Program
monthly regional market of local producers and farmers
You can have a (VEGE only) lunch during the market + or you can bring your own food and blanket and make a cosy picnic session in the fruit tree garden.
Discussion about Trenčín 2026 and its artistic programme.
Speakers: Mária Janušová (Creative Institute Trenčín), Eva Vozárová and Fero Király (ooo)
60 min.
guided tour of sound installation of Gordon Monahan
90 min.
discussion with Gordon Monahan
45 min.
Z bývalej sýpky sa stalo centrum vzdelávania a komunity, kde sa stretáva príroda, umenie a zdieľanie poznania. Spoznajte ako príbeh sýpky, tak jej hlavné projekty. Prírodná záhrada je živý ekosystém, kde všetko funguje v súlade s prírodou. Miesto, kde si môžete nazbierať čerstvé ovocie zo sadu, privoňať ku kvetom, blúdiť v slamovom bludisku, oddýchnuť v terapeutickej záhrade či pokojné posedenie v tieni stromov. Zoznámite sa s genofondovým ovocnom sade na družstve, dozvieme sa o forma pestovania a sadenia, pôvodných odrodách a ich potrebe v súčasnosti. Navštívime aj škôlku Biele Karpaty.
60 min.
In the late 1960s, composers experimented not only with sound but also with musical form itself. One approach was the work as a process—process art. The composer devised a “recipe” according to which the work “happened” on its own. It was Steve Reich, a pioneer of American minimal music, who created the well-known process piece *Pendulum Music*. Microphones, speakers, natural forces, feedback, and a process initiated by a group of performers—which then unfolds on its own—play the main roles in it.
10 min.
This sound art piece by American experimental composer Alvin Lucier is considered one of the seminal works of electroacoustic experimentation. It is a hybrid of a concert and a sound installation, consisting of a live-read text that is recorded, played back into the room, and re-recorded. This process is repeated. The articulation of human speech gradually fades away. The words become unintelligible and are replaced by pure resonant harmonies and the tones of the room itself.
40 min.
Performance Speaker Swinging is a live experiment – a presentation of an electroacoustic composition in which three performers swing speakers back and forth, creating a Doppler effect. The soundscape of live acoustic phenomena reflects the architecture of the concert space, while the performers sweat and struggle to maintain a continuous flow of sound. The result is a captivating and, at times, suspenseful acoustic meditation that is, in fact, an enlarged, physical manifestation of a miniature electronic circuit – one that is key to sound modulation – and perhaps also a metaphor for the circular movements of celestial bodies.
About the event
For centuries, master instrument makers have sought to harmoniously combine two functions – the interface and the resonator – into a single object. In the world of acoustic music, keys, strings, and the bow serve as the means of control, while the soundbox amplifies the sound and makes it clearly audible. Thus, the violinist, pianist, and trumpeter hold a multi-tool in their hands: a 2-in-1 sound modulator and amplifier.
This paradigm shifted with the advent of electricity, when instruments began to emerge in which the resonator was replaced by an electronic device – the loudspeaker. Proximity between the interface and the sound source is no longer necessary. This opened up new possibilities for working with sound as well as new ways of using it.
It is said that the best – and usually the most expensive – speakers are those that can suppress their own sound and reproduce the “purest” sound. But what happens when a musician uses a speaker not just as a medium, but as a fully autonomous instrument in its own right? What unfolds in this situation between the performer and the sound system, between the composer and the audience, between the air and the tension?
We invite you to find out at the third edition of the pssst concert series as part of Trenčín 2026.
Artist
pssst
Gordon Monahan (CA)
pssst
ooo presents Steve Reich (US/SK)
pssst
Eva Vozárová & Fero Király present Alvin Lucier (SK/US)
pssst is a series of concert events dedicated to contemporary and experimental music, presented by artists who uncompromisingly explore the peripheries of musical thinking. We live in a time of the greatest musical, compositional, and instrumental diversity in history. So:
How many ways are there to play the guitar? How far can the boundaries of experiment and improvisation reach? Where do we go from the European tradition – from grand concert halls and the triadic order?
Séria pssst je aktivitou projektu New New Music, ktorý je súčasťou Trenčín 2026. Trenčín 2026 finančne podporujú Mesto Trenčín, Trenčiansky samosprávny kraj a Ministerstvo kultúry SR. Partnerom je Európska únia.