Its characteristic preference for unusual techniques in the treatment of sound and resonance is the telltale attribute betraying what is currently one of Zinsstag’s main works: "Seul, l’écho" (2012) for mezzo soprano (or alto) and chamber ensemble, to be premiered by the Athelas Sinfonietta Ensemble, conducted by Pierre-André Valade, at the Klang Copenhagen Avantgarde Music Festival on June 1, 2013. The score directs the percussionist to play using special resonating instruments made available upon request by the composer for performances. The text of Seul l’écho was written specifically for this work by poet Joël-Claude Meffre, born in France in 1951. His poem also focuses on sound – sound voiced and sound echoing out from silence, from a distance, from memory. Running its course to the end, the piece culminates in a great compositional “racket,” only to conclude by posing the anxious question, “Will an echo remain of all this?”

The unequivocally existential dimension of music to be seen in Seul, l’ècho also permeates the second composition Zinsstag brought to completion in 2012 in a demonstration of the weighty content and forms of expression he continues to use to this day. Entitled "Eskatos"and scored for vocal ensemble, four brass players and two percussionists, the work was composed for the Musicatreize ensemble and its artistic director, Roland Hayrabedian. In it, Zinsstag combines excerpts from the Apocalypse of John with his own texts, taken in part from Günther Anders and touching on the fatal, indeed exploitative relationship of humanity with its home planet, Earth. The work also exists in an independent German version. Eskatos is some 25 minutes in length and will be given its world premiere in 2014 in Marseille.

Seul, l’écho: Page 1 of the score
Gérard Zinsstag – Biography and works at Ricordi Munich
Perpetual Revolt Against Immobilism – Portrait of Swiss Composer Gérard Zinsstag