media & performance artist
polyglot language & speech artist
composer
bi-national 🇩🇪🇮🇹 artist working across vocal, phonetic & visual music, ars acustica, new media, audiovisual performance, and digital art. intangible, unpredictable, ephemeral: concerned with the leap into the unsecured.
compositions
my compositions have been performed by leading ensembles throughout europe, asia, and the us, including ensemble mosaik, auditivvokal, hand werk, apartment house, alter ego, ensemble modern, musikfabrik, neue vocalsolisten, and the berliner philharmoniker.
performances at festivals including acht brücken cologne, ultraschall berlin, and donaueschinger musiktage. broadcasts by hr, wdr, swr, deutschlandfunk, and bbc radio 3. portrait cd "nearly-fast" with ensemble mosaik on coviello; further releases on cybele records, müzik hayvanı, and wergo.
radiophonic & electroacoustic
as you cannot see its source, all art genuinely conceived for radio is, in essence, acousmatic art taken to the extreme. anything that makes a sound can become part of a composition, as Paul Pörtner put it: 'the radio play as a sound play'.
on the radio, there is no physical presence, no space and no tangible object, only time and attention. to me, radio art represents the ultimate freedom. even as a child, I enjoyed experimenting with tape recorders. I'm still a die-hard radio listener & I'm still fascinated by the inner soundscapes created by electronic music that exist only in the moment of listening.
over the years, I have had the privilege of producing numerous long-form works for various ARD stations, particularly hr2-kultur: six evening-length commissions since 2020 alone. further broadcasts by wdr 3, deutschlandfunk kultur, sr 2, swr, and bbc radio 3.
latest radiophonic compositions for hr2-kultur now available:
current focus
since 2020, my practice centres on non-narrative audiovisual and performative works that blend ars acustica with a variety of digital media, live electronics, and performance art.
together with the extreme singer bettina wenzel, I operate the duo "fake music association," creating and performing innovative sound performances such as "chuzpe" (2020) and "alien isaitig" (2021). in may 2022, I participated in the "cleaning the house" workshop by the marina abramovic institute.
language & speech
since 1992, linguistic aspects have significantly informed my art. spoken language becomes the musical medium: self-authored multilingual texts, phonetic structures, articulation gestures, and the treatment of speech as sound material.
my emphasis is on perception, on acoustic and psychoacoustic phenomena, on possibilities and impossibilities of communication. I frequently collaborate with experimental poets such as florian neuner, mathias traxler, cristian forte, swantje lichtenstein, and tone avenstroup.
field recording is part of this practice. for the cycle SprachProben (2001–03), supported by the forschungspreis nrw, I recorded speakers of arbëresh in southern italy and of istro-romanian in žejane, istria, together with the ethnobiologist andrea pieroni. the same fieldwork produced three co-authored papers in ethnobotanical journals.
a three-month residency at atelier galata istanbul (kunststiftung nrw, 2023) resulted in three distinct works: the radiophonic composition yollar – diller for hr2-kultur, the visual music piece İST – polyphonetic poeTexts, and an artist's booklet published by kunststiftung nrw in 2024.
ensemble
trio in feral is a cologne-based ensemble for experimental electronic improvisation. we bring different musical backgrounds, technical setups, and artistic languages to the table, from composed new music and electroacoustic sound art to the DIY and noise scenes.
speech art trio
in 2004, I co-founded the speech art trio sprechbohrer, and I have since performed numerous times as a multilingual speaker and soloist e.g. in cage's 'mesostics re and not re duchamp' and in several of my own works.
together with lettrétage berlin, sprechbohrer realised the large-scale collaborative project "the poets' sounds," touring europe with six international poets, funded by kulturstiftung des bundes and kunststiftung nrw.
in 2009, following five years of engagement with the work, sprechbohrer made the first complete recording of hans g helms's fa:m ahniesgwow (1959). intensive communication with the author ensured a high degree of interpretive authenticity. the recording was released by wergo in 2011 and selected for the quarterly critics' list of the preis der deutschen schallplattenkritik (III/2011). to this day, we remain the only ensemble to perform this legendary experimental literary work in its entirety (90') in live concert settings.
virtual worlds
through my avatar cuirec d'erc, I have created several interactive sound installations within the virtual world of second life.
since 2017, cuirec has been a member of the avatar orchestra metaverse (aom). in november 2024, the aom premiered a new 45-minute collaborative ensemble work at the "sounds of the metaverse" conference at warsaw's chopin music university (curator: przemek danowski).
for hr2-kultur, I crafted the hour-long radiophonic composition "... meanwhile in another life ..." exploring auditory dimensions of the virtual reality realm. see also my essay "willkommen auf coppelia. second life als raum für experimentelle musik & klangkunst" in neue zeitschrift für musik 3/2023.
biography
atelier galata istanbul (kunststiftung nrw, 2023), künstlerhof schreyahn (2021), villa aurora los angeles (2000), künstlerhaus schloss wiepersdorf (1995).
finalist, weimarer frühjahrstage 2026 (acousmatic music). förderpreis musik nrw (1997), forschungspreis nrw (2001), bernd-alois-zimmermann-stipendium köln (1997). funded by kunststiftung nrw, kulturamt köln, kulturstiftung des bundes, musikfonds berlin, gema stiftung, ministerium für kultur & wissenschaft nrw.
musiktexte 103 (portrait issue). numerous radio portraits by wdr, hr, swr, deutschlandfunk. essays in musiktexte, positionen, and neue zeitschrift für musik; "live random concepts and sight-reading players" in contemporary music review 29/1 (2010).
harald muenz & florian neuner [hg.]: autorenmusik. erkundungen im zwischenreich von sprache und musik, buch mit cd, leipzig 2019. verlagsseite
harald muenz [hg.]: hin zu einer neuen welt. notate zu franco evangelisti, saarbrücken 2002.
studied composition with johannes fritsch, krzysztof meyer, and clarence barlow (cologne); postgraduate with helmut lachenmann (stuttgart); phonetics under georg heike (cologne); phd in composition, brunel university london (john croft, 2015).
full-time position for composition at brunel university london (2005–2016); artistic director, electronic studio, musikhochschule lübeck (2006–2011); aesthetic phonetics, university of cologne (2001–2005). since 2016, freelance artist; seminars at the international ensemble modern academy frankfurt (2017–2022) and a guest lecture at the institute for music & media, robert schumann hochschule düsseldorf (2023).
🌈 queer is not an answer but always questions.
harald muenz: "zèb bleuâtre" (2021), no. 2 from "...your feedback is highly appreciated..."
bookings, commissions, collaborations, press.