sOnic alcHemy

Sonic Alchemy is formed by Sofia Borges and Klaus Janek and celebrates the transitional space between acoustic material and electroacoustic manipulation conceived on paper, and/or imagined live. Both instrumentalists expand their creativity extending their playing techniques on electronic settings. The acoustic materiality and its electroacoustic procession transcends the space in which projection and imagination happens and proposes alternative temporalities. Their realm forms abstract and evocative landscapes that challenge preconceived notions of what music is. Listeners become active participants, invited to immerse themselves fully in the unfolding sonic narrative.

Sofia Borges drums fx

The percussionist Sofia Borges chose a risky but stimulating path: to explore, to experiment, to enlarge the established languages (be it the improvised ones or the composed by herself, with graphic notations extending the conventional writing) and the results are showing us that the art of sounds is not dead yet; far from it. She does it in two ways. One is the solo format – adding objects, some of them of her own invention, music boxes and toys to the jazz drumkit and the orchestral percussion instruments, and also analogic and digital electronic devices enabling her to process, in real time, her acoustic constructions, including in the mix a good number of field recordings. Another is the association with some of the most remarkable spontaneous noisemakers of our time, like Craig Taborn, Mat Maneri, Axel Dörner, Robyn Schulkowsky, Ignaz Schick, Ryeko Okuda, Sanem Kalfa, Michael Thieke, Cansu Tanrikulu, Chris Pitsiokos, Mia Dyberg, Nick Dunston, Camila Nebbia, Stefanie Egedy just to name a few, and integrating unavoidable bands such as Pink Monads and SLOTSCH.

The Berlin-based, but Portuguese-born inventive sound creator has the stage as her natural environment, establishing music as another of the performative arts. In this context it’s with no wonder that we find Sofia Borges in dance and theatre projects, collaborating with Alexis Blake or the collective Sounding Situations. There’s no end in sight for the investigative approaches of her playing with time and space, and that’s the key secret for her growing notability in the international scene. Check it yourself and you’ll know, first hand, why and how.

Klaus Janek doublebass fx

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