For many years the phenomenon of wilderness has determined and influenced the compositional work of the Cuban-American-Austrian composer Jorge E. López. He lived near the wilderness of the US-American mountains for several years; now he explores the intensive world of Austrian mountains which have become his home. The main themes the composer addresses are, on the one hand, the astonishing and awe-inspiring aspects of nature, and on the other hand the driving forces behind human activity. López continuously employs dream sequences and nightmarish imagery relating these to each other. This recent work, "Gebirgskriegsprojekt – Mountain War Project" for video projection and pre-recorded orchestra using 8-channel spatialisation, is no exception; here, López examines the Alpine front during the First World War, in and around the Dolomites. The central repertoire of sounds and images for this multi-media work comes from natural and composed orchestral sounds, mountain imagery and historical film material.
