New York in the 1950s. Ambitious creative spirits from many different backgrounds met in the Cedar Bar and engaged in lively discussions about the future of art and music. They included the artists Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jasper Johns and the composers John Cage, Morton Feldman, Earl Brown, and Christian Wolff. Steffen Schleiermacher has taken a closer look at this explosive mix with his Ensemble Avantgarde and presents astonishing new findings: although the four composers often appeared as a group, their works are radically different – a fascinating journey back to the times of volcanic-force creative probing and questioning.