Karlheinz Stockhausen – Aus Den Sieben Tagen
Klang Systematiek began as an ensemble with Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Aus den Sieben Tagen (From the Seven Days), a cycle of text compositions written in May 1968 at a moment of deep personal and creative transformation for the composer. Subtitled “Intuitive Music,” these works occupy a unique space between composition, meditation, and performance ritual. Rather than prescribing specific pitches or rhythms, Stockhausen’s words invite musicians to reach a heightened state of awareness — to play from a place of concentration, empathy, and collective listening.
As a group, this cycle became the seed of the ensemble itself. We were drawn to the challenge and the openness of these texts, and to the questions they raise about music-making as a social and mental act, just as much for performers as for audience. In revisiting Aus den Sieben Tagen, we sought to move away from the academic lens that often frames Stockhausen’s work — without losing the rigour and curiosity it demands. Our aim was to rediscover these pieces as experiences that are alive, unstable, and profoundly human.
The project explored how performance can create shared spaces of attention and reflection. We experimented with unconventional settings and spatial layouts: performing in the round, in open halls and non-traditional venues, often without a stage, allowing the audience to sit or lie among the performers. Live lighting became an essential element — a responsive and living counterpart to the sound, shaping the energy of each moment. By removing the fixed boundary between performer and listener, we invited audiences to inhabit the sound and atmosphere, not just observe it.
Our instrumentation- bass clarinet, double bass, trombone, electric violin, drums, voice, and electronics with live light — reflected the groups blend of backgrounds. The ensemble brings together musicians from leading European new music groups alongside artists from experimental, electronic, and improvised traditions. This diversity became central to our interpretation: each performer contributed a distinct musical language, yet all were united by the act of intuitive listening and real-time response that Stockhausen’s text demands.
In Aus den Sieben Tagen, Stockhausen speaks of playing “not from the mind, but from the soul.” For Klang Systematiek, that idea became both the method and the ethos — a reminder that experimental music can be both exacting and compassionate, both disciplined and open-hearted. The project not only shaped our understanding of these extraordinary pieces, but also set the direction for the ensemble itself: to explore how musical systems, spaces, and people can combine to create something larger than the sum of their parts.
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