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.

sept 12: Circolo libero pensiero, Lecco
sept 13: Casa Stanata/Corovana091, Locarno
sept 14: with Ensemble Sous-Sol, Spazio Elle/Carovana091, Locarno
sept 16: Studio Hubert Kostner, Castelrotto/Kastelruth
sept 17: Südtiroler Künstler Bund, Bolzano/Bozen

pls click HERE for the recording of the premiere of the piece at Sommerblut Festival Cologne 2024

may 1: Goethe Institut, Montreal
may 2: Eagle Club, Minneapolis

Klaus Janek contrabass, processing
Andy Graydon field recordings, electronics, no-input mixer

Janek and Graydon have been engaged in a series of collaborations since 2011 involving a widening constellation of projects and players. By 2021 they began to think about focusing in on a duo work. Working with geographical and temporal distances, the collaboration unfolded in conversations with one’s self and its resonating other, reciprocally developing semantics, metaphors and maintaining states of softly chancing awareness. The performances of the tour conclude a two-year common process of composing, creating and thinking, while projecting that process into the now.

may 5: Wander Lines at Dreamsong Gallery

How to Inhabit These Different Temporalities?

As you wander among the MMFA’s contemporary works, you will be immersed in the soundworld of ten soloists from various backgrounds and traditions. For this bold concert-installation, the performers will spend the entire day on an archipelago of five musical islands, relaying music back and forth, each one contributing according to their own temporality, tradition, emotion, rhythm and score. All the while, they will be weaving together a captivating musical landscape, in which you can wander and listen as long as you like, taking your cues from your curious ears and eyes.

This durational performance is meant to be a sensory exploration of the idea of our relationship with the various temporalities of life on earth. It underscores how important it is for us human beings to feel, to listen and to understand the planet’s geological and biological rhythms, even when their transformations are slow and silent.

Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal and SMCQ , April 20 / 21 from 10am – 5pm

Aga Khan Museum, Toronto and SMCQ, April 28 from 10am – 5pm

Sutra

The Maison de la culture Ahuntsic-Cartierville partners with the SMCQ Homage Series dedicated to composer Sandeep Bhagwati, to present this transatlantic collaboration featuring 10 performers from Berlin’s Śabdagatitāra and Montréal’s Oktoécho ensembles.

Fusing diverse instruments and styles, these ensembles offer a unique musical experience of comprovisations, blending compositions and improvisations, celebrating music as a universal language, capable of transcending borders and creating bridges between seemingly distinct universes.

Seven performers from Berlin meet up with three from Montréal to create and perform this unique concert, bringing together influences and instruments from all over the world. This collaboration highlights the importance of cultural exchange and diversity in the creative process. It shows how the diversity of the performers and their instruments can adapt to their new environment, while maintaining their own authenticity.

The Delphi was one of the greatest silent movie cinemas of Berlin. It was in operation since the late 20s, it shone in its own golden era, was bombed during the Second World War, was closed and then reused as a warehouse; its walls faded, its floor grew mildewy and its facade today does not indicate anything about what once went on the inside. The interior itself maintains a faded echo of its former glory and its integration in this century’s 20s makes it a hidden gem for some tourist guides of modern Berlin.

Klaus Janek had a surprising encounter with Jeff Surak that led to a recording session in Janek’s studios, in the area of Pankow in an old Bauhaus building very close to the Delphi. It was their first collaboration. Their dialogue was strictly musical, but the imposing presence and the history of the building was a silent connecting factor regarding their interaction as an improvisational duo and how they would be influenced by the narrative of the Delphi’s aesthetic incorporation by today’s artistic necessities. “Delphi”, out now on Coherent States, is a recording of all the interconnectivity between artists, space, time and sound.

Klaus Janek is a Berlin based composer, contrabassist and researcher. Originally from Bolzano/Italy, Janek is known for his musical approach combining the compositional and performative act on his set of contrabass and electronics and his interdisciplinary collaborations in choreography, music theater and spoken words. Making music since the mid-90s, his recording work is published in a period that spans from 2001 to today.

Jeff Surak has been a fixture within the experimental community for more than 40 years, curating the Sonic Circuits Festival, programming for Rhizome DC, and running his own Zeromoon label. His own work manifests non-linear narratives through lo-fi techniques and archaic technologies. Jeff Surak returns to Coherent States after the amazing 2021’s “Freie Kassettenkultur” by Girls On Tape (with Rinus van Alebeek).

released October20th, 2023

Klaus Janek: double bass, electronics
Jeff Surak: dictaphones, effects
Recorded July 2022 in Berlin.
Design & layout by John Kontandreopoulos / Semitone Labs

CS-47. coherentstates.com. 2023

please listen and order here

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

pls click about kj

Different traditions meet in one place – BirkeJanekZhao
The trio harvests its music from the intersection of Chinese art music – pipa, Western instant composition of free jazz, musique concrete instrumental, electronic music – double bass and effects, and ethnic and rock ‘n roll influences – jaw’s harp, harmonica and effects. The three musicians have been working since 2011 in larger ensembles (Ensemble Extrakte, Sabdagatitara) and decided to form their own musical organism.
form. Due to the long experience of working together, the three meet in a space of open creativity, where individual decision-making determines the journey.

Lucy Zhao – pipa
Klaus Janek – doublebass fx
Sören Birke – jaw’s harp harmonica fx

Creating our music implys for us producing material acoustically and reframing it electroacoustically. The material we use comes from the live played doublebass, soundobjects and in part field recordings. Our aim is to think music which harvests territories of our own individual artistic growth and interest, bridging early accousmatics to 21st century necessities. Cedrik Fermont as an expert of non western experimental and electronic music, noise nomad and music activist contributes his imagination of reframing pure acoustic sound, Klaus Janek projects out of an artistic idiom based in free jazz, instant composition and music concrete instrumental and its non-DAW procession.

have a listen to our music here

pls check out Cedriks online archive, label and information pool syrphe.com

a collaboration between Schloss Bröllin and Grotest Maru, music by sounding situation.
Landpartie is a mobile audio walk of about 3 h staged into the surroundings of Schloss Bröllin – fields, medows, forests become the scenery of a quite abstract slightly groove based soundscape, which is produced live. The land- and soundscape embed excerpts of interviews from people with migration episodes in their history. The statements range from dramatic, almost traumatic episodes to funny, positive life realizing experiences. Audience itself with its phisical presents become the visual protagonist of the imagination.

direction: Urs Berzborn
dramaturgy: Tom Mustrow
music and sound: Milena Kipfmüller / Klaus Janek
performance: performers of Grotest Maru
tecnical direction: Chris Umney

Landpartie 2023 is funded by the Ministry of
for Science, Culture, Federal and European Affairs, the
County of Vorpommern-Greifswald and the Fonds Darstellende Künste from the Global Village Projects program.

pic: TU Dresden/Eric Münch

Have you ever dreamed of spending a night in a museum?
The Lullabyte project presents itself as part of the Dresden Music Festival and invites to an extraordinary evening on 1.06.2023 at the Hygiene Museum.

Music has strong effects on the human brain. Particularly well known are the “somnogenic” effects, i.e. that music influences the physiological state in such a way that sleep and relaxation are promoted – an effect that lullabies pick up on. But why does music have such a great influence on the brain that moods or even sleep behavior can be promoted? Since 2019, scientists* from neuroscience, psychology, musicology and computer science have been working together at TU Dresden in the “Lullabyte” project to investigate this question.

An exciting insight into the topic will be provided by “SOUND & SCIENCE” and an eight-hour sleep concert, which invites you to listen to sounds, relax or simply sleep.

Prof. Dr. Kira Vibe Jespersen – Assistant Professor at the Center for Music in the Brain, Aarhus University
Prof. Dr. Martin Dresler – Head of the Donders Sleep & Memory Lab, Donders Institute, Nijmegen
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Miriam Akkermann – Junior Professor for Empirical Musicology at the Technical University of Dresden, Germany

Duo Akkermann/Janek:
Miriam Akkermann – flute and electronics
Klaus Janek – double bass and electronics

The music of this album is one of different elements, which constitutes the walking-through-music- theatre piece Rwandan Records.

