Mauricio Kagel’s Acustica (1968–70), composed for experimental sound-producers and loudspeakers, stands among his most ambitious and radical works. Combining electroacoustic tape material created at WDR with acoustic performances on roughly 200 graphic-score cards, it embodies Kagel’s idea of instrumentales Theater—where sound, gesture, and performer presence merge into a single dramatic and musical act. The work explores an expanded field of musicality, using invented instruments and found objects to free sound from traditional performance conventions.
Beyond its avant-garde innovations, Acustica reflects Kagel’s anarchic and deeply human vision. Its multitude of global sound sources mirrors the diversity of his Buenos Aires upbringing, transforming chaos into playful order and highlighting the autonomy of each performer within a collective whole. Both humorous and sensuous, the piece rejects ideology in favor of freedom, individuality, and shared expression—a musical “anarchy” that celebrates life itself. Through Acustica, Kagel forged a uniquely Latin American response to the European avant-garde: a vivid, democratic sound-world of invention and humanity.
Mastered & cut from the original analogue ¼ inch 2-track master tapes by Rainer Maillard and Sidney Claire Meyer at Emil Berliner Studios.
Limited and numbered edition, featuring original artwork and a newly designed, beautifully crafted collector’s sleeve with new liner notes by Bradford Bailey, and pressed on 180g vinyl.
