"Heiner Goebbels, born on August 17, 1952 in Neustadt/Weinstrasse, lives in Frankfurt/Main since 1972. He studied sociology and music.

While doing several record productions and many concerts with the Goebbels/Harth-Duo (75-88), Sogenanntes Linksradikales Blasorchester (76-81), and the art-rock-group Cassiber (82-92), he wrote at the same time theatre music (for Hans Neuenfels, Claus Peymann, Matthias Langhoff, Ruth Berghaus and other directors), film music (for Helke Sander, Dubini Brothers, and many others) and ballet music (for the Ballet Frankfurt).

In the middle of the 80s he began composing and directing audio plays of his own, most of them based on texts by Heiner Mueller Verkommenes Ufer (Wasteland Waterfront), Die Befreiung des Prometheus (The liberation of Prometheus), Wolokolamsker Chaussee I-V (Volokolamsk Highway), Schliemanns Radio, Der Horatier/Roman Dogs/Chiens Romains and others.

After the staged concerts Der Mann im Fahrstuhl (Man in the Elevator) 1987, Die Befreiung des Prometheus (The liberation of Prometheus), 1991 and the concert for dancers Thraenen des Vaterlands (Tears of the fatherland), together with Christoph Nel/Ballet Frankfurt, 1986, he created together with Michael Simon the music theatre pieces Newtons Casino in 1990 and Roemische Hunde (Roman Dogs) in 1991 at the TAT in Frankfurt.

Since 1988 Heiner Goebbels composes ensemble music for the Ensemble Modern (Red Run, Befreiung, La Jalousie) and the Ensemble Intercontemporain (Herakles 2).

In 1994 followed Surrogate Cities, a 90 minutes composition for big orchestra commissioned by the Alte Oper Frankfurt and performed by the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, conductor: Peter Rundel. 1996, as a commision for Donaueschingener Musiktage, he composed Industry & Idleness (premiered by Radiokamerorkest Hilversum, conductor: Peter Eotvos). Walden for extended orchestra was created in 1998 for the first tour of the newly founded Ensemble Modern Orchestra (conductor: Peter Eotvos).

Invitations to nearly all major theatre-, music- and performing arts -festivals and tourings with all his ensembles, the productions for stage got him to more than 50 countries in the last 30 years. More than 20 CD productions have been published.

In 1993 the music theatre piece Ou bien le débarquement désastreux (Or the hapless landing) was directed by himself in Paris. In 1995 his music theatre piece Die Wiederholung (The Repetition, La Reprise - based upon motifs by Kierkegaard, Robbe-Grillet and Prince) was created in Frankfurt (Theater am Turm). His music theatre piece Schwarz auf Weiss (Black on White) was created at the TAT Frankfurt in 1996 for 18 musicians of the Ensemble Modern. It was filmed for Arte, recorded for BMG and the SWF and is still being shown in Europe and overseas.

Apart from several installation and exhibition projects in Bauhaus Weimar, Centre Pompidou, ZKM, MAC Lyon, Museum Mathildenhöhre, Albertinum Dresden, New Space Moscow, Kunsthalle Gießen, Museo da Arte Bogota and many others, he participated in documenta VII, VIII and X with concerts, performances, and installations - in 1997 with his music theatre sketch Landscape with man being killed by a snake.

In 1997 he also created the music theatre piece Schliemann's Scaffolding in Athens and Volos. The music theatre piece Max Black with Andre Wilms premiered in April 1998 in Lausanne, and together with the Ensemble Modern he created a tribute to Hanns Eislers' 100th anniversary called Eislermaterial - a staged concert which was first shown in Munich in May 1998.

In 2000 Heiner Goebbels composed the sound installations Timée / Timeios and Fin de Soleil for Centre Pompidou in Paris, the music theatre piece Hashirigaki in Theatre Vidy and the staged concert ...même soir.- with Les Percussions de Strasbourg.

Nearly all of his music theatre works have been performed between 50 and 150 times on the major music and theatre festivals in Europe as well as in the USA, Southamerica, Australia and Asia.

1994/95 guest professor at "Institut für Angewandte Theaterwissenschaft" University Giessen.1997/98 guest professor at "Musikhochschule Karlsruhe - Kompositionsklasse".