What does tradition mean when the past is tainted by crimes? Who decides what is carried on a collective knowledge and moored in the culture? RWANDAN RECORDS is a sound installation, radio play and live concert by Sounding Situations featuring artists from Rwanda and Germany and combines pre-colonial accounts with stories from the present. It invites audience members to immerse themselves in the stories shared by Rwanda and Germany.

What you experience in the piece on a musical level is a soundscape formed out of field recordings of nowadays done by Klaus Janek, musical field recordings and music experts collected in the 20th century starting from 1907 to the 80ies – the notion of a Rwandan auditive culture scape. The voices of the recordings which are activated by the audience mix an own language soundscape to the space. The private encounters with those voices are now and then sporadically interrupted by a collectively shared concert event: the music of these events you are holding in your hand now.

The music is created by sampling through the archives in order to form an aesthetic synthesis of the music tradition of Rwanda and personalize it through a commonly shared OWN of 1Key and Klaus Janek, which is the fascination of 90ies Hip Hop.
credits
released April 28, 2023

Text and performance: 1Key
Composition and double- bass, FX, MPC performance: Klaus Janek
snaredrum: Radio Citizen

The music was created in tight collaboration with Milena Kipfmüller and Jens Dietrich and is an element of the music theater piece Rwandan Records Snares added by Radio Citizen.

Mixed and mastered by Niko Schabel

Pictures from the live performances of the piece Rwandan Records at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Kampnagel, Hamburg and Humboldt Forum Berlin by Merlin Nadj-Torma

Graphic design by Stephanie Roderer

The album is produced by Sounding Situations in 2022.

sounding-situations.com
syrphe.com

Catalogue number : S033

purchase the music here

Ensemble Extrakte in Berlin has taken a fascination to the smallest element of notated sound, the “note”, which has different underlying concepts in different musical traditions. A three-month exploration process allowed them to explore new approaches to listening, transformations of oral and traditional notations, interpretations, and collaborative improvisation.

The European notion of the note is set into a relation with the Indian, Chinese, Arabic, Armenian, and blues, which each follow different ways of conceiving musical sound. Such a musical-practical and microscopic analysis of the concept of note in transcultural comparison has not been done before. As a result of the accumulated knowledge about the respective cultural practices, transtraditional transformations have formed a musical unity with new symbols: the NOTE as an extended dimension and as a deconstruction of habitual playing techniques towards an alternative musical reality. The musicians are thereby enabled to use self-designed novel modes within their own methods of composition and improvisation, and to invent their own categories of raga- or makam-like approaches and to transfer them to 20th and 21st century learned musical practices that shape their musical identities.

In the concert, the musicians of Ensemble Extrakte will present jointly developed “final fragments” in groups and as an ensemble. The pieces in the program are based on analyses and extended ways of playing gained from these analyses, as well as synergies from newly learned notational practices of the various traditions. The result is a musical approach rich in new dimensions.

Sponsored by Musikfonds e.V. FEB-III Stipendienartige Förderung für Ensembles und Bands

ENSEMBLE EXTRAKTE
Sören Birke – Mundharmonika, Dudek
Klaus Janek – Bass, Elektronik
Bakr Khleifi – Ud
Cathy Milliken – Oboe, English Horn
Gregor Schulenburg – Flöten, Duduk, Kyotaku
Ravi Srinivasan – Tabla, Whistling, Vocal
Wu Wei – Sheng, Erhu
Jeremy Woodruff – Baritone Saxophone
Zhao Lucy – Pipa
Jeremy Woodruff – Musikalische Leitung
Elke Moltrecht – Leiterin Ensemble Extrakte

Research period Feb – April 2023
concert 16. April 2023, 16:00
ACUD CLUB RAUM, Veteranenstrasse 21, 10119 Berlin

premiere nov 12th at 8pm at Elisabeth Kirche, Berlin. other performances on 13th at 4.30pm and 8pm and on the 14th at 8pm

In the music theater BUZZING BRIDGE, Sounding Situations plays through how the process of learning by perceiving, listening, judging, copying makes us who we are. The performers become sound carriers, turning the stage into a sounding negotiation space. BUZZING BRIDGE is performed in Berlin and Bujumbura: simultaneously and in reverse, artists go in search of what is worth recording.

concept: Sounding Situations
BERLIN
direction, composition, text: Sounding Situations (Milena Kipfmüller, Jens Dietrich, Klaus Janek)
music: Sofia Borges, Michael Thieke, Klaus Janek, Milena Kipfmüller
performance, text: Eric 1key, Katharina Mewes
stage, Video: TÒ SU (Martina Mahlknecht, Martin Prinoth)
costumes: Anja Ruschival
technique and lighting design: Chris Umney
public relations: Hark Empen
production management: Fabia Mekus
assistance: Janka Kenk
BURUNDI
performance, direction: Josué Mugisha, Claudia Munyengabe, Alain Kay Butoyi, Laura Sheila Inangoma
technical direction: Davy Joel Ishimwe

Tickets: 14 €/ reduced 10 €
online via billetto

When a tsunami devastated Japan’s east coast in March 2011, Sandeep Bhagwati wrote an open score of seventeen short compositions – even before the full extent of the Fukushima disaster became visible.
The pieces have since been interpreted by female musicians and reimagined by poets. The audio piece – Bhagwati’s reaction to a world that has begun to falter – reflects his own process of creation: it depicts different trial stages, tells of provisionality, failed attempts, continuous change and becoming.

Everything is connected to everything. Climate change and species extinction are a consequence of our way of life. Limiting ourselves is one solution. But above all, it is about a new relationship to what we like to call ‘resources’: The earth, the plants, the animals, the cultures. GLOBAL AMAZONIA moves artistically to the Amazon region and explores on the outer skin of the Kleist Forum forms of vertical theatre, video projection and live music. In a scenario of impending extinction, how can we find new partnerships with beings that are also becoming extinct – and thus perhaps postpone the extinction?
The piece is produced by Grotest Maru. Premiere september 16th at Kleist Forum Frankfurt Oder

Artistic Director Ursula Maria Berzborn Dramaturgy Tom Mustroph Projections/ (Visual-) Dramaturgy Hanna Zimmermann Costume Design & Masc Production Kathrin Hegedüsch Music/Music Dramaturgy/Audio Editing Milena Kipfmüller & Klaus Jannek – souding situations Choreography Ursula Maria Berzborn, Alejandro Lariguet & Ensemble Performance Ana Carbia, Esther Geyer, Clara Gracia, Anna Vilhelmiina Peltola, Jefferson Preto, Sergio Serrano, Birgit Wieger Wieger Aerial Dance Training Alejandro Lariguet Rigging Technology & set up Emanuel Gillain, Winfried Jungnitz Directing assistant Catia de Almeida Santos Production management/Public Relations Esther Geyer, Anna Vilhelmiina Peltola, Birgit Wieger Production of Costumes Marie Lindemann Video Technology & -support Rico Tscharnke Technical Support Sergio Serrano

GLOBAL AMAZONIA is supported by Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media within the program NEUSTART KULTUR, in cooperation with Kleist Forum Frankfurt/Oder.

(Measured time)

Music gives time a measure; in it we measure what is actually an eternal flow. Landscapes are also measured to get a feeling for their proportions and shapes.

In Sandeep Bhagwati’s musical journey “Vermessene Zeit” (Measuring Time), we experience both: the musicians of the Ensemble Extrakte and the Kairos Quartet go to Teltow Park as sounding surveyors. Always only three of them make music in a wide-stretched triangle, in the middle of which the listener can of course hear them best. At some point, one corner of the trio falls silent – but a little further away, another instrument, a voice picks up and adds to the music of the triangle again. But now its centre is somewhere else – if you want to continue to hear everything, you have to go there!

In this way, the sounds gradually survey the park in three steps – and you yourself wander along, listening to how our man-made harmonies and dissonances merge into the songs of wind, leaves, grass, insects and birds. On the way, you read poems by the wayside that sing of the earth and trees, of the sound of the world – and give some of them to the musicians for inspiration.

While some encounters reverberate in our consciousness and are reflected in our lifestyle habits, others remain hidden. That is, until the surface is scratched and they begin to take shape in our thinking, speaking and acting.

Sign Wave is a musical performance that digs into buried stories and encounters since the German occupation in East Africa.

