Reise (The Trip), a stunning train and railroad field recording montage. Location recordings were made in the Zürich-Bern Intercity on a trip he recorded ten times to get the source material. Die Reise starts and is based on the train sound counterpointing with singing cicadas as well as birds and human voices. It seems the composer is recording the voice of the train to add to the choir of cicadas, birds, hissing electronic sounds and human voices. Ultimately this tour de force of musique concrète technique can also be considered as a paean to the Swiss railroad. In his liner notes to the 2003 CD reissue, Peter Niklas Wilson compared the music to Pierre Schaeffer's musique concrète. La Stazione (1990) From 1986 to 1989, Distel took a series of photographs in the Staglieno Genoa cemetery in Italy - photographic close-ups of marble sculptures and tombs. The series was exhibited in 1990 in Bern with accompanying poems from Edgar Lee Masters's Spoon River Anthology. The cover for 'La Stazione' (The Station) is excerpted from this series. Source recordings for this sound work - a masterpiece of ambient musique concrète - were made in Milan's Central Station in 1987 with the help of his wife Gil Distel. It was created according to the model of Mario Peragallo's own opera La Collina (1947), itself based on the Spoon River Anthology, so that each part is dedicated to a certain Italian personality: Trecentocinquantatre to Arturo Schwarz - a Milanese art dealer and Marcel Duchamp specialist Torino-Ritardo to Malwida von Meysenbug - who introduced Lou Salome to the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche Capocaponeralearti to Federico Paternina - a Rioja Spanish wine maker Transeuropexpress to Teresita Fontana - widow of the artist Lucio Fontana Diretto - Binario sette to Valeria Manzoni - mother of the artist Piero Manzoni La Stazione can thus be considered an homage to Italian art and way of life, as Distel actually lived in Italy for some time. The five parts' subtitles are based on the train station's PA announcements. The music is continuous, so that telling which part is which can prove difficult. One hears recordings of clattering trains slowly stopping on arrival, doors of cars shutting, PA announcements, whistles, people running to get their train. The sounds have been processed and layered – sometimes beyond recognition – to make the industrial sounds mingle in a surreal soundscape. The technique is well-known