Vortex Temporum

Send us a text A few days before ars ad hoc presents the Portuguese premiere of his String Quartet 2.5 "Playing with Seeds" [2017] at the Serralves Museum, American composer George E. Lewis (Chicago, 1952) shares some reflections on his long-standing fascination with the classical trope of depiction in American music. A professor in Columbia University’s Department of Music and the Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music, Lewis is also the Artistic Director of the Internatio...

Send us a text As listeners will soon notice, Portuguese composer Luís Salgueiro (1993) moves with ease between philosophy and music — two territories that, in his work, often mirror one another. In this episode, we join him in a quiet exploration of how thought becomes sound and how language shapes what we hear, while listening to a few fleeting excerpts from his own music. Do we still have the courage to speak about music? credits: Parroting [2025], soundscape // Wolf Town [2020], for saxop...

Send us a text After the summer break, we return with composer Ludger Brümmer (Werne, 1958) as the guest of the first episode of the 2025/26 season. Like many composers, Brümmer cannot resist speaking about music — yet he does so in a uniquely compelling way. The former director of ZKM shares insights into his approach to sound: the role of structure and intuition, space as narrative and as a field for exploration, as well as the possibilities of physical modelling. In this episode, we are in...

Send us a text Among the many ways of categorising composers, one is to distinguish between those who like to follow the rules and those who have the impetus to question them. As far as we can tell from listening to his documentary “dumpsterdiving and food saving”, Alessandro Perini (1983) belongs to those who like to defy the rules. He is the author of the longest episode of this podcast, with which we end the season reflecting on a major problem of our time. vortextemporum.com

Send us a text A few days before the Portuguese premiere of Silvia Borzelli's (Rome, 1978) A Self-portrait (with Anatsui in the background) [2022], this Netherlands based Italian composer shares some insights on her own music, erosion, resistance and whatever comes before music. credits: stalagma (Anna Politkovskaja in memoriam) [2007], for piano | Emanuele Torquati > piano // zattere [2013], for piano and stereo soundtrack | Vittoria Quartararo > piano // hyper-image [2020, rev. 2023]...