Over the distance, we will connect Rwanda/Tanzania and Germany on stage in a new play. The artist and performer Eric 1key, with whom Sounding Situtaions has been collaborating for several years, approaches the visual traces of the Germans on site via video, using words he scratches up the surface, which we create live here in Berlin with double bass and voice sampling to a joint piece.

Music: Milena Kipfmüller, Klaus Janek (Sounding Situations) Video and Text: 1key
The performance were specifically created for celebrating the 40th anniversary of the German/Rwandan association, and was held at Rheinland-Pfälzische Landesvertretung in front of the Ambassadors of Germany in Rwanda, Rwanda in Germany and others.

daily 11:20, 14:00, 16:40 and 19:20 at Hörraum / Humboldtforum, Berlin

Sounding Situations (Milena Kipfmüller, Klaus Janek, Jens Dietrich)
The piece Triple Feedback draws attention to mutual listening and the power of recording. During colonial expeditions of German anthropologists in Rwanda at the beginning of the 20th century, unequal encounters resulted in sound documents that are stored today in the Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv and were not accessible to the local people for a long time.
In Triple Feedback, the artists’ group Sounding Situations investigates how power structures can be transformed through dialogue and new, original recordings.
Contemporary Rwandan songwriters, singers and music producers listen to the recordings that were previously inaccessible to them and send their analyses, comments, expertise, but also anger and rage back to Germany.
In their composition, the group Sounding Situations has transferred the old original recordings into their present musical language, which enters into an exchange with the visions and samples of contemporary Rwandan musicians.

The music was composed through a process of informing, listening and acting (playing, composing) according to the notion of OWN, and its fluidity.
sounddirection: Milena Kipfmüller
round table Kigali: Eric 1key
music: Klaus Janek, Sofia Borges, Michael Thieke, Milena Kipfmüller
dramaturgy and co thinking: Jens Dietrich
production: Fabia Mekus

at P1 may 26th through may 29th

In a photograph from 1906, a crowd in southern Rwanda gathers for a magical event in front of a small apparatus on a table: deceiving the masses through technology. Behind the table is an official of the German colonial administration. The artists sell their talent without compensation. The funnel is directed at the musicians to the right of the table. A machine that sucks in the sound, carves the voices and the music into the wax rollers.

In the music theater MERGE, Sounding Situations plays out how the process of recording makes us who we are. Those who press the record button have power, framed for themselves and others. Through repetition, sounds, music, language become part of our identity.

In MERGE, the musicians and performers become sound carriers who turn the stage into a sounding negotiation space: Who owns what and who belongs where? Who takes in whom, in himself as the foreign or as his own?

MERGE is performed in Hamburg and Bujumbura: simultaneously and in reverse, Burundian and Rwandan artists go in search of what is worth recording.

concept: sounding situations
P1, Kampnagel, Hamburg
Direction, composition, text: Sounding Situations (Milena Kipfmüller, Jens Dietrich, Klaus Janek)
Musicians: Sofia Borges, Michael Thieke, Klaus Janek, Milena Kipfmüller Performance: Eric 1key, Katharina Mewes
Stage and video: TÒ SU (Martina Mahlknecht, Martin Prinoth)
Technical management and light design: Christopher Umney
Kostüme: Anja Ruschival
Public relations: Hark Empen
Production direction: Fabia Mekus
Assistance: Janka Kenk

Buja sans tabou, Burundi
Direction and Performance: Josué Mugisha, Claudia Munyengabe, Alain Kay Butoyi, Laura Sheila Inangoma

Supported by the Hamburg Ministry of Culture and Media.

English Version below

How does music morph when it crosses listening traditions? Based on an album by Ensemble Extrakte, 4 iterative live concerts and their sound and video recordings are interwoven step by step. Following an always identical instruction score by Bhagwati, the musicians comment on, accompany, and imitate the preceding concert – before they themselves become the inspiration for the following one: as acoustic memories in the headphones of their colleagues, and as fragments and samples in the sound of the Gebr. Teichmann. The audience can hear and see how new music is created: designed but unpredictable, guided yet involuntary, rich in tensions – and in unexpected beauty. Between the concerts, renowned historian of science Hans-Jörg Rheinberger will reflect on such “iterative listening as artistic research”.

Gefördert von Musikfonds e.V., Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien, matralab, Concordia University, Noland

Programm

Mittwoch 8.12.2021 Maschinenhaus Kulturbrauerei
19:00h ITERATIONEN I : Akusmatisches Konzert
19:45h RESOUND 1 : Live-Konzert
20:45h RESOUND 2 : Live-Konzert

Donnerstag 9.12.2021 Maschinenhaus Kulturbrauerei
19:00h RESOUND 3 : Live-Konzert
19:45h ITERATIONEN II : Podiumsgespräch
20:45h RESOUND 4 : Live-Konzert

Deniza Popova (Stimme), Ravi Srinivasan (Tabla, Stimme), Lucy Zhao (Pipa), Wu Wei (Sheng, Erhu), Eva Glasmacher (Stimme), Sören Birke (Bluesharmonika, Duduk), Elshan Ghasimi (Tar, Stimme), Klaus Janek (Bass), Simone Heilgendorff (Viola), Claudius von Wrochem (Cello), Gregor Schulenburg (Flöte, Duduk), Naoko Kikuchi (Koto),

Gebrüder Teichmann (Live-Elektronik, Live-Sampling)
Anweisungspartitur (Video): Sandeep Bhagwati
Album: ITERATIONEN – resonant responses to a live concert (Noland NO5)

In 2021, P600 has been chosen for the ensemble support grant of Musikfonds (FEB). In an intensive autumn work period, two one-week residencies are taking place in Berlin, including three public ‚work in progress‘ performances: at Liebig12 project space and in the BHROX Bauhaus ReUse glass construction on Ernst-Reuter-Platz. The group’s new musical output will be examined and presented in three different versions: as a low volume version (Liebig12), as a full range version (BHROX) and as an ‚open lab version‘ over the course of six hours (BHROX)

The quartet project P600 refers to specific research factors of cognitive science / psycholinguistics as a premise to create conceptual and graphic scores for music/sound.
Consisting of four musicians, including one klangregie (sound director / live sound manipulation), P600 experiments with a range of acoustic, electro-acoustic, and acousmatic sound. Each musician acts as an independent sound source, but also sends an audio signal to a main mixer. The klangregie manipulates and spatializes their sounds, via the mixer and (quadraphonic) loudspeakers, according to a score. This is equally inspired by Dub Reggae producers and avantgarde composers like Stockhausen or Nono, in that the mixer becomes an instrument. The autonomy of each musician, combined with the klangregie’s use of their signals, offers a complex level of sound dynamics: ranging from micro to macro and barely audible to omnipresent. For each performance the quartet spends a period of days in the space, developing ideas which both relate and respond to the space – both sonically and conceptually.
Since the launch of the project in 2013, a ‚modular approach‘ has been established besides the group work: collectively conceived ideas, audio material and scores/concepts have been integrated and re-contextualized in solo and duo efforts – in ongoing studio experiments, published recordings, as well as concerts.

P600-2021
residency and concerts
Version 1: low volume performance – Liebig12 – 22/Nov 7-9PM
Version 2: full range quartet concert – BHROX Bauhaus Reuse – 30/Nov 7-9PM
Version 1: six hours trio performance – BHROX Bauhaus Reuse – 04/Dec 1-7PM
P600:
William „Bilwa“ Costa: electronics and unnatural field recordings
Klaus Janek: double bass and electronics
Luca Marini: drums, percussion
Nicolas Wiese: klangregie / live sound manipulation, samples, feedback

Live concert, audio drama and installation: immerse yourself in shared stories between Rwanda and Germany in this walk-in musical theatre piece by Jens Dietrich and Milena Kipfmüller. Rwandan hip-hop artist Eric 1key and Berlin composer Klaus Janek create a soundspace of language, traditional sounds, electronic music, beats and field recordings.

Mention Rwanda, and most people think of the genocide that began in April 1994. But since then, the country has undergone substantial economic development, and has now emerged as an African tiger economy – with a German colonial past. For the younger generation, this raises the question of how to deal with the past.

In this Rwandan-German joint production, Rwandan hip-hop artist Eric 1key and Berlin musician Klaus Janek compose an interactive soundspace of language, traditional sounds, electronic music, beats and field recordings.

