Nachhall #19: Every Song Ever IV (Paul Wallfisch, Mona Matbou Riahi, Martin Siewert, Ben Ratliff)

Nachhall #19: Every Song Ever IV
eine Koproduktion mit Wien Modern
Montag, 9. November 2026 · 17:00 Uhr
echoraum, Sechshauserstrasse 66, 1150 Wien
https://echoraum.at/nachhall-19-every-song-ever-iv/
mit: Paul Wallfisch (Tasten, Stimme, Elektronik) / Mona Matbou Riahi (Klarinette, Stimme, Elektronik) / Martin Siewert (Gitarren, Lap Steel, Elektronik) · Ben Ratliff (Lesung, Gespräch) · Stefan Grissemann (Moderation)
Ticketpreise: 22 € (ermäßigt <30: 50 %, Ö1) | 5 € mit Festivalpass
Ticketvorverkauf: https://www.wienmodern.at/2026-kartenverkauf
Restkarten an der Abendkassa · Jahreskarteninhaber:innen des echoraum erhalten freien Eintritt.
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Nachhall #19: Every Song Ever IV
Paul Wallfisch – Tasten, Stimme, Elektronik
Martin Siewert – Gitarren, Lap Steel, Elektronik
Mona Matbou Riahi – Klarinette, Stimme, Elektronik
Ben Ratliff – Lesung, Gespräch
Stefan Grissemann – Moderation
November 9th at Echoraum will mark the 4th and final installment of our series EVERY SONG EVER in which we “play the book” by the award winning American music critic and professor Ben Ratliff.
I’ve always had a penchant for the ekphrastic, so the notion of “playing” a book is not new to me. I’ve tried it before with Haruki Murakami and Paul Auster. Ben’s remarkable work, practically cries out to have the ecstatic experience of insightful listening he describes come sonically alive. We will be your audio book with extra dimensions!
Subtitled Twenty Ways to Listen in an Age of Musical Plenty, Ratliff’s book is divided into twenty chapters appended by playlists that confound and transcend traditional ways of categorizing music. David O’Neill found “…the most galvanizing aspect of [Ratliff’s] project is that it leaves room for the DIY spirit to emerge…[Every Song Ever] reignites our sense of longing for connection…”
“The most significant progress in the recent history of music,” writes Ratliff, “has to do with listening. How we listen to music could be, for the first time in centuries, every bit as important to its history and evolution as what the composer intends when writing it.” While Ratliff’s words are captivating on the page, to me they inexorably inspire performative expression. As I’ve learned in forty years of trying to break down the fourth wall, and as Ratliff writes “Music is a game between performers and audience…”
Along with regular co-conspirator, the exceptional Viennese multi-instrumentalist Martin Siewert, I’ll be joined by world renowned Iranian musician and composer Mona Matbou Riahi. We’ll tackle selections from the last 6 chapters of Ben’s book:
Just a Little Bit: LOUDNESS
R.S.V.P: DISCREPANCY
I Still Believe I Hear: MEMORY & HISTORICAL TRUTH
On the Waves: LINKING
Mi Gente: COMMUNITY & EXCLUSIVITY
Slowly Fading Out of Sight: THE PERFECT MOMENT
There are personal points of reference for me all through the book, from Pablo Casals, a friend and musical collaborator of my parents to Swans, a band I once elonged to, prominently mentioned in the chapter LOUDNESS. We will “cover” Swans, which famously never really plays their albums in concert, or rather “covers” them in ever evolving and probing ways.
We will attempt the Heterophony discussed in chapter 16; the “wobbling & cohering” of Elaine Radigue and the Rolling Stones.
As well as unique takes on The Four Tops, Fushitsuha, Georges Bizet, Sly Stone, Fauré and Flipper, among others.
And indeed, it’s always the perfect moment we’ll be looking for!
Ben Ratliff himself will join us for a discussion of the music and more.
~Paul Wallfisch