Béla Bartók set out with the phonograph to collect and research the folk music of Transylvania, Hungary and Romania. At this time 3,000 kilometres further southeast, the monk Komitas had already gathered a magnificent archive of songs and dances, both religious and folk, from his culture, ancient Armenia. In an unusual double portrait, Steffen Schleiermacher shows the differences and similarities between these two artistic personalities, whose compositions are decisively influenced by their engagement with the original music of their homeland. Steffan Schleiermacher is a German composer, pianist, and conductor. His recording releases include most works by composers such as Erik Satie, Philip Glass, Morton Feldman and Arnold Schoenberg. For Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm he has recorded the complete piano music of John Cage.