Hamburg director and dramaturge Jens Dietrich and Berlin sound artist Milena Kipfmüller have recorded conversations with numerous people in Rwanda and put together a heterogeneous ensemble of voices. Between grandiose visions of the future, and yearnings for disappearing traditions, the immersive musical performance of Rwandan Records blends pre-colonial stories with present-day tales between Rwanda and Germany, presenting a new and unconventional perspective on a globalised self-image. Each evening a new, emotive symphony will be created; visitors can request each individual version as a download link to listen to again after the event.

The SCULPTURE Festival, which takes place as a series in the Georg Kolbe Museum / Berlin, focuses on an unusual artistic aspect: the inherent sculptural quality in the time-based arts of choreography and music.

In the frame of SCULPTURE Edition # 2 Meg Stuart has developed a work entitled “rune”, together with her performer Sigal Zouk.

sculpturefestival.de

rune

SPACE CONCERT INSTALLATION by and with the Ensemble Extrakte
based on the DULAB ALTAJ – improvisations in the form of a musical round dance
after a dulab melody by Farhan Sabbagh
Synopsis

The Berlin-based Ensemble Extrakte is convinced that new music in the social reality of our cities can no longer emerge from Eurocentric ideas alone. In this concert-like spatial staging, Ensemble Extrakte continues its artistic exploration process between avant-garde art music of Western influence and music of other cultures and genres. Ensemble Extrakte searches for ways to link the many musical worlds existing simultaneously in a city, freely and listening to each other at the same time – so that each musician remains with himself, takes from others and gives.

The audio-visual space installation is based on a film with 12 musicians, which was recorded at 12 places favored by the musicians, with which they associate home. The initial musical format was the dulab, an Arabic rondo form in which a melody is commented on from instrument to instrument and passed on to the following musician. In the sense of a musical gift, each musician formulates his or her personal accents as a template and invitation for the next one, as in the game “Silent Post”.

During the concert, the musicians react to three film projections distributed in the room – three-part stratifications. They continue their musical lines realized in the film and spin them further. In fact, the film projections are recordings of three musicians each, recorded solo and related to each other as trios. The musicians weave new musical rondo variations live in various constellations, from solo to tutti, in harmony or contrast with the film material. Sometimes the projections pause and the ensemble – inspired by the creative and open form of Dulab – has all the space for free musical development.

The result is a spacious breathing between the common source material, the Dulab melody, the interrelated musical commentaries, a mixture of live analog music and digital post-production contributions. From a wealth of diverse acoustic and visual homes, a musical whole emerges that is stimulated and co-shaped by all these individual templates.

Location:
KINDL – Center for Contemporary Art, Am Sudhaus 3, 12053 Berlin, Germany.

Sponsors and supporters:
-> With the kind support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation and.
KINDL – Center for Contemporary Art.
-> The film was supported by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes.
-> Thanks to inpetto filmproduktion and x-tract-production
Comment Team

ensemble ɛkstʁaktə

Participating musicians in the film: Sören Birke (Jew’s harp), Klaus Janek (double bass), Cathy Milliken (oboe), Deniza Popova (voice), Farhan Sabbagh (oud), Gregor Schulenburg (bass flute), Ravi Srinivasan (voice), Andi Teichmann (live electronics, objects), Hannes Teichmann (live electronics), Wu Wei (sheng), Yoo Hong (daegeum), Lucy Zhao (pipa)

Participating musicians in concert: Sören Birke, Klaus Janek, Cathy Milliken, Deniza Popova, Farhan Sabbagh, Gregor Schulenburg, Ravi Srinivasan, Andi Teichmann, Lucy Zhao

Artistic direction: Uli Aumüller, Cathy Milliken
Musical direction: Cathy Milliken
Artistic-technical realization: Andre Bartetzki
Artistic project management: Elke Moltrecht
Film and sound: Uli Aumüller, Sebastian Rausch (inpetto filmproduktion)

Sandeep Bhagwati / Siaman Vongayan / Musicians of Ensemble Extrakte

Concert installation sept 25, 26, Humboldt Forum, Berlin
For an indigenous singer recorded on video
and twelve live musicians from perse traditions

Deniza Popova, Bulgarian vocals / Eva Glasmacher, soprano / Naoko Kikuchi, koto / Lucy Zhao, pipa/ Elshan Ghasimi, tar, voice / Wu Wei, sheng, erhu / Ravi Srinivasan, khayal, tabla, percussion etc. / Sören Birke, harmonica, khaen, mouth harp, duduk etc. / Gregor Schulenburg, flutes, kyotaku, duduk / Klaus Janek, bass. / Gebrüder Teichmann, live electronics

For the opening of the Humboldt Forum’s West Wing, composer, poet and music researcher Sandeep Bhagwati has conceived a two-day concert installation in the listening room of the ethnomusicological collection. Musicians from 12 different musical traditions take turns in 5 different positions, interconnected by watching and listening to a common “score”. This five-part, 90-minute “score” is composed of five video clips by Taiwanese documentary filmmaker Ye-Hai Chang. In July 2021, he was commissioned by Bhagwati to film his friend Siaman Vongayan (Chinese name: Kuo Chien-Ping ), an activist and guardian of the music of the indigenous Tao people on the Pacific island of Lan Yu, singing the same traditional song over several days at important locations on his island: a song about the shipwreck of a modern large ship on the rocks of Lan Yu. The different versions of this song, which vary slightly from place to place and day to day, as well as the soundscapes of the respective locations, become the basis for the musical interpretations of the live musicians – who react to the video, to each other, as well as to the presence of the audience with comprovisations: improvisations after concise instructions that orient their listening – and their playing with each other. No one brings ready-made music with them – all musicking arises from what can be seen, heard and felt at the time of performance.

Additional context for Sandeep Bhagwati’s concert installation ASED (…countercurrents…)
ABOUT LAN YU AND THE SONGS OF THE TAO
Located north of the Philippines and southeast of Taiwan’s main island in the Pacific
Ocean, the island of Lan Yu has an unusual history of contact with the outside world.
For centuries, it was mostly avoided by Chinese and European seafarers due to
difficult nautical conditions. Moreover, the ancestors of today’s Tao were known for
not always welcoming strangers and refusing to help shipwrecked people. They were
therefore largely left alone.
In 1896, the Japanese, who had taken over Taiwan as a colony a year earlier, undertook
an expedition to Lan Yu. Japanese scientists were thrilled to find an almost ” pristine
Stone Age culture”. As a result, the Japanese colonial government set up a police
station on the island and restricted access: from then on, only scientific personnel,
especially ethnologists, were allowed to enter Lan Yu for research purposes. The Tao
remained largely autonomous in their traditional way of life.
After the collapse of the Japanese empire, Lan Yu fell to Taiwan. Subsequently, a
sinicising forced modernisation began, which led to a gradual, forced loss of culture.
From the 1980s onwards, Lan Yu’s isolated location prompted the Taiwanese
government to store its residual nuclear waste on the island. This sparked a decades-
long Tao activist resistance that saw a resurgence of indigenous cultural practices, as
well as networking with other indigenous activists worldwide.
The singer featured in the videos, Siaman Vongayan (Chinese name: Kuo Chien-Ping
郭健平), is a leading activist in the local anti-nuclear movement. He is involved in
various cultural projects and is currently trying to keep the traditional Tao chants
alive in cooperation with an international team.
Traditional Tao chants on Lan Yu use only a few melodies, which are then adapted to
ever new texts. These texts are mainly meant to contain practical information on
farming, fishing, house-building, rituals, etc. and were often understood as a mixture
of manual and knowledge archive – a kind of sung encyclopaedia. One learns the
melodies by listening to them in childhood and youth, the lyrics can refer to new
incidents – like the song sung in this installation about the shipwreck of a foreign,
modern ship. Much emphasis is placed on the poetic quality of the texts.
The continuation of the poetic and especially the ritual singing traditions is
threatened by the inevitable migration of younger Tao to Taiwan, who can neither
attend secondary school nor find work opportunities on their home island – and also
by the access to internet streaming services.

