MEDIATHEK

Darkness. Suddenly a pin-head spot on a face in agony.

The light widens to reveal: A cheap, run-down motel room. A naked man crawling on his hands and knees, holding a bottle of Jack Daniels. Detritus everywhere. Pizza boxes, empty bottles and beer cans. Breaking Bad meets Samuel Beckett.
 
As the man starts to sing, we realize that here is someone at the end of his rope, confronting his demons and facing up to all he has done, and lost, in his life. Holed up in the middle of nowhere he searches for atonement. Out the window we see a desert landscape, then snow, then flowers. Although grounded in reality, we realize we are also in an existential space.
 
A man in the aftermath of lost love for another man (Mr. Cuomo has altered the gender of the protagonist's love interest). A solo operatic "Long Days Journey Into Night", "King Lear" or Beckett's "Not I." A journey to a Dante-esque underworld. And possibly back, to redemption...

21st century art-song, acid jazz, punk energy, raw and emotional. Often hard-edged, often lyrical. A blend of notated and improvised music. A wide range of techniques and colors in the score — electronic grooves and ambiences, contemporary classical piano, death metal guitar, improvisation and instrumental effects.