Nearly 20 years - from 1999 until 2018 - Heiner Goebbels worked as a professor (and from 2003 until 2011 as a managing director) at the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies of the Justus Liebig University in Giessen (Germany). He was in charge of the artistic practise, seminars, and scenic projects, as well as cooperative projects with the students of international institutions (in Italy, France, Austria, Denmark, Netherlands etc). The institute is as well dedicated to scientific research as to artistic practice (contemporary theatre and performance) and especially to the possibilities of linking both. (For further information please visit its homepage).

Since then, he is widely engaged to advance the conditions and structures of contemporary theatre education being a cofounder of several cooperative structures like the Hessian Theatre Academy, the Hessian Film- and Media Academy, tanzlabor_21 and Frankfurt LAB. He also worked in several boards for upcoming experimental artists.

2018 he recieved the first appointment for the newly established Georg Büchner Professorhip, which he recieved from the President of the Justus Liebig University and which is established at the interdisciplinary research centre ZMI - Centre for Media and Interactivity in Gießen.

In 2002 Heiner Goebbels premiered his first opera Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten / Paysage avec parents éloignés / Landscape with distant relatives. In the context of his 50th birthday Heiner Goebbels released his first book "Komposition als Inszenierung". Also ECM released a CD of Eislermaterial.

In 2003 Heiner Goebbels premiered his orchestra piece Aus einem Tagebuch (From A Diary) as a comission of the Berlin Philharmonics / conductor Sir Simon Rattle. in this season the Berlin Philharmonics performed ten concerts with the music of Heiner Goebbels: two performances of Surrogate Cities in Lausanne and Berlin and many following concerts of Aus einem Tagebuch (From A Diary) in Salzburg, London, New York, San Francisco and others.

In 2004 he premiered his music theatre piece called Eraritjaritjaka - museé des phrases after words by Elias Canetti with the actor André Wilms and the Mondriaan String Quartett at the theatre vidy in lausanne, which has been awarded with seven international theatre prizes and performed more than 125 times worldwide.

From 2006 until 2018 Heiner Goebbels was President of the Theatre Academy Hessen.

In 2007 he premiered the performative installation Stifters Dinge - a music theatre producion without performers, musicians or actors. After the first shows at the coproducing institutions in Lausanne, Berlin, Luxembourg and Frankfurt this piece is touring worldwide and had already more than 250 performances. A CD of Stifters Dinge was released by ecm records in 2012. In 2007 also the staged concert Songs of Wars I have seen has been composed for the London Sinfonietta and the Orchestra in the Age of Enlightenment, London - with words by Gertrude Stein.

In 2008 he premiered his music theatre production I went to the house but did not enter on the Edinburgh International Festival, with the Hilliard Ensemble and Texts by T.S.Eliot, Maurice Blanchot and Samuel Beckett.

In 2007/2008 he was fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Institute for advanced studies), in 2010 artist in residence of the Cornell University, Ithaca, USA.2012 awarded with the International Ibsen Award by the Norwegian Government - and with a Honorary Doctorate by the Birmingham City University.For the Years 2012, 2013, 2014 Heiner Goebbels worked as artistic director for the "Ruhrtriennale - International Festival of the Arts'.

In 2012 he premiered his latest music theatre production When the Mountain changed its clothing as well as John Cage: Europeras 1&2 on the Ruhrtriennale - International Festival of the Arts. In 2013 he directed the European Premiere of Harry Partch: Delusion of the Fury, in 2014 the new production of Louis Andriessen: De Materie.

As artistic director of the "Ruhrtriennale - International Festival of the Arts 2012-2014" Heiner Goebbels curated, produced and presented two new works by Robert Wilson, three new works by Romeo Castellucci, and more new works by Michal Rovner, Boris Charmatz, Robert Lepage, Jan Lauwers, Ryoji Ikeda, Douglas Gordon, William Forsythe, Lemi Ponifasio, Mathilde Monnier, Saburo Teshigawara, Anne Teresa de Keersmaker, Rimini Protokoll, Tim Etchells, Gregor Schneider and many others.

