German composer, organist, and musicologist Eva-Maria Houben is related to the reductionist school of the “wandelweiser group” of composers. Houben is interested in deep listening as an awareness of fading sounds, and fading sounds as the link between life and art; between perception in daily life and perception while performing.
portative air offers Houben’s three short works for the portative organ, a small, medieval-era instrument in which a bellows, worked with the left hand, sends air through pipes as the right hand plays a compact keyboard. In earlier times, some portative organs were light enough to be carried on a strap around the musician’s neck; others, like the one used on portative air, are larger and meant for a stationary performance. Houben’s portative organ
