Vinko Globokar (1934, Slovenia/France), composer, trombonist, and conductor, educated in Paris (R. Leibowitz) and Berlin (L. Berio). Until 1955, Globokar performed on jazz trombone. He collaborated with Stockhausen on some parts of his Licht cycle and co-founded the New Phonic Art improvisation group. Globokar has composed works in the domain of music theatre, as well as numerous pieces in various genres of orchestral, chamber, and solo music. He has taught trombone at the conservatory in Cologne and led courses on new music at that school. From 1974 to 1980 he was director of instrumental and vocal research at IRCAM. Globokar has built a dynamic career as a trombonist and conductor, performing works by contemporary composers, including his own.

In his Dialog über die Luft for accordion, Vinko Globokar undertakes a virtuosic deformation, with his precise musical dramaturgy, of readily recognisable archetypes, mostly of the Balkan cultural space. With witty humour and irony, he ‘establishes’ a dialogue with air. His suggestive, music-theatrical mastery offers the performer the possibility of cathartic self-fulfilment, which is why this piece is unique, outside of all existing categories. During the 1990s, Globokar composed a dialogue about each of the four elements: Dialogue Concerning Earth (percussion), Dialogue Concerning Air (accordion), Dialogue Concerning Water (acoustic and electric guitar), and Dialogue Concerning Fire (double bass). In 1995, he brought them together, in the roles of individuals, into an extensive piece, Masse, Macht und Individuum, for two orchestras and four soloists.

Several pre-eminent accordionists have already tackled Globokar’s Dialogue. However, according to the author, none of them have been able to match Luka Juhart’s mastery of the piece.

(Commentary by Uroš Rojko)