Commissioned to mark the 20th anniversary of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and the 1200th anniversary of the city of Frankfurt, "Surrogate Cities" is one of German composer and music theatre innovator Heiner Goebbels' most far-reaching projects. Concerned with the dynamic power and the power dynamics of the modern city, it is an examination of the "concrete jungle" in all its complexity, complete with musical-historical "flashbacks". Literary quotations and text setting are also integral to the work, and it incorporates words by Paul Auster, Hugo Hamilton and Heiner Mller.