Life (2009) was the first piece Louis Andriessen composed specifically for his friends in the Bang in a Can All-Stars. According to the composer, “[Artist Marijke van Warmerdam and I] decided to make a kind of contemporary Pictures at an Exhibition: short pieces of music to accompany video clips. This resulted in Life — four short compositions which combine late romantic ‘European’ music with hip ‘American’ repetitive music.”
Composed 1972–1976, De Staat was inspired by Plato’s words regarding music and politics. In it, you hear scales and pitches from Indonesian music, as well as influences from early bop and cool jazz. A breakthrough work for Andriessen, De Staat was premiered in Amsterdam and synthesized his characteristic sound world and socio/political concerns with his response to American Minimalism in a powerful work that brought him international recognition.