Klang Systematiek is a European-wide contemporary music ensemble based in Prague — a city that has long stood at the crossroads of European cultures and ideas. Founded by artistic director and bass clarinetist Gareth Davis, the group brings together musicians from across the continent with backgrounds that stretch between contemporary classical, electronic, improvised, and experimental music. Members are drawn from ensembles, bands and collectives including Klangforum Wien, Musikfabrik, Motorpsycho, Raster-Noton, and the ICP, creating a meeting point for distinct musical traditions and perspectives.
The ensemble was born through a shared exploration of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Aus den Sieben Tagen, a project that laid the foundation for Klang Systematiek’s artistic ethos: to reimagine canonical works of experimental music as living, open systems. By combining performers from diverse practices and generations, the group seeks to dissolve the boundaries between notation and intuition, composition and improvisation, performance and installation.
Klang Systematiek’s productions often reframe performance as an immersive, communal experience. Concerts focus on physical spaces, often avoiding traditional staging, use responsive live lighting, and engage with the audiences allowing them to be free to move or lie among the performers. These environments invite listening as a shared act of presence rather than a passive observation. The ensemble’s instrumentation and staging are fluid, adapting to each project to uncover new resonances between space, sound, and perception.
The group’s programming reflects its wide-ranging curiosity. Events have included installation performances of Stockhausen, William Basinski, and La Monte Young; retrospectives of James Tenney and Pauline Oliveros; new works by Annea Lockwood and Bernhard Lang; collaborations with Christian Marclay and Peter Greenaway; and profiles dedicated to John Cage, Luigi Nono, and Gavin Bryars.
Through these projects, Klang Systematiek explores how experimental and minimalist traditions can continue to evolve — reaching audiences new to this repertoire and revealing the enduring vitality of music as a social, spatial, and transformative experience.