LOR160 – Paul Khimasia Morgan & Klaus Janek – Cocktail Party (cassette/DL)
Duo improvisations from Berlin Based Janek (double bass and electronics) and Suffolk based Morgan (guitar body and effects)

****New Linear Obsessional Release****Out Now and Shipping*****

A collection of extraordinary improvisations by Brighton based improviser Paul Khimasia Morgan (acoustic guitar body and electronics) and Berlin based Klaus Janek (double bass).
Intricate, alien and unique. The musicicians are communicating and listening intently – in a fascinating language of slippery and ecstatic sound.
Released as a cassette in a bright red shell, and colour cover in the Linear Obsessional cassette imprint and as a download.
“The cocktail party effect is the phenomenon of being able to focus one’s auditory attention on a particular stimulus while filtering out a range of other stimuli, as when a partygoer can focus on a single conversation in a noisy room. This effect is what allows most people to “tune into” a single voice and “tune out” all others. It may also describe a similar phenomenon that occurs when one may immediately detect words of importance originating from unattended stimuli, for instance hearing one’s name in another conversation”
Klaus and Paul’s “Cocktail Party” is a collaborative project facilitated by file-sharing during Lockdown in early 2021. Material recorded in Berlin and Sussex.
Released as a limited edition cassette in red shell and download code as part of the Linear Obsessional Cassette Imprint (with design by David Little) and as a download with PDF booklet of notes and images…

https://linearobsessional.bandcamp.com/album/cocktail-party

SCHWARM – an audiovisual Expedition

Cranes glide through the air. Carried by the wind, they cross the continents. What drives them? How do they plan their flight paths? What obstacles do they overcome?

In an open air production over several stations with more than 3 m high crane figures Grotest Maru reflects about these special birds the longings of us humans for free movement and a place to be. In the form of a visual theater with experimental live acoustics, the urge for freedom, travel, migration, but also control and surveillance are told.

Direction, Artistic Director Ursula Maria Berzborn / GROTEST MARU
Choreography Jefferson Preto & Ensemble
Music / Music Dramaturgy / Interviews / Audio Editing Milena Kipfmüller & Klaus Jannek – [SNDNG STTNS]
Performers Catia Almeida Santos, Ana Carbia, Esther Geyer, Clara Gracia, Anna Vilhelmiina Peltola, Sergio Serrano & Kathrin Hegedüsch,Tom Mustroph, Rico Tscharnke, Birgit Wieger, Hanna Zimmermann
Dramaturgy Tom Mustroph
Costume Design / Production of Masks Kathrin Hegedüsch Projections/ (Visual-) Dramaturgy Hanna Zimmermann
Production management / Public Relations Esther Geyer, Anna Peltola, Birgit Wieger
premiered july 30th at Bärenquell Brauerei, Berlin

Ensemble Extrakte & Tölöläb
Sandeep Bhagwati, artistic/musical direction

Two ensembles in two locations, Viitasaari and Berlin, exchange recordings of their music daily, a music contemplating both losses and hopes for renewal. Each evening they attempt to capture the spirit of their own improvisations from the same morning – thereby transforming it. And at the end, they try to evoke the evolution of the whole process, 4 days of constant exchange, likened to four seasons of the year.

The result of the day’s work will be combined and watched in sequence during the daily public online sessions (18–19 Finnish time on YouTube), in which the process is also discussed. The process will culminate on the Satuday 10 July Nagori Rengakai online concert (18–19).

Nagori Rengakai (2021) Viitasaari – Videos

Berlin-Ensemble
Gregor Schulenburg, flute, duduk, kyotaku
Wu Wei, sheng, erhu
Ravi Srinivasan, indian vocals, whistling, tabla, percussions
Gebrüder Teichmann (Andreas Teichmann & Hannes Teichmann), live-electronics
Musical co-direction in Berlin: Andreas Teichmann and/or Gregor Schulenburg

Hanna Grzeskiewicz, Management
Tom Wills, Streaming and Video
Nico Daleman, Audio

Viitasaari-Ensemble
Deniza Popova, Bulgarian vocals
Klaus Janek, double bass
Taavi Oramo, vocals, clarinets, electronics
Turkka Inkilä, flutes
Antti Salovaara, bassoon

Valtteri Mustalahti, sound & video
Musical co-direction in Viitasaari: Sandeep Bhagwati & Taavi Oramo

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Thu, 24.06.2021 19:00
MS Stubnitz / Baakenhafen
Fri, 25.06.2021 19:00
MS Stubnitz / Baakenhafen

When the ships set sail from Baakenhafen harbour for East Africa to deliver troops and material for the colonial war, the soldiers were given gifts of love from the Hamburg Senate at the farewell celebrations, which were accompanied by pompous music: Postcards, cigars, good luck charms, which were supposed to bring the departing soldiers success and a happy return home.

At the same time, people at the court of King Kigeri IV. Rwabugiri’s court in Nyanza was surprised by the gradual arrival of delegations from Europe, who told the king’s officials that they were searching for the sources of the Nile. They torpedoed the white men’s search for the source, so that they wandered confusedly through the East African hills without finding anything, whereupon they were given the name “Musungus”, the aimless wanderers.

The walk-in music theatre piece “Transforming Transmission” combines Hamburg’s colonial past with stories from the area of the East African Great Lakes. The audience itself becomes the orchestra on its way through HafenCity. The soundtrack is created for each performance as a live stream concert with musicians in Hamburg and Bujumbura.

Team Hamburg : von und mit: Sounding Situations (Jens Dietrich, Milena Kipfmüller ,Klaus Janek) & 1key / Ausstattung: Klara Hobza, Chris Schwagga / Technische Leitung: Chris Umney Produktionsleitung: Fabia MekusTeam Bujumbura: von und mit Josué Mugisha, Claudia Munyengabe

Funded by Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Culture Media as well as through the revival and guest performance promotion of Dachverband freie darstellende Künste, on behalf of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Authority for Culture and Media. In cooperation with Kampnagel and MS Stubnitz.

a production of Thikwa Theater, Berlin
A package is delivered. The contents: body parts that definitely go together, but that don’t function as a whole. A figure of human size stands at the center of the performance. If it is guided, it achieves a personality. If it is studied, an alienation occurs that leads to new abilities. As an object, it provides a metaphorical project surface that invites the viewer to impartial investigation. This can be disturbing, it can lead to unusual situations that cross borders, but also bring new, changeable options into the game. Can we use defects as inspiration for unconventional solutions? Can we bypass defects through cooperations and develop unusual living and coping strategies? A performative encounter of objects and performers with unspoken agreements, cascades of words, the shifting of boundaries and unique rescue maneuvers, accompanied by living jazz singing.

With:
Deniz Dogan, Louis Edler, Alexander Lange, Stephan Sauerbier, Peter Pruchniewitz
Figurine Play:Laura Waltz
Live-Vocals:Mette Nadja Hansen
Directed by:Martina Couturier
Figurine Making:Simon Buchegger
Double Bass:Klaus Janek
Stage Design:Isolde Wittke
Costume Design:Heike Braitmayer
Lighting Design:Katri Kuusimäki
Video:Sebastian K. König
premiere: may 26th, Thikwa Theater, Berlin

Musicians with different backgrounds compose a piece together based on the most famous melody in the world, La Paloma! From May 3 – and until May 21 – a musician will be presented with his or her version of the melody every day from Monday to Friday … All these duets and improvisations flow into the polyphonic Dulab Alpaloma, which is currently being created as a new composition by Cathy Milliken, Dietmar Wiesner and Uli Aumüller. The finished Dulab al Paloma will be seen and heard here right after Whitsun. The Dulab of the week provides a small foretaste every Friday, with Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Carolin Widmann, Wu Wei, Magdalena Kožená and Jocelyn B. Smith and the Ensemble Extrakte.
The film premiered at may 3rd through Arte Concert and was produced by Impetto Filmproduktion, Berlin and Arte

for watching the movie at arte concert click here

for more inside informations and watching trailer and movie at impetto filmproduktion website click here

(Il)legitimate play by a son of colonialism
EMMANUEL DE CANDIDO . OLIVIER LENEL
Companie MAPS / Théâtre de Liège en ligne

Based on the interviews and research that Emmanuel De Candido carried out in Sicily, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the island of Réunion, this fable with five characters tells the story of a debt. Within the aggressive context of capitalist globalisation, the company MAPS deciphers how macro-economic mechanisms are poisoning how we live together and disrupting lives. The writing borrows Schnitzler’s ‘round-dance’ principle and draws inspiration from the English psychological thriller and the Congolese art of story-telling.

