stefan goldmann: a1

Based on the eponymous play by brothers and author/performer team Tobi and Mike Müller at Schauspielhaus Zürich, Swiss experimental documentary film A1 traverses through time and space along Switzerland's first and most elongated highway structure. Rich in archival sources, it sheds light on the costs and benefits of rapid movement: social, migratory and ecological patterns, economic and military designs that are mostly not immediately obvious to the casual motorist. Stefan Goldmann's soundtrack engages the film's multi-layered aesthetics full on, providing a dazzling array of short compositions. Profoundly synthetic in production, this free-wheeling phantasmagoria of peculiar, yet intensely likeable miniatures branches off into all directions - from minimalistic to overflowing, calm to banging, nightmarish to soothing. The visual patina of historic documents is playfully mirrored in intense distortion and noise artifacts, bound into rhythmic units and melodies formed of ghost notes. Finding new ways of mining his techno background to yield surprising new forms and ideas, Stefan Goldmann has proven his abilities in a dazzling range of projects over the past years. Works for dance, ensembles, an opera and various object-based creations made him a natural choice for the job of finding a refreshing way of linking sound and image. On its own, the music for A1 holds up by putting the listener on a high-velocity road trip of the curious mind.