LOST HIGHWAY - A Music Theater by Olga Neuwirth

With the Libretto by Elfriede Jelinek and Olga Neuwirth based on the film "Lost Highway" by David Lynch and Barry Gifford.
Co-production with steirisc[:her:]bst, Theater Basel, and Graz 2003 - Kulturhauptstadt Europas

Project Management at IEM Markus Noisternig, noisternig [at] iem.at Main Contributors at IEM Thomas Musil, musil [at] iem.at Gerhard Nierhaus, nierhaus [at] iem.at Robert Höldrich, hoeldrich [at] iem.at Contact details Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics (IEM) Inffeldgasse 10/3, 8010 Graz, Austria email :: noisternig [at] iem.at phone :: +43.316.389.3681 mobile:: +43.664.5301110

Abstract

	First of all, apart from the fact that Lost Highway touched me very directly, I was fascinated by Lynch and Gifford's radical settling of accounts with the narrative as progressive action. This impossibility of escape from a situation, this unmerciful (time) loop that can make one crazy once one get caught up in it, presented a basic compositional challenge. It was the demontage of a voyeuristic view of things that oversees and unifies everything. This other view, which has no referential function, but is purely an aesthetic means of expression, inspired me to reflect upon what this could mean musically. (Olga Neuwirth)
	From: Afterthoughts on Lost Highway "Waiting for Godot" of passion and proximity - an experimental arrangement of futility

The question is: how can one create something to contrast with the film by means of the temporal transience and non-arbitrary repetition of a continous form such as music? Here the wish arises to design the space in a concrete wayk plumbing it three-dimensionally as far as th composition is concerned.

We have to distinguish between sounds with a clearly dramaturgical function, e.g. Fred's trumpet solo, and the spatial sound projection, where the audience is enveloped by sound to draw the auditorium into a scene.

	[...] it becomes evident that, in many of its connections to instrumental music and the vocal levels of expression, the electronic world is derived from the natural one, but then goes beyond this. [...] (Robert Höldrich)
	From: Lost Highway - totally electronic

This elaborate artistic work of Olga represents a great challenge from both, an academic and a technical point of view.

Spatial Sound Projection and Live-Electronics

Spatial sound projection for live-electronics and sample playback is realized in Pure Data (PD) using the IEM's Ambisonic approach.

Sounds with a well-defined reference to the scenic content, e.g. Fred's trumpet solo, fade in from various different directions, or move along predefined sound-paths around the audience. Further, a solid no-man's land of sound is created around the audience, to draw off the attention during changes of scenes. These pre-produced audio inserts have been created by largely alienated instrumental sounds.

A characteristic aspect of Lost Highway is live-processing with the soloist instruments, e.g. trombone, clarinet, saxophone and percussions. For example, colored micro-fluctuations of live-processed deep wind instruments are used to create mobile dome-like sounds, the so called Sundomes. These sundomes are spatialized via slowly moving sound clouds, that consist of several sound sources with randomly fluctuating positions.

Audio Example: Sundome during dialog Alice with Fred, plus trumpet solo. [mp3]

Further essential for Lost Highway is the processing of the sung and spoken voice. The characteristic style of Mr. Eddy's speech is transformed compositionally into vocal acrobatics. Using live-electronics, the split and cut up still further until it ends up in small sound particles spatialized randomly around the audience.

Audio Example: David Moss as Mr. Eddy plus loops. [mp3]

	[...] the character of the figure (Mr. Eddy) is precisely expressed by the electronic transformation. The connotation and symbolism which surrounds a figure can be specially focused by means of electronics. [...] (Robert Höldrich)
	From: Lost Highway - totally electronic

Let us consider the schizophrenic character of Alice / Renee. Olga's wish to have a shimmering, silver metallic sound on her voice - to make her sounding not from the natural world at all - was realized by a multi-stage Karplus-Strong string resonator.

Audio Example: Alice plus Live-Electronics (1). [mp3]
Audio Example: Alice plus Live-Electronics (2). [mp3]

Audio Examples:

Audio Examples in .mp3-format ...

• Scene 03: Live-Electronics on Trombone and Vocals plus Samples

Photo Album Page:

[CLICK] Link to see photos from the performances and rehearsals in Graz in 2003.

Recording

"Lost Highway" by O. Neuwirth,
Recorded at the Helmut-List Halle, Graz, 2003 by ORF; Postproduction and Mastering by Olga Neuwirth and Markus Noisternig at IEM
Hybrid Super Audio CD, released at Kairos Music Vienna, December 2006.

Technical Rider

General Technical Rider for Lost Highway [PDF].

Credits

Markus Noisternig, Live-Electronics, Sounddesign, 3D Sound System Engineering, Programming, Project-Management
Thomas Musil, Programming Audio
Gerhard Nierhaus, Sounddesign
Robert Höldrich, Sounddesign

Special acknowledgement is given to Winfried Ritsch and Johannes Zmönig for their assistance on Linux and PD throughout this project.