This work focuses on composer and thinker John Cage, who redefined music as an experience encompassing silence, noise, chance, and the active participation of the listener. For this piece, Rumbau draws on two core materials: an excerpt from an interview with Cage and the first four notes of a Bonang Barung, an Indonesian instrument and one of Cage’s favorites.

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The interview’s speech is improvised and unstructured. Rumbau notes that, if we close our eyes and truly listen — to the silences, the ambient street noise, the pauses between phrases, the isolated words hanging in the air, and the laughter — it feels as though we are witnessing one of Cage’s own performances, echoing his famous Lecture on Nothing.

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The piece moves from explicit meaning (the interview) to pure sonic presence (the sound itself), gradually dissolving the verbal content and shifting the focus to sonic and rhythmic elements. Rumbau invites us to consider that “perhaps the best way to speak about music is through music itself, allowing works to become true manifestos that communicate ideas and emotions beyond words.”