This portrait of Achim Bornhöft collects six works from 1999 to 2010, from string quartet with live electronics to four electric guitars. Bornhöft did not simply document concert performances. He adapted the sound mixtures and the spatial and temporal proportions of the original scores to the possibilities and limits of a stereo CD, anticipating the virtual auditorium during production.

Bornhöft, born in 1966, studied composition with Nicolaus A. Huber and Dirk Reith at the Folkwang University in Essen from 1988 to 1994. A DAAD scholarship then took him to CCRMA at Stanford University in 1994 and 1995, and in 2001 he was a guest artist at the ZKM in Karlsruhe. His earlier prizes include the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Prize of the federal university composition competition in 1991 and the Folkwang Prize for composition in 1993. He now teaches composition at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, where he directs the electronic music studio and the Crossroads festival. On this disc he also performs the live electronics. The players are the Helios Streichquartett, Ensemble Phorminx, the Freiburger Schlagzeugensemble under Bernhard Wulff and the guitar quartet GoGuitars. Angelika Bender (flute) and Thomas Löffler (clarinet) play the duo piece.

The computer piece Naturell (2010) frames the programme, heard at the start and again at the end. Concent (2006) is for string quartet and live electronics, and Lack (2005) for flute, clarinet and live electronics. Infrarot (1999) is written for four percussionists and tape. Sepia (2008) is the only purely acoustic work, for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano. Aceton (2009) brings four electric guitars together with live electronics.

The composer describes his pieces as the expression of a philosophy of life, acoustic milestones scattered along his personal path. The selection reflects that idea, with electronics present in almost every work as an extension of the instruments rather than a separate layer. It also mirrors the two sides of his training, the instrumental school of Huber and the studio work learned with Reith and at Stanford.

CD, Wergo WER 6577 2, released in 2010 in the German Music Council's Edition Zeitgenössische Musik, total time 78:29.