120 Amila Ramović Respecting the Differences, Composing the Distances Heiner Goebbels’ Works as Landscapes with Sonic Paradoxes Erkläre nichts. Stell es hin. Sag’s. Verschwinde. Elias Canetti (1994) The Landscape Principle The landscape principle as a formative ideal has for long been observed by theo- ries of art and its „disciplinary neighbours”, painting, theatre, architecture, poe- try, urbanism, cyber theories, primarily because the use of the landscape concept involves a notion of a place where different things coexist in specific relation- ships, but also because it involves an idea of a particular way of seeing or un- seeing those things, articulating a certain view of the world’s relations and logic. 1 Nevertheless, because its definition would always come through the visual, and, obviously, because it is about simultaneity, and music seems to be about succession, landscape as a term has not found a common use in the discussion on the formal principles in the sonic realm. 2 Regardless, Heiner Goebbels has frequently referred to landscape as a source of inspiration, even directly in several works. 3 Among these reflections, one in particular is often quoted as an object of fascination — the painting by Nicolas Poussin, Landscape with a Man Killed by a Snake (1648): The landscapes in Poussin’s paintings already often lack a clear centre and loo- king at them demands respect to all the details. […] This grants the audience the freedom of perception [emphasis A. R.]; enabling us, authorizing the sight of the audience; and the fact that both these verbs are connected to the idea of power emphasizes the proposition. 4 In the foreground of the picture, yet not centrally, there is a man strangled to death by a gigantic snake. On the other side, there is a man running to save him, and behind him an alarmed woman raises her arms. There are some calm uninformed fishermen in the background, and an imagined life of the town lies amongst the nature. These elements are all dispersed through the landscape, creating multiple centres of simultaneous individual experiences, or objects of