Binaural production - listen with headphones for full immersion!

I embarked on a dreamlike journey through Cologne when I visited the Museum Ludwig that presented collaborative works by John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns, Cy Twombly and Robert Rauschenberg. An interactive installation by the latter encouraged visitors to engage in unusual activities such as clapping, shouting, singing and whistling. Occasionally, you would also hear the gentle voice of John Cage. Afterwards, I immersed myself in the cathedral, which resonated with the sounds of its visitors.

A generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes, which were recorded in Cologne (Germany) on 2 Nov 2025.
Released: 10 Nov 2025

1) The gallery rooms at the Museum Ludwig, which feature videos of John Cage and Merce Cunningham.
2) An interactive installation by Robert Rauschenberg that responds to visitors' sounds.
3) Inside Cologne Cathedral.
4) The cathedral's crypt.

Info

K.Ö.L.N. (Karneval Öffnet Lustige Narren) - BINAURAL

Born 1960 in Vienna. Austrian composer, improviser and performer. He studied composition with Friedrich Cerha and musicology in Vienna. Besides writing experimental instrumental music, he performs on his own electronic instrument m@ze°2, develops software environments for computer-aided composition and creates generative sound and video environments. Since 2007 professor of composition for electro-acoustic and experimental music at the University of Music in Vienna.

Karlheinz Essl performs on a laptop computer that he has transformed into a live electronic musical instrument. The result is exciting and musical. You just won't hear these sounds anywhere else. He performs solo and in duets and trios, responding with sensitivity to fellow musicians, producing fascinating sound transformations, creating spontaneous surprises, and moving quickly from loops to cacophony to tiny clips of vocal sounds to all kinds of textures and ideas. He does all this with his m@ze°2(Modular Algorithmic Zound Environment) performance software. (Joel Chadabe, CDeMusic, Januar 2002)
