Michael Pelzel has long held a prominent position among the younger generation of Swiss composers. The composer and organist, born in Rapperswil in 1978, is a frequent guest of major festivals and stands out on account of his idiosyncratic, constantly changing brand of musical expression, through the use of intense clusters of sound as well as complex rhythmic and metric processes. He has been inspired by American music, South African interlocking techniques and by the sounds of Indian bells. His music will be performed several times in dialogue with works by two composers who have also dealt with micro-rhythms, micro-intervals and 'swarms' of sounds: the Hungarian, György Ligeti (1923–2006) and the Austrian, Georg Friedrich Haas (*1953).