More and more he also works as a light designer for his staged concerts, such as Songs of Wars I have seen, Surrogate Cities, Louis Andriessen: De Materie / staged concert version, and in collaboration with John Brown also for Everything that happened and would happen, for A House of Call in collaboration with Hendrik Borowski, for Liberté d'action with Marc Thein.

In 2018 he created the music theatre work mit einem Namen aus einem alten Buch and the Sound-. und Videoinstallation Landschaftsstücke/Landscape Plays in Gießen, and the large scale performance Everything that happened and would happen produced by Artangel London and the Manchester International Festival. in 2019 this production was presented by the coproducers Park Avenue Armory New York and Ruhrtriennale aswell as during the Theatre Olympics in St. Petersburg.

In 2020 he composed the orchestra cycle A House of Call, which had its world premiere due to the Corona pandemic only in 2021 at Berlin Philharmony, Cologne Philharmony, Hamburg Elbphilharmony and others in Septemer 2021. He also composed a new radiowork "Gegenwärtig lebe ich allein" with words by Henri Michaux and a music theatre piece called Liberté d'action in 2021. He published an expanded Edition of his Ästhetik der Abwesenheit and the book A House Of Call - Materialausgabe

As guest professor of Goethe University Frankfurt in 2023 he led a stage project for students referring to Bertolt Brecht's 'Lehrstücke' at Frankfurt LAB."

"Alfred Harth, now known as Alfred 23 Harth or A23H, is a German multimedia artist, band leader, multi-instrumentalist musician, and composer who creatively mixes genres.

Harth founded a free improvisation band, Just Music (1967 to 1972), which in 1969 was recording number 1002 on the Munich based label ECM. In 1967 he opened the platform centrum freier cunst in Frankfurt/Main - a meeting point for live free music, art exhibitions, experimental poetry, action, and happening events. He formed the group E.M.T. (1972 to 1975) with artist and pianist Nicole Van den Plas from Belgium and Sven-Åke Johansson from Sweden. E.M.T. implemented Dada elements, integrating European Music Tradition by using fragments of composers (Edvard Grieg, Schumann). In 1975 he had just returned from three months in New York City, playing there with some greats of the Loft scene: Perry Robinson, John Fischer, Jay Clayton, a.o. and met Heiner Goebbels in Frankfurt/Main with whom in 1976 he recorded a first LP Vier Fäuste für Hanns Eisler (FMP/SAJ 08), including works from Hanns Eisler as Duo Goebbels/Harth (1975 to 1988). Meanwhile, also having established the Sogenanntes Linksradikales Blasorchester to bring political music to the streets within student's protest actions, they played a lot of concerts and festivals all over Europe.

Harth's activities became more & more diversified: In 1980 he recorded a meeting of mixed styles from jazz, punk and classical music for the label JAPO/ECM. He invited Christoph Anders, Goebbels, Paul Lovens, composer Rolf Riehm, and Annemarie Roelofs for this project-LP, Es herrscht Uhu im Land using words by Kurt Schwitters a.o.. This record's musical program led to more focused work in the group Cassiber (with Anders, Chris Cutler, Goebbels and Harth) from 1982 on. The Duo Goebbels/Harth had become a highly creative nucleus for many enterprises. In 1983 Burkhard Hennen asked Harth to form an "all star" combination for the Moers Festival. This group became Duck and Cover for which he conceived a main structural composition idea in relation to contemporary politics. In 1984 the Duo Goebbels/Harth created a musical theatre piece, Nach Aschenfeld together with the author and director FK Waechter and actors Heinz-Werner Kraehkamp and Michael Altmann. This was mounted at the Residenztheater in Munich where they played live within the stage scenery on a huge number of instruments, some partially self made, a kind of role model for Heiner Goebbels's Musik Theater in his later years. The same year Harth made an LP Melchior with his theatre composition for Frank Wedekind's play Spring Awakening at National Theatre Mannheim played by Bob Degen and himself and Cassiber put out its second CD, Beauty and the Beast, released in Germany and Great Britain.

In 1987 the Duo Goebbels/Harth had been recorded live at the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville in Canada and came to an end in 1988. In 1992 Harth managed to put out a best-of album in Japan, Goebbels Heart, and in 2007 a double CD of the duo's first two LPs, in Great Britain.

