Introduction

Bang on a Can All-Stars and the Helsinki Chamber Choir present the European premiere of David Lang’s new work before and after nature at Helsinki Festival. Premiered in Los Angeles in February, the piece is a meditation on nature – a reflection on the time before and after human existence.

Lang collaborated closely with researchers, faculty, and students at Stanford University’s Doerr School of Sustainability, as well as with the Environmental Justice Working Group. He integrated the latest research with fifty years of environmental thought, exploring and documenting different ways in which we define and understand what nature truly is.

Lang composed the texts for Bang on a Can All-Stars and choir and invited video artist Tal Rosner to create a visual representation of the music using video and projection. Tal Rosner is a pioneer in video art, widely recognized for his work in music, having created visual worlds for Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Foreign Bodies and The Rolling Stones’ concert spectacles.

before and after nature is a profound and immersive total work of sound and image – both heartbreaking and wondrous, filled with beauty and awe.

The event is organized by the Helsinki Festival.

David Lang, before and after nature
before us
things that never were
what is a mountain (after john muir)
sunray
last forever
sea change (after john f. kennedy)
soft rains

David Lang, text and music
Tal Rosner, video and visual design