This long-running CD series under the title "Ars Acustica" represents outstanding works produced during the past years in particular in the "Studio Acoustic Art" at the German radiostation Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) in Cologne. Many of these realisations, created by internationally recognized composers, sound-poets, audio and performance artists, have been awarded prizes and today are part of the standard repertory which has developed for Ars Acustica.
WERGO starts this CD series with the French composer Pierre Henry and his radio production "La Ville. Die Stadt [The City] - Metropolis Paris". There is hardly another artist in this century who has so intensively and for so long been engaged as a composer with research into recorded sounds, noises, and voices as Pierre Henry (b. 1927). The techniques of musique concrète, which he developed with Pierre Schaeffer and which have led to a new language of acoustic art, have influenced all areas of contemporary music from avantgarde to pop. He is also a pioneer of music for loudspeakers.
In 1984 Henry realized the radio piece "La Ville. Die Stadt" commissioned for the "Metropolis" series of the Studio Acoustic Art. "La Ville. Die Stadt" was realized over a two-year period in his Paris studio Son/Ré. Each of the many sections in the composition is arranged around a special theme such as Traffic, Crowd, Train, Subway, Children, etc. and can be arranged in entirely different compositional patterns. Henry has composed especially for this WERGO CD a new version of "La Ville".

Eveil
Rumeurs
Escalier
Trafic
Foule
Portes
Pendules
Klaxons
Temple
Train
Chiens/ Radio
Intérieur
Jeux
Atelier
Flipper
Extérieur
Incident
Métro
Lointain