Klaus Schulze - Linzer Stahlsinfonie: Opening Concert Ars Electronica September 8, 1980

Although the city of Linz hoped to cast off the image as a “city of steel”, the steelworks continued to serve as an important topic in many art projects at Ars Electronica well into the new millennium. Media artists-either working directly with the steelworks or relating to them in many ways-thus seemed to be contributing to a collective effort of coming to terms with this part of the history and the present day of Linz. Commissioning the German composer and electronic music pioneer Klaus Schulze with a piece relating directly to the voestalpine steelworks for the 1980 Ars Electronica Festival marks the start of this line of art projects in the program of Ars Electronica. His Linz Steel Symphony had tree movements-Largo, Presto and Adagio-and followed the work process in the steel plant with subdivisions featuring “The Glowing ore”, “Now The Casting Can Begin”, “Flickering The Fire Column Rises” and ultimately “Fortunately The Form Is Filled”. For this, Schulze worked with sounds coming live from the steelworks and also featured workers from the steel plant as participants of his composition, which-despite a mainly critical reception-made his piece an significant step in the electronica music relating to industrial sounds in the context of the festival.
Linzer Stahlsinfonie has three subdivisions and 6 subtitles, though they are no separate tracks to skip to.
Linzer Stahlsinfonie (59:58)
1. Das Glühnde Erz (07:11) [German = The Glowing Ore]
2. Wie Aus Offnem Höllenrachen (06:50) [?How To Open Hell Crack?]
3. Schwingt Den Hammer, Schwingt! (07:55) [Swing The Hammer, Swing!]
4. Nun Kann Der Guss Beginnen (05:35) [Now The Casting Can Begin]
5. Flackernd Steigt Die Feuersäule (21:03) [Flickering The Fire Column Rises]
6. Glücklich Ist Die Form Gefüllt (11:24) [Fortunately The Form Is Filled]
The three subdivisions are:
A. Largo (subtitles 1 & 2)
B. Presto (subtitles 3-5)
C. Adagio (subtitle 6)
Linzer Stahlsinfonie was reissued on ULTIMATE EDITION and as a bonus DVD on DIG IT, where it is slightly longer.