27.01.2013

Sound direction: Norbert Ommer

Aleph-1 is a collaborative performance project by carsten nicolai with rainer römer of ensemble modern. this special combination of electronic and acoustic sounds will be presented for the first time at portikus.

inspired by modern classical and african music aleph-1 merges melodic and rhythmic elements to a mesmerizing amalgam. the pieces are meant to be infinite and have no actual beginning or ending. they create an ambience rather than an event. in 1884 the term aleph-1 was introduced by georg cantor into the mathematical world. since then the first letter of the hebrew alphabet, combined with a number has been used to represent the cardinality (or size) of infinite sets. the aleph numbers differ from infinity (∞) commonly found in algebra and calculus. alephs measure the sizes of sets; infinity on the other hand, is commonly defined as an extreme limit of the real number line, or an extremal point of the extended real number line. while some alephs are larger than others, ∞ is just ∞.

A cooperation between Ensemble Modern and Portikus.

A project in the framework of the Frankfurt Positions - an initiative of the BHF-BANK-Foundation.