Parallel to the collaboration with Heiner Goebbels, Harth founded several groups during the 1980s, including a two time working project (LP This Earth! on ECM 1264 in 1983) with Paul Bley, Trilok Gurtu, Maggie Nicols, Barre Phillips and himself, then Notes On Planet Shikasta (1987, without Gurtu, additive Phil Minton) using fragmented words by Doris Lessing, and an international group Gestalt et Jive (1984 to 1988).

In 1984 Harth co-organized the Marry the World By Conference Call at the gallery 'waschSalon' which he maintained during the years 1984 to 1991, and where he also had invited William S. Burroughs for an exhibition of his Paintings On Paper. In 1985 Harth adapted the number 23 in his name and short name A23H. In 1986 A23H cooperated at the first under water concert organized by Micky Remann in a pool in Frankfurt (Guinness Book of Records).

Harth had a duo with John Zorn, and a trio with Peter Brötzmann and Sonny Sharrock in 1986/7.

In 1989 Harth created the performance Wenn Gott tot ist, dann ist er im Himmel with a sound collage of original interviews with Jean Baudrillard, Villem Flusser, Friedrich Kittler a.o., and composed the CD Sweet Paris in 1990 which implements recorded German texts read by foreign language speaking street pedestrians in Paris.

During the transition phase of the opening of the East Harth was a member of Lindsay Cooper's group Oh Moscow (1987 to 1993, words by singer and film director Sally Potter), he had founded a postmodern group Vladimir Estragon (1988/89, comprising Einstürzende Neubauten drummer FM Einheit) referring in its titles to Samuel Beckett and James Joyce, a Trio Trabant a Roma (1990/1, Lindsay Cooper, Phil Minton, himself), a duo Parcours Bleu a Deux with Heinz Sauer (1990 to 1992), and a QuasarQuartet (1992/3, Simon Nabatov, Vitold Rek/Mark Dresser, Vladimir Tarasov, himself). 1993 to 1995 Harth worked out his art project Gedankenhotel that had no audiences, but just events with 10 "guests" that had been documented in 10 maps. Also in 1993 he formed the FIM (1993 to 2001, Frankfurts Indeterminables Musiqwesen) a platform for many local avantgarde music activities including the group Imperial Hoot (1998 to 2000).

In 1995 Harth created a first dedication to Korea in a Deutsches Jazz Festival Frankfurt event Han Guk - Land des unerfüllten Wunsches together with Dougie Bowne, Fred Hopkins, David Murray and himself. In 1996 he produced a re-mix CD album Pollock using out-of-print Alfred Harth LPs, and triggered an internet label recout. In 1997-8 he re-arranged, conducted, and performed the West Side Story at the main theatre in Frankfurt.

In 2000 Harth formed the Trio Viriditas (2000 to 2002) in New York together with Wilber Morris and Kevin Norton. Harth and his wife, the Korean artist Yi Soonjoo, wanted to relocate to New York where they both had a grant at OMI/New York, but then in 2001 to 2002 they had a grant at Ssamzie Space in Seoul and loved to stay on where Harth created the LaubhuetteStudio Seoul. There in the years 2003 to 2006, he produced a Mother of Pearl-CD series of five editions including a DVD containing animated sequences of his drawings. Each disc devoted to a specific Korean theme, inviting also many Korean musicians to contribute their sound sources to this project.

In 2004 Harth became a member in Otomo Yoshihide's Japanese formations for almost five years. He composed for Korean ballet and on a recent solo disc micro saxo-phone, edition III (2011, released in the US on KSE), he had been experimenting with rudimentary "doublespeak" texts besides using contact microphones to "electrify" his saxophones by the means of electric devices as the Kaoss Pad a.o. Also he even bows the contrabassclarinet and saxophone bodies, as well amplifying the keys, the saliva and needle springs to extend once more the saxophone's language since he began to "electrify" his saxophone on the LP Plan Eden (Creative Works Records) in 1986.

