Out of print until April 2003
    8 Compact Disc Set. In custom box with many 4 color picture inserts

    ARTIST EDITION of 60 sets)
    9 Compact disc set. Includes Cloth Folio with signed and numbered original artwork
    (a relic from the  6-Tage-Spie signed by Hermann Nitsch). Artist Edition bonus CD includes
    the continuation of the night music and a CD=ROM Video track of the action from Day 5..

    Brian Duguid writes in the August 2000 issue of THE WIRE (excerpted): 

    "The music moves on through blood-curdling trombones into huge fog clouds of blaring noise, 
    and evenutally some unsettling choral wailing. There is little in the way of subtlety, 
    but Nitsch's music is often impressively dense and beautiful. Most of the day builds on these 
    ingredients, heading towards a cathartic climax in late afternoon. In the response it provokes.
    I'm oddly reminded of minimalist music, in that only prolonged exposure and repetition really 
    allows the mind to preceive things in a new way.

    Derangement and enlightenment is certainly Nitsch's aim. Some of the noise that he generates 
    is as much an aural blast-cleaner as the likes of Merzbow or The New Blockaders. More often
    though, his string, wind, brass and percussion orchestra's (and 90 voice chorus) create
    reasonably sophisticated dissonance not unlike the music of Cardew or other post-indeterminate
    avant garde composers. Some violently twisty-turny string instrument contortions during an
    'action in the stable' would certainly do the likes of Ligeti or Penderecki proud.

    This ability to switch between deafening torrents of sound, pointillistic hooting and gorgeous
    choral chants produces a very diverse and fertile experience. After midnight, while the
    participants drink wine in the castle's gardens and fields, conversation and insect chittering
    overlap with stark, icy slabs of string quintet drone. This provides some of the best music of
    the album, a shrill presence that's simply overpowering". 

    In august 1998 the o.m. theater 6-day-play was realized.

    The most renowned of the Viennese actionist group, Hermann Nitsch's orgies mysteries theater is
    conceived as a gesamtkunstwerk for all five senses. Coming from the broad area of happenings,
    actions and performance, Nitsch's 6-day-play must be considered the culmination of nearly 
    40-years of work and research. Combining startling visual components with music, the underlying
    concept and development of the play's action comes from the symphony. THE RENDING OF DIONYSOS. 

    The recordings in this numbered edition represent the complete recording from Day 5 of the
    6-day-play. The dramatic content moves constantly in the direction of the fundamental excess, 
    which will be brought forth with increasing clarity during the period mounting in the finale
    of the 5th day. Everything consists of perpetual variations of the mythical leitmotif.

    Selections include sunrise music, the gregorian chants in the court (with protesters evident
    in the background) musical processions with the participants and military machines the full
    orchestra accompanies the slaughter of the bull the finale of abreaktion with a 90 piece chorus
    and orchestra's String Quintet in the Stable Action  the midnight String Quintet under a canopy 
    of stars in a Chestnut grove of crickets.

    5th day friday, 7th of august 1998  

    The climax of the drama 
    The catastrophe of the drama 
    The experience of fundamental excess is reached  

    The utmost noise is produced by all of the orchestras and unites to form one single, gigantic,
    sustained, painful, overloud, unbearable roaring sound (noise ecstasy). 
    


    Kyle Ganns description of the Island Sinfonie applies to the 6-Tage-Spiel recordings equally well. 
    However amplified 50 times with several hundred participants enduring 6 days and nights. 

    The first complete realization of the 6-Tage-Spiel.
   
 


    the mythical leitmotif of the o.m. theater

    transubstantiation, communion
    the crucifixion of jesus christ
    the rending of dionysos
    the blinding of oedipus
    the ritual castration
    the murder of orpheus
    the murder of adonis
    isis and osirus
    the emasculation of attis
    the ritual regicide
    the killing of the totem animal and the totem animal feast
    the sado-masochistic primal excess, fundamental excess

    also available: 
 
    Artist Edition in foil stamped cloth folio  with original artwork (a relic from the 6-Day-Play)  
    signed by the artist. Edition size 60 





 organ of Corti