Master designers of musical instruments have for centuries attempted to unite two functions—interface and resonator—in perfect harmony within a single object. In the world of acoustic music, keys, strings, and the bow serve as the control interface, while the soundboard amplifies the sound and allows it to be clearly heard. A violinist, pianist, or trumpeter thus holds in their hands a multi-tool: a 2-in-1 device that both modulates sound and amplifies it.
This scheme changed with the advent of electricity, when instruments began to appear in which the resonator was replaced by an electronic device—the loudspeaker. The proximity between the interface and the sound source was no longer necessary. New possibilities for working with sound opened up, as well as new ways of using it.
It is often said that the best—and usually the most expensive—loudspeakers are those that can suppress themselves and deliver the “purest” possible sound. But what happens when a musician uses the loudspeaker not merely as a mediator, but as an independent, fully fledged musical instrument? What unfolds in that situation between the performer and the sound system, between the composer and the audience, between air and voltage?
We invite you to find out at the third edition of the concert series pssst, as part of Trenčín 2026.
This full-day event is organized in collaboration with the cultural centre ŽiTo v Sýpke in Moravské Lieskové. The program is conceived as an interconnected whole. We would be delighted if you joined us for the entire event—or simply chose the part that interests you most.
Preliminary schedule (subject to change; follow the program on the website):
8:00 – 13:00 Fruit and vegetable market ŽiTo v Sýpke. During the market: discussion with KIT and ooo
13:30 – 15:00 Guided tour of the sound installation Piano Listening to Itself: Beckov Castle at Beckov Castle
15:30 Screening: No Ideas but in Things: The Composer Alvin Lucier – dir. Hauke Harder
17:00 Talk with Gordon Monahan
18:00 Eva Vozárová and Fero Király present Alvin Lucier (SK/US): I Am Sitting in a Room
19:00 Guided tour of ŽiTo v Sýpke
20:00 Gordon Monahan (CA): Speaker Swinging
Descriptions and artist biographies
Gordon Monahan (CA): Speaker Swinging
Concert, performance / 25 min
Speaker Swinging is a live experiment—an electroacoustic composition performed by three performers who swing loudspeakers through the air, generating the Doppler effect. The sonic landscape of live acoustic phenomena reflects the architecture of the concert space, while the performers sweat and struggle to maintain a continuous flow of sound.
The result is a seductive and at times tension-filled acoustic meditation that is, in fact, an enlarged physical manifestation of a miniature electronic circuit crucial to sound modulation—and perhaps also a metaphor for the circular motion of celestial bodies.
Gordon Monahan (1956) creates works for piano, loudspeakers, video, kinetic sculpture, and computer sound environments that cross a wide range of genres—from avant-garde concert music to multimedia installations and sound art. As a composer and sound artist, he contrasts quantitative and qualitative aspects of natural acoustic phenomena with elements of media technology, natural environments, architecture, popular culture, and live performance. In addition to sound installations and performances in the field of sound art, he also composes concert music for traditional instruments. John Cage once said of him: “At the piano, Gordon Monahan produces sounds we have never heard before.”
Since 1978, Monahan has performed and exhibited in numerous public spaces, museums, galleries, and festivals, including Hamburger Bahnhof (Berlin), the Venice Biennale, Secession (Vienna), Ultima Festival (Oslo), Hebbel Theater (Berlin), The Kitchen (New York), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), Merkin Hall (New York), and Massey Hall (Toronto).
Eva Vozárová and Fero Király present Alvin Lucier (SK/US): I Am Sitting in a Room
Concert / 40 min
This legendary sound-art work by American composer Alvin Lucier, created in 1969, is one of the key works of electroacoustic experimentation. The composition consists of a spoken text delivered live, which is recorded; the recording is then played back into the room and recorded again. This process is repeated: the articulation of human speech gradually dissolves, the words become unintelligible, and they are replaced by the pure resonant harmonies and tones of the room itself. Because every space has its own unique resonant characteristics, each realization of I Am Sitting in a Room produces a different result.
The piece explores the question of how much music is created by musicians, instruments, or the space in which the music takes place. It is an absolute expression of the uniqueness of the space in which the audience and performer meet.
The work was first realized at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1970.
Alvin Lucier (1931–2021) was an American composer and a key figure of experimental music and sound art. His work focused on the physical properties of sound, acoustic phenomena, spatial resonance, and the relationship between sound, the body, and technology. He is the author of several seminal works of the 20th century that shift attention from musical material to the process of listening. In the 1980s he also began composing works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, and orchestra.
Fero Király is a musician, coder, and educator with a passion for interdisciplinary projects. He is a co-founder of the event series JAMA and the association ooo. Although he is best known as a piano interpreter of contemporary classical music (Philip Glass, Steve Reich, among others) and as a member of the Cluster ensemble, in his solo work he explores digital technologies, sound art, and hybrid artistic forms.
Eva Vozárová is a dramaturge, performer, researcher, and independent cultural manager. She co-founded the artistic association ooo and the project JAMA in the context of the legacy of Milan Adamčiak, where she engages in curatorial and authorial work in the field of sound art and intermedia art.
pssst is a series of concert events dedicated to contemporary and experimental music performed by artists who uncompromisingly explore the outer edges of musical thinking.
We live in a time of the greatest diversity of music, composition, and instruments in history. So we ask:
How many ways are there to play the guitar?
Where do the boundaries of experiment and improvisation lie?
Where do we go next from the European tradition, grand concert halls, and the order of the dominant chord?
The pssst series is an activity of the New New Music project, part of Trenčín 2026. Trenčín 2026 is financially supported by the City of Trenčín, the Trenčín Self-Governing Region, and the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic. The European Union is a partner.