In 2007 Harth created the European quartet 7k Oaks together with Massimo Pupillo (Zu), Fabrizio Spera and Luca Venitucci in Rome. In 2008 he had a premiere on a tour in Switzerland with the trio Taste Tribes together with Guenter Mueller and Hans Joachim Irmler from the legendary group Faust. In 2009 Harth formed the duo Gift Fig together with composer Carl Stone by the premiere of Adler_Kino 1166 - 1215 in Frankfurt/Main. In 2013 Torsten Müller (musician) [de] and A23H toured in North West America including a performance at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival. Harth took part in the exhibitions The Name Is Burroughs - Expanded Media 2012 at ZKM Karlsruhe, Real DMZ 2013 at Artsonje Center/Seoul and Universal Studios, 2014 at Seoul Museum of Art, 2016 sound art cooperation with the Korean artist Sora Kim at National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Korea.

To play Lindsay Cooper's music Harth took part in Henry Cow, Music for Films, News from Babel and Oh Moscow at the Barbican Centre, London on 21 November as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival; at the Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield on 22 November as part of the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and at the Teatro Diego Fabbri in Forlì, Italy on 23 November 2014. In 2015 he collaborated with Chris Cutler founding a group Hope, a commission for the 46th Deutsches Jazzfestival with Kazuhisa Uchihashi, Mitsuru Nasuno. In 2018 Harth toured with his group Revolver 23 by an invitation by the Jazz in Autumn Festival in Moscow. In 2019 he was invited to show his art work at the Seongbuk Documenta 6 at the Choi Manlin Museum in Seoul, in 2020 he participated at the JazzKorea Festival Alive!. Alfred Harth is an Honorary Citizen of Seoul.

A23H founded many other bands, composes for film, TV, theatre, ballet, radio plays, and has exhibitions of his art works. Since 2011 A23H extends his Far East radius by also touring in China with the Shanghai Quintet and working in Hong Kong/Macao."

Christoph Anders is a German vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, best known for the band Casssiber. He also is known for the groups Sogenanntes Linksradikales Blasorchester, and Toto Lotto. Her performs on vocals, synthesizer, organ, electric guitar, tenor saxophone, samples, violin.

"Chris Cutler started messing about with banjo, guitar and trumpet at school, settling for drums and playing shadows and other instrumental covers in his first band in 1963. Subsequently he played in R'n'B and Soul Bands, winding up in 1967 playing in London's psychedelic clubs. At the start of the seventies, with Dave Stewart, he co-founded The Ottawa Music Co, a 22 piece Rock composer's orchestra, eventually joining British experimental group Henry Cow with whom he toured, recorded and worked in dance and theatre projects until it's demise in 1978. In 1977 Henry Cow, The Mike Westbrook Orchestra and Frankie Armstrong formed a big-band and toured around Europe. After Henry Cow, Cutler went on to co-found a series of mixed national groups Art Bears, News from Babel, Cassiber, The (ec) Nudes, P53 and The Science Group. He was a permanent member of American bands Pere Ubu, Hail and The Wooden Birds and now works sporadically with John Rose, Fred Frith, Zeena Parkins, Iancu Dumitrescu, Peter Blegvad and Stevan Tickmayer.

Other lasting collaborations have included Aqsak Maboul (Belgium), Lussier/Derome and Les Quatre Guitaristes (Canada), The Kalahari Surfers (Africa), Perfect Trouble (Germany), Between (Sweden), N.O.R.M.A., (Italy), Telectu (Portugal), Mieku Shimuzu (Japan),The Hyperion Ensemble (Romania), The Film Music Orchestra, 'Oh Moscow', Gong, The Work and Towering Inferno (UK), The Residents (USA), and stateless Tense Serenity and Mirror Man. There have also been countless improvisational groupings and solo performances. Recent projects include Radio pieces with Lutz Glandien and Shelly Hirsch, Live Soundtrack for Carl Dreher's Vampyr (with Italians Musci and Venosta), his Timescales project and work with David Thomas and Linda Thompson.

He also founded and runs the independent label and distribution service ReR/Recommended and, until 1991, the East European specialist label Points East. He is editor of the New Music magazine Unfiled and author of the theoretical book File Under Popular as well as of numerous articles and papers published in 14 languages. He lectures intermittently on theoretical and music related topics. He has appeared on more than 100 recordings."