mood in the context of electroacoustic sounds.
