Extrémités lointaines is based on recordings made during a four-week concert tour through Asia in the summer of 1997, organized by the Goethe-Institut. In Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand, I captured the sounds of bustling metropolises, as well as the music of churches and temples, street performances, and children's songs. This distant sonic world revealed itself to me in fragmented moments—yet it remains inexhaustible and elusive.
For several years, I have been exploring ways to integrate vocal and instrumental sounds into my electroacoustic compositions. These sound sources are always closely tied to their cultural context and original sonic environment.
In Extrémités lointaines, this connection remains particularly vivid, even as the composition moves between different locations and travels through multiple countries. The work is structured in 15 sections, each evoking a specific place and atmosphere. The overwhelming intensity of the impressions that flooded over me during this journey has been translated into a dense, multi-layered compositional structure.