With Benoit Van Dorslaer, Catherine Mestoussis, Sanders Lorena, Hakim Louk’man and Nadège Ouédraogo
Writing and dramaturgy Emmanuel De Candido
Directed by Olivier Lenel
Dramaturgical advice and assistant director Marie Diaby
Physical and choreographic work Anne-Cécile Chane-Tune
Lighting design and technical direction Clément Papin
Scenography Arnaud verley
Carine Duarte Costumes
Musical creation and sound system Milena Kipfmüller and Klaus Janek
Production MAPS Company
Co-production Dc & J Création, Théâtre de Liège, with the participation of the Center Culturel de Verviers

premiere april 24th, Theatre de Liege

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B5Rkih4s9o&t=15s

the movie by Inpetto fimproduktion premiered on march 26th through Maerzmusik Festival, Berlin

Improvisation in the form of a musical round with 12 musicians in 12 different locations

“Dulab al Taj” is many things at the same time: a film and an audio-visual composition, 12 solos and a group improvisation. The musicians of Ensemble Extrakte, who come from Australia, Bulgaria, China, India, Iran, Korea, Singapur and Syria and now live in Berlin, play with and for each other in creating a multilingual musical cosmos.

It all begins with Farhan Sabagh, a Syrian musician. In his studio he plays the musical theme he has composed for this project on the oud and immediately starts improvising upon it. The musical form in which this happens is called dulab (dulab can mean “wheel”, “round” and also “song”) and it is similar to a European rondo. This short melody sets off a filmic round that links the 12 musicians together. Because this first improvisation travels – like in the game “Chinese Whispers” – from place to place and from musician to musician, passing through different musical worlds and idioms while it mutates, develops and takes on different colours. Each occupying a place or space in which they feel at home, one after another the musicians pick up the improvisation, elaborate on it, overwrite it with an improvisation of their own, and pass it on. In the film, the different solos are enhanced with accompanying vocals, performed as additional layers over the earlier recordings. As in a rondo, the original melody is repeatedly recalled.

Here a musical encounter has been created that allows the differences between the musicians’ individual musical languages and traditions to be appreciated clearly while at the same time weaving them together.
This project was developed and realised by the composer Cathy Milliken, the composer Sandeep Baghwati, the curator Elke Moltrecht, the filmmaker Uli Aumüller and Ensemble Extrakte.

for more information about the movie, trailer ecc click here

Bee Dances presents the first collaboration between Indonesian choreographer ninus and Berlin-based choreographer Kareth Schaffer. Originally planned as a live performance with performances in November 2020, Bee Dances has now moved to the digital space for known reasons and will be shown as a live stream at the end of February 2021. The work is an embodied exploration of what cultural exchange can mean in post-colonial times. How do different dance techniques inscribe themselves in the bodies of the six dancers from Indonesia and Europe – and how do the different streams of physical knowledge spread around the globe? Bee Dances maps the connections between contemporary dance, as it is often performed in Berlin, and traditional Indonesian dance techniques, tracing their interrelationships through a series of interventions, interviews, reconstructions and new choreographies. The famous Balinese love duet by I Mario, “Oleg Tamulilingan”, is a key reference, as is the “waggle dance” of the Asian and European honey bees (apis cerana and apis mellifera), which was first correctly described by the German zoologist Karl von Frisch the six dancers with live music by Klaus Janek and the gamelan musicians of the composer I Wayan Gede Purnama Gita, whose digital presences float on movable projection surfaces through the performance room of Uferstudios 1. Developed under the severe restrictions of the Berlin winter -Lockdowns explores Bee Dance’s notions of responsibility and closeness through a probing mutual pollination of movements, concepts, languages, stories, physicalities and performers.

online premiere feb 27th through Tanzfabrik, Berlin

We got the invitation to compose a piece for the Improfest 2021. In our work we try always to connect to the situations and political context we are living in and we found it presmptuous to ignore the actual situation Brazil is going through these days. Last week, mid of January, the city of Manaus went through one of its hardest times. Because of the immense amount of hospitalized Covid-19 patients all the oxygen supplies of the hospitals ran out. People were not only dying because of the illness and mismanagement of the pandemy but even because of the missing supply of oxigene tanks for the hospitals.

This audio piece is therefore dedicated to the people of Manaus. It uses original material from social media and sounds of oxygen tanks, contrabass and electronics.

Composition and performance:

Klaus Janek – contrabass and electronics

Milena Kipfmüller – social media samples and electronics

both artists are part of the collective [SNDNG STTNS]

Camera: Barbara Dulley, Milena Kipfmüller

Berlin, born out of swamp and named after him, began to develop its basic shape in the 17th century, which still shapes the city today. Our baroque clichés mostly consist of stucco-decorated facades that now want to shape the cityscape again, of symmetries in the park design or the palatable representation of splendor and abundance. The independent ensemble around the director Lukas Matthaei delves deeper into the conceptual, thought and life worlds of the early modern era and discovers their reverse side: the beginning of colonial history, which still has an impact today, the politics of dances and social codes, the dirt of the city and the agony of plague and war.

The ballroom of the sophiensaele is transformed into an installation between a film set and surround theater. The arched windows of the party tent, this hardware store variant of baroque garden culture, reveal the alchemical cabinet of curiosities with rattling planet models from the East Berlin classroom. The portal of the court theater is flanked by porcelain cats from the Dong Xuan Center in Lichtenberg. In the middle of the stage, a steel trough serves the city as a permanent construction site, either as a fountain in the park or as a Brandenburg cemetery.

The cast with its diversity of physical and biographical backgrounds shamelessly appropriates allegories, emblems, dances, texts and sounds of the Baroque and lets their own portraits shine through between transience and lust for life.

The musicians accompany the scenes live in a mixture of baroque cast and electronic manipulation. While the choreography of a baroque ball unfolds, gradually involving the entire ensemble.

By & with Adrian Navarro, Bati Nehoya, André Nittel, Volker Sobottke, Anne Welenc

Production: Jörg Lukas Matthaei | Dramaturgy: Milena Kipfmüller | Musical direction, composition: Klaus Janek | Set design, costume: Michael Gaessner | Musicians Klaus Janek, Milena Kipfmüller, Michael Metzler | Production management: Sarah Stührenberg | Assistance staging: Sofie Neu | Collaboration with equipment: Lotti Maurer | Technology & lighting design: Chris Umney | Mask: Lilo Reuther | Camera: Florian Krauss | Editor: Federico Neri | Public Relations: Nora Gores | Social Media: Alexandra Lauck | Photography: Merlin Nadj-Torma

A production by matthaei & konsorten in coproduction with SOPHIENSÆLE. Funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe & the Performing Arts Fund with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture & Media

The performer and the musician are working over a time span of 12 years intensively together. As a duo or in collaboration with other performers and artists, the two shared the stage over a 200 times for the aim of composing live, in real time together.  They consider the space and audience, urbanitiy or rurality as equal important on the result, as sound and movement.  The two worked on their interests in researching nature, in the artist research group “Bergdenken”, they examined their artistic practice in residencies, in the Alps and Region of Brandenburg, they cofounded the group “Grapeshade” which toured in Italy, Turkey, Bulgaria, Germany, presenting their arts in performances and festivals. In 2021 the duo focuses on performing and lecturing in different occasions and regions of the world.

Live audio walk with connection to Salvador da Bahia, independently accessible with own smartphone (QR Code) (2020) Errant Sound – 17. Oct. 4:30pm

ZERO, LAND DER ZUKUNFT connects Europe and Brazil referencing two novels: Brasilien, Land der Zukunft by Stefan Zweig, describing his understanding of the country in the 1940s when he fled from German dystopia and projected all his optimism onto Brazil; and Zero by Ignácio de Loyola Brandão, a story situated in the 1960s, during the Brazilian military dictatorship, opening a near visionary dystopian image to what we are politically living today in Brazil.
In connecting two cities, we question dystopian fears and utopian hopes. Applied to the real city, we walk along the Spree with a live-soundtrack directly connected to Salvador, where two musicians, Edbrass Brasil and Andrea May, join the perfor-
mance, thus creating a live acoustic dialogue between two blind visions of our imagination. Sounds and music travel from Germany to Brazil and back, expand, enrich, and transform our walk in Berlin between Errant Sound and the Alte Münze. The acoustic bridge of these geographically separate musical entities performing together in real time creates a condition for a fantastic Utopia: in real space, dystopian elements are acoustically transformed in such a way that they become a possible real world.

