Das Trio Elastic3 with Tom Pauwels (guitars), Eva Reiter (viola da gamba and recorders), and Paolo Pachini (sound and live electronics) formed in 2004 on the occasion of a portrait concert of the composer Fausto Romitelli at the Wien Modern festival. Romitelli was commissioned by the festival to write a new work for the unusual trio (in this case for viola da gamba, electric guitar, and electronics), but his sudden death in June 2004 prevented him from doing so. Instead, Paolo Pachini composed Elastically Pink, an homage to Romitelli using the same instruments planned for the commission; the remainder of the program was solo and chamber music, primarily by Romitelli (including Seascape for subcontrasbass recorder and Trash TV Trance for electric guitar). The positive experiences the trio has had in its work and the extraordinary response to the concert convinced the three musicians to continue playing as an ensemble. Not only musically but also, and above all, aesthetically, Elastic3 views Fausto Romitelli’s work as its declared center, as it combines in an impressively free approach different métiers and sounds that go far beyond the horizon of composed new music. Elements of rock and pop music occur just as naturally in Romitelli’s sound world as, say, the music of French spectralism; Sonic Youth and Gérard Grisey often meet up in a single piece by Romitelli. Elastic3 feels close to this way of thinking, in which music is given as much latitude as possible, both in sound and conception. The trio’s members come from Austria, Belgium, and Italy, and its composition—gamba/Paetzold bass, electric guitar, and (live) electronics—clearly fosters a search for new sounds, especially as the combination of gamba and electric guitar, on the one hand, and Paetzold bass and electric guitar, on the other, in each case supported by “commentary” generated with (live) electronics, is not only extremely appealing but also previously unknown. The three musicians bring to their joint interpretative work—whose core is currently focused on compositions by Romitelli and Agostino di Scipio and their own pieces by Paolo Pachini and Eva Reiter as well as new works by Francesco Filidei and Claire-Mélanie Sinnhuber—their experiences in very different areas: composed new music, improvisation, electroacoustic and electronic music, classical (Tom Pauwels), and early music (Eva Reiter). Elastic3 has performed at Wien Modern and at generator/Wiener Konzerthaus as well as at the Belgian festival Transit (September 2005). Further projects are in the planning stages. In July 2006 Elastic3 concert on the occasion of the ISCM World New Music Festival 2006 at Forum Neues Musiktheater.