After the release of Pierre Henry's "La Ville. Die Stadt" and John Cage's "Roaratorio. An Irish Circus on 'Finnegans Wake' " within the CD series "Ars Acustica", WERGO continues this CD series with Bill Fontana's "Ohrbrücke / Soundbridge Köln - San Francisco". This first satellite sound-bridge between Europe and North America - initiated by the WDR in Cologne in association with the American Public Radio - which became a highly successful media event, involved the participation of over 50 radio stations in Europe and America as well as the Ludwig Museum in Cologne and the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Francisco. The "orchestra" consisted of each 18 sound sources in the city of Cologne and in San Francisco. Of special importance were the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco - with its fog horns which can be heard over a long distance - and the Heinrich-Böll-Platz with the cathedral and river boats in Cologne. Simultaneous events in the two cities, parallel but completely independent of one another, were brought together and mixed into a collage by Bill Fontana from a mixing board at the WDR, producing the live composition, "Satellite Sound Bridge Cologne - San Francisco". For an hour the listeners entered into the sound world of two widely separated cities through the medium of Fontana's sound composition. This WERGO CD documents the hour-long live broadcast.