Guests in Brazil:
Edbrass Brasil and Andrea May

MACCHINA SOM ALLSTARS (Milena Kipfmüller/ Klaus Janek/Lukas Matthaei, BRA/GER)
develops performative radio and sound-work, combining the live processing of musical material, field recordings, and language, thereby shifting original definitions. Our practice is firmly rooted in a keen interest in aesthetic and political contexts, and creates unexpected links between auditive situations.
sounding-situations.com
matthaei-und-konsorten.de

Andrea May
is a visual and sound artist, independent curator and master student in Visual Arts, with research in the hybridization of artistic languages with emphasis on the aesthetics of noise. Also known as May HD acts professionally as a dj and vj.
linktr.ee/mayhd

Edbrass Brasil
is a sound artist, improviser, and researcher based in Salvador, Bahia. In his artistic practice, he investigates the manipulation and collage of recordings and samples, coupled with the use of unconventional wind instruments, with an emphasis on free improvisation and microtonal music. His fresh music with tubes and leafs, brings a specific «ancient» Brazilian flavor to his live performances.
edbrass.webnode.com

The piece was commissioned by the Dystopie Sound Art Festival – Berlin Brazil 2020

The Agency of Sonic Thinking

Published on December 14, 2020

Last updated on December 15, 2020

P600, the music project, utilises factors related to research into event-related potential (ERP) as a premise to create conceptual and graphic scores for music/sound. Consisting of three musicians and one sound director, P600 experiments with a range of acoustic, electro-acoustic, and acousmatic sound. Each musician acts as an independent sound source, but also sends an audio signal to a main mixer. The sound director manipulates and spatializes their sounds, via the mixer and quadraphonic loudspeakers, according to a score. This is equally inspired by Dub Reggae producers and Stockhausen, in that the mixer becomes an instrument.

P600 are: Luca Marini (drums), Klaus Janek (contrabass/electronics), William “Bilwa” Costa (electronics/objects), and Nicolas Wiese (sound direction/mixer/feedback)

A​*​rray 2, part 1
from A​*​rray by Andy Graydon & Various Artists

France Jobin, electronics & modulars, Montreal
Katie Porter, bass clarinet, Summit County, UT
Klaus Janek, contrabass & electronics, Berlin
pierre gerard, piano & cello, Liège

based on a moving image score by Andy Graydon
edited and mixed by Andy Graydon
mastered by Stephan Mathieu at Schwebung Mastering
France Jobin is published by Touch Music/Fairwood Music UK Ltd
credits
from A​*​rray, releases October 2, 2020

preorder on oct 2nd at bandcamp

-in german-

Text, Sprache und Gesang: Ruth Johanna Benrath und Nika Judith Pfeifer
Prozessierter Kontrabass und Komposition: Klaus Janek
Samples, Live-Elektronik und Schnitt: Milena Kipfmüller
Mastering: Martin Leitner

Sie hatte den Blues drauf. Sie verwandelte Musik in eine transzendentale Erfahrung. Bis heute verursacht sie Gänsehaut. Sie wurde nur 27 Jahre alt. Am 4. Oktober 1970 wurde sie mit einer Überdosis Heroin im Blut tot im Hotelzimmer aufgefunden.

Janis Joplins 50. Todestag nehmen die Autorinnen Ruth Johanna Benrath und Nika Pfeifer zum Anlass, auf besondere Art und Weise an sie zu erinnern. Janis’ coole, elektrisierende Präsenz dient ihnen als Ausgangspunkt des Austauschs, als ein Experiment, sich selbst zu verorten: Was bedeutet ihnen Janis? Was ist von ihr noch da? Was ist die Essenz ihrer Songs?

Über den Atlantik hinweg schreiben sich Ruth Johanna Benrath und Nika Pfeifer Gedichte mit kurzen, bildreichen Assoziationen. LUFTPOST zwischen Europa und den USA. Dabei geht es um Janis, ihre Stimme, um Blues, Rock und Jazz, um die Liebe, den Tod, Frauen, Männer, Fandom, Rauschmittel, ums Getrenntsein, um Verzweiflung, aber auch um Ekstase, um Aufbrüche. Darüber hinaus reflektieren sie die gegenwärtige Lage, erzählen von sich selbst, von ihrer Begegnung mit Janis. Und vielleicht singen sie auch Ausschnitte aus Joplins Songs …

Das variantenreiche künstlerische Konzept der Autorinnen wird kongenial ergänzt durch den Beitrag des Soundduos Milena Kipfmüller und Klaus Janek. Sie kreieren Soundscapes und wirken als Schnittstelle zwischen Inszenierung, Radio- und Klangkunst mit.

klick hier um das Hörspiel zu hören

2020 September 16 17 | 19.00
2020 September 19 20 | 17.00
im Stadtraum

In German

Berlin has long been built on quagmire. Therefore, it is not surprising that some structures of today’s Berlin have their blueprints in the baroque era – the allegedly grand old times, whose facades are being restored in a way that creates dramatic effects. matthaei & konsorten devote themselves to the humid, sweltering delirium of that epoch. On an expedition into the mucky city, they invite their audience to the remote, exaggerated, hardly beautiful sides of Berlin: How about dancing a sarabande on the sewage fields below the border zone? Or to crack the Mäusebunker with rhetorical rams? In September, matthaei & konsorten launch their new work Die Sumpfgeborene (The Swamp-Born) with wondrous actions in the city, before finally premiering in November. There the shameless affects and magnificent stagings of social abysses will be crossed with the unstoppable narrative apparatus of the telenovela.

Under the label MATTHAEI & KONSORTEN the director Jörg Lukas Matthaei works together with artists from different disciplines. Since 2000, almost 50 works of various orientations have been created: From productions for the stage, installations and discourse productions to the development of new formats for urban landscapes, which have been a focus of the work for several years. Stagings by matthaei & konsorten can be encountered in all places that also occur in the lives of their actors or visitors. Recent works include COOP3000 eine neosolidarische concerngründung (Urban Arts Ruhr), BAILE BASSENA (Vienna Festival), URBAN MAGIC (Bangalore) and with the Sophiensæle most recently Im Apparat der Kriege (2014 Sophiensæle + radio version for rbb and others) and Verschwörung der Idioten. Between 2015 and 2016 they regularly presented the Idiotensalon at the Sophiensæle. matthaei-und-konsorten.de

BY AND WITH Bati Nehoya, André Nittel, Volker Sobottke, Anne Welenc, Frank Willens CONCept, DIRECTION Jörg Lukas Matthaei DramaturgY Milena Kipfmüller MusiCAL DIRECTION, Composition Klaus Janek MUSIC Michael Metzler, Philipp Caspari sCenography, COSTUMES Michael Graessner PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT, DRAMATURGICAL SUPPORT Sarah Stührenberg ARTISTIC CONTRIBUTION Sofie Neu Additional sCenography CONTRIBUTION Lotti Maurer TechniCAL DIRECTOR Chris Umney DoCumentation Florian Krauss PHOtograPHY Merlin Nadj-Torma

A production by matthaei & konsorten in coproduction with SOPHIENSÆLE and with friendly support of Theater Thikwa. Funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Europa and the Fonds Darstellende Künste e.V. Media partner: taz. die tageszeitung

Gropius Bau, Berlin aug 21 – 23

“How To Inhabit These Different Temporalities” is a flexible, archipelago-like concert installation: spread out within the space, the musicians play as if they each occupy their own island. Surrounded by metronomes and ticking timers, they transform complex improvisation instructions supplied by the audience into an immersive, constantly shifting, poetic soundscape.

