THE IRVINE: The Vinyl Album
The artistic voyage of discovery through the broad sound spectrum of the Irvine instrument, to which Rupert Huber, the long-standing “Artist in Residence”, made a significant contribution, culminated in the production of the vinyl album THE IRVINE.
The six tracks on the album showcases a selection of compositions that Huber composed especially for this analog synthesizer, a unique instrument developed by the AVL Cultural Foundation in collaboration with an interdisciplinary team.
The compositions illustrate the broad musical expressiveness of the Irvine: in addition to solos played by the composer himself, Huber also worked with other musicians to expand the presented tonal diversity of the Irvine with other instruments. The title Ambience in D originated from Huber's collaborative electronic music project TOSCA; the virtuoso Lena Fankhauser can be heard on her viola. On the track Cycles, the multi-talented musician Maria Petrova provided the percussion sounds.
In addition to new compositions, the selection of tracks on the vinyl album also reflects other projects that have been realized in connection with this instrument. For example, Huber developed with the AVL Cultural Foundation the music installation Symphony of Encounters, in which the soundscape of the Irvine was integrated. Musical passages that were performed at the premiere of the installation in 2022 at the Opéra Garnier, Palais Garnier in Paris, France, are also included in the piece Symphony of Encounters Paris.