At first glance, it seems remarkable that present-day musicians allow themselves to be inspired by a literary work that seems so remote from our time as does the epic poem Orlando furioso by Ludovico Ariosto, written from 1505 onwards.

The conception of the Schizzi di Orlando furioso is to be understood as a kind of glance into the mirror: Béatrice Zawodnik, D. M. Visotzky, Barry Guy, Brice Pauset and Leonardo García Alarcón allow themselves to be stimulated by Ariosto’s verses to create a multifarious succession of 26 short pieces for solo, duo, trio and quartet combinations. Their essential elements include the collision of varying idioms and stylistic traits resulting from the respective areas of activity of the participating musical personalities. Due to this type of action, opposing areas of musical discourse – namely those of the New Music, jazz and the sacred realm – enter into relationships with each other or overlap each other, resulting in a multi-layered texture at times having the effect of a labyrinth.