BBC Radio 3 Open Ear: EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble, We Spoke & Gwen Rouger LSO St Luke's, London

Extract

Simon Løffler's b presents to its audience an immediate question: where are the instruments? Three players sit on straight-backed chairs, joined by a daisy-chain of cables and guitar stomp boxes. The score directs a choreography of foot switching, demanding extraordinary pedal dexterity. Sounds pass down the line, modulated by distortion and equaliser effects, before bursting out of the PA in a series of abrupt electrical barks. But at the other end of the line there is nothing but an unplugged jack, held aloft, inserted nowhere but the open air.