Vinko Globokar

Vinko Globokar advises listeners to "make up their own movies to the music." The Slovenian-French European does not believe in explaining music. And the deeply moving expressiveness of his orchestral trilogy Der Engel der Geschichte, "The angel of history," inspired by Paul Klee's painting "Angelus Novus" and now documented by this recording of the exemplary SWR production, certainly speaks for itself. The listener encounters three disturbing sound images: the first, "Zerfall," refers to the disintegration of Yugoslavia, as is indicated by tape feeds of folk music and military commands; "Mars" turns into a war by proxy fought between live samples; what remains is the hope referred to by the title of the third piece, "Hoffnung." A hope, though, that is all but encouraged by the second composition on the album, Les Otages, inspired by Jean Fautrier's war hostages paintings.