John Zorn emphasises: “Just as some people are fluent in several languages, I can express myself fluently in several musical genres”. In “Les Maudits”, according to the title, he traces the “cursed”, who have, however, secured places in cultural history through their impact: “Ubu”, “Baudelaires” and “Oviri” are the names of the three parts, alluding to Alfred Jarry’s theatrical pre-Dada King Ubu, the poetic multitude of the poet Charles Baudelaire and the Tahitian-named ceramic sculpture of the “savages” by Paul Gauguin. These three musical blocks are now bound in terms of content in Görlitz by texts by a brilliant author who experienced and reflected on precisely this core aspect of cursing: Gertrude Stein. She even welcomed Alfred Jarry as a guest in her salon Rue de Fleurus 27, and served biscuits à la Baudelaire with the infamous ingredient canabis sativa under original paintings by Gauguin. This staged reading with music will break down boundaries and combine playful sensuality with discourse, as Zorn himself points out: “And imagination, Albert Einstein already said, counts more than knowledge.” So let’s set off for new worlds! “Music should be like a journey to the moon,” Zorn promises. Klangforum Wien will realise this journey through sound.