Taipei Horizon

I experienced my two-month sojourn in Taipei as composer in residence of the National Symphony Orchestra Taiwan in a virtual wide-screen format. A temperature of 35° C combined with 95% humidity transplanted me into a cinemascope world. I enjoyed every second and my intensive experiences were further heightened by a minimum of sleep. I composed for three to four hours a day and attempted to filter all my impressions: the heat, the humidity and the tempo of life. All that was absorbed by spirit and soul should be immediately transformed into notes. During this process, Taipei Horizon became surprisingly tonal, probably because I was constantly attempting to give my innumerable impressions a clear form, producing both fugal and super-imposed themes and motifs which at times literally collided explosively with one another. Christian Jost