Rupert Huber and Mia Zabelka, two musicians and radio artists based in Vienna working in the electronic / experimental field, have only once so far performed together within the project „Audiomobile“ in October this year. With „Happy Birthday Ars Sonora“ they are pursuing their artistic collaboration with a live radio performance, this time at the digital radioplay studio RP4 of the ORF Funkhaus. With this live performance, they are contributing to the celebrations on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Spanish radio art programme, Ars Sonora, which (by the way) like Kunstradio is broadcast every Sunday evening between 11 p.m. and midnight on Spain’s national public radio, RNE (Radio National Espana).

As the title suggests, "Happy Birthday Ars Sonora" is a multichannel birthday serenade performed by Mia Zabelka with her e-violin and Rupert Huber with synthesizer and samples from his archive. When, in Madrid, a group of radio artists, musicians, and composers are celebrating the 20th anniversary of one of the most important patrons of radio art (PROGRAMM ARS SONORA). Mia Zabelka and Rupert Huber will send acoustic birthday congratulations to Ars Sonora and "Happy Birthday Ars Sonora" is broadcast as live intervention as part of Ars Sonora’s birthday programme.

Ars Sonora was founded in 1985 by Francisco Felipe and Jose Iges as an "open ear" to International Sound and Radio Art, and since then has been a platform for producing and diffusing radio art works, thus actively supporting artistic investigation in the medium of radio. Like Kunstradio, Ars Sonora, too has initiated and contributed to numerous international, sometimes large-scale projects throughout the years, amongst others Horizontal Radio, Rivers&Bridges, Art’s Birthday Party, and has presented its productions in prestigious events and festivals, e.g. at Wings of Sound (Helsinki, 1992), Radio Beyond (London, 1992) resp. at the International Radio Biennial in Mexico City (2004).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARS SONORA, AND TO 20 MORE YEARS!