The Berlin-based Ensemble Extrakte was founded in 2013 by Sandeep Bhagwati and Elke Moltrecht and is made up of musicians from China, Germany, India, Korea, Bulgaria, Syria and the USA. The group embodies of a new kind of ensemble: acknowledging that we live in a time where musical traditions have transcended all the world’s geographical, ethnic and ideological boundaries, the members of Ensemble Extrakte seek to examine the musical potential of both familiar and unfamiliar traditions. For ‘Down to Earth’ Bhagwati, Moltrecht and the oboist Cathy Milliken have developed a flexible, archipelago-like concert installation entitled “How To Inhabit These Different Temporalities”: spread out within the space, the musicians play as if they each occupy their own island. Surrounded by metronomes and ticking timers, they transform complex improvisation instructions supplied by the audience into an immersive, constantly shifting, poetic soundscape in which one may walk around, lie down, join in, listen and linger. In common with the earth’s immeasurable time dimensions – those “silent transformations” (François Jullien) that people barely understand – in this musical event it is possible to experience intuitively a small section of a vast flowing process that began long before us and whose turbulences permeate all of us in every second.

Wu Wei Sheng (Chinese mouth organ), Erhu (Chinese string instrument)
Sören Birke Duduk (Armenian wind instrument), mouth organ, mouth harp
Farhan Sabbagh Ud (Syrian mandolin instrument), Riqq (frame drum)
Deniza Popova Bulgarian and Russian folksong techniques
Ravi Srinivasan Tabla (Indian drums), Khayal (North Indian vocal style)
Gregor Schulenburg Transverse flute, Kyotaku (Japanese end-blown flute), Duduk
Lucy Zhao Pipa (Chinese mandolin instrument), Guqin (Chinese fingerboard zither)
Jieun Kang Haegeum (Korean bowed string instrument)
Hong Yoo Daegeum (Korean transverse flute), Changgu (double frame drum)
Klaus Janek double bass
Gebrüder Teichmann gramophone, musical clock
Ensemble direction Sandeep Bhagwati & Elke Moltrecht

https://www.facebook.com/BerlinerFestspiele.Immersion/videos/3062914123827461

Two generations cross over two countries. Milena Kipfmüller uses tape material of the 70ies done by her father Günter Kipfmüller in north-east Brazil: recordings of popular travelling musicians in the sertao that transform news and stories in virtuously improvised poetry, the “violeiros”. The source material enters a nowadays process of electronic transformation in dialogue with the three other string instruments. Viola and cello are played by father and son, Guilherme and Ernesto Rodrigues, thus by two generations that compose in their own, different (analogue) languages. Klaus Janek at the contrabass, combines both aspects in his artistic practice, the analogue instrument and electronics – bridging the two duos of generations and transformation processes.

editing and mixing: sounding situations
recorded in Berlin 2019

sounding situations [SNDNG STTNS]
Milena Kipfmüller – tape and electronics
Klaus Janek – contrabass and electronics
feat.

Guilherme Rodrigues – cello
Ernesto Rodrigues – viola

46:32 min

artwork: Marion Burbulla
Creative Source / ALMENRAUSCHEN
Berlin/Lisbon 2020

Spontaneous Music Tribune (nov 2020) – Andrzej Nowak – writes about the album following:

We end our today’s Portuguese story in… Berlin! Milena Kipfmüller (tape and electronics) and Klaus Janek (double bass and electronics) as Sounding Situation some time ago recorded intriguing material that consumed the sounds of a live double bass, electronics and field recordings from Brazil, from the 70s of the last century (songs called Violeiros ; we wrote about this idea when discussing the double bassist’s 5-disc epic). Now we get a kind of reprise of this project (recorded last year), and for its realization they were invited – Ernesto Rodrigues on the viola and Guilherme Rodrigues on the cello. The whole musical journey (one track ) is 46 and a half minutes.

We are invited to the land of electro-acoustic non-obviousness when we are invited by stringed instruments that flow low (double bass) and extremely high (viola and cello ) – rumble, squeal, seem light, elusive, but also extremely massive. The whole thing, although a bit gentle at first, has its own rhythm, its sometimes hidden dynamics. Electronic sounds do a lot of good from start to finish. They usually create a mysterious background, sometimes they are the result of some live processing activities , they never go out of line, and above all, they force the sounds of the field into the stringed narrative in an interesting way. The latter appear after a few minutes. They are looped, mutated, as if they came to us from a completely different world. Kind of chamber with field electronic taste!! The Portuguese are perfectly stuck to this German idea – they prepare sounds when necessary, other times they flow in long, charming passages, and they do not look for silence on the fingerboards of their instruments.

The first real exciting moment is around 14 minutes, when this electro-acoustic bundle of sounds falls into an almost meditative pulse, not without a dark ambient flavor . After another few minutes, a lot of good comes to us from the double bass neck, which rumbles and rumbles connected to the cables, like a mutated bass guitar. Right after that, as a result of a combination of several circumstances, flow It even takes on a dub echo, and the atmosphere of Berlin’s post-techno from 25 years ago seems to be triumphant. There is no end to the kaleidoscope of intriguing and surprising sounds. The strings fall into a demonic dance, beautifully plunging into the pulsating drones of electronics and heavily processed field recordings. Around 22 minutes, the artists offer us a moment of breathing and sensual passages of purely acoustic string sounds, and then again the splashes of violeiros enter the action , sowing anxiety and seeming to ask existential questions about the place of sound in time and space. Just before the 30th minute is over, we have a real pile of sounds and emotions. An orchestra of stringersand electroacoustic ambient take a wonderful toll! Before this wonderful story finally resounds, we still have a short descent into silence, passages of string sawing and grinding, and a drone phase that seems to build up like a thunderstorm in lightning. The final of the recording is full of electro-acoustic sound pearls, it fades to the accompaniment of live sounds and another reprise of voices straight from the Brazilian jungle.

buy on bandcamp or write me for purchasing the CD

nach Ludwig van Beethoven
Sinfonie Nr. 6 op. 68 »Pastorale«

Michael Rauter Konzept, Regie und Komposition
Cornelius Puschke Dramaturgie
Anna Philippa Müller Kostüme
Emily Schumann Kostümassistenz
Ladislav Zajac Found Footage Collage
Miguel Pérez Iñesta Performance/Künstlerische Mitarbeit
Christina Voigt Filmproduktion
Johann Günther Sound Design
Michael Bossler, Christina Voigt Kamera
Peter Ulrich Webseite

Mitglieder des Orchesters
der Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele

Lisa Barry Violine II
Meike Brandenbusch Violine I
Amanda Chominsky Piccoloflöte
Karin Geyer Flöte
Nataša Maric Flöte
Andreas Vogel Oboe
Manfred Lindner Klarinette
Michael Moser Fagott
Stefan Berrang Horn
Laura Vukobratovic Trompete,
Hubert Hegele Posaune
Babette Haag Perkussion

Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop

Klaus Janek Kontrabass
Yodfat Miron Viola
Sophie Notte Cello
Paul Valikoski Violine
Biliana Voutchkova Violine

Studierende der Staatlichen Hochschule
für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart
sowie weiterer Hochschulen

Finn Bohn Horn
Josef Dragus Cello
Eloi Enrique Oboe
Zacharias Faßhauer Kontrabass
Ferdinand Frey Posaune
Jonathan Hagos Viola
Anna-Marie Maas Fagott
Franziska Schulz Cello
Jens Singer Klarinette,
Rachel Smith Viola,
Lynn Stiegler Violine I
Lukas Weerth Violine II
Denis Zisko Trompete

Eine Produktion der Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele im Rahmen von #bebeethoven in Kooperation mit Podium Esslingen und der HMDK Stuttgart. #bebeethoven wird gefördert durch die Kulturstiftung des Bundes, das Land Baden-Württemberg, die Baden-Württemberg Stiftung gGmbH und die L-Bank.

Gefördert durch die Ruprecht-Stiftung und den Freundeskreis der Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele.

watch the interactive version online here

Reality in the retirement home: while for the inhabitants there is little lifetime left, the nurses work under timepressure and stress. Caretakers and people in need are sharply clocked, involuntarily and inevitable. Behind alleged banal talks over weather, the wished sandwich topping and the healthy condition, also following appears: the hopelessness of the being in the time, who constantly advances.

“five corridors, one hour” is a perception game. Luise Voigt and her team recorded on may 20th, 2019 between 8 and 9am the atmospheres of 5 nurses at work. The recordings were transcribed, layered and repeated by actors. They play back what happened effectively. Recorded in one take, the way of production requested from the operating involved artists, what the real situation