For more than twenty years after Giacinto Scelsi’s death in Rome on August 9, 1988, the doors to the archives of the Fondazione Isabella Scelsi remained locked. Conjecture, speculation and rumours about Scelsi’s work abounded during this time; however, hard facts and a deeper understanding of his techniques as composer were impossible to come by, due to the rigorously denied access to his papers.
In the course of a joint project between the Fondazione Isabella Scelsi and Klangforum Wien, Uli Fussenegger was given permission in 2011 to inspect the existing sound documents of the foundation and he made some spectacular discoveries: Scelsi’s so-called “improvisations”, which he played on an Ondiola and then allegedly passed on to his assistants to be transcribed as pieces for ensemble and orchestra, reveal themselves to be in fact quite advanced work notes – if not actually complex compositions. In the course of a multi-leveled work process, they were recorded on tape during repeated sessions.