DIVE is an invitation to explore the depths of specific themes, genres, sounds or musical aesthetics. The show imagines diving as a mode of submersion - one that is based on curiosity, observation and flow - and invites selectors to immerse themselves fully in a subject of their choosing.

This episode of DIVE drifts through a selection of works by the American composer-performer David Behrman. As a formative figure in live electronic music — a field profoundly shaped by John Cage’s idea of indeterminacy —Behrman’s work unfolds within a practice that turned away from the fixed score and toward the construction of experimental systems. Within these setups, sound is not prescribed but allowed to emerge, giving rise to unpredictable and often delicate acoustic constellations.

Much of the work from this context remains closely tied to specific performance situations and was not conceived with recording in mind. Behrman, too, understood his pieces as “unfinished compositions,” works that take shape anew with each performance. And yet, his recordings function convincingly as listening experiences in their own right. This may be due in part to his sensitivity to harmonic texture and his inclination toward a more consonant aesthetic.

His works are often conceived as responsive environments — interactive systems that enter into a dialogue with live musicians. The system reacts to the sounds of the performer, while the performer, in turn, listens and responds to the system. What emerges from this interplay is neither fully composed nor entirely accidental, but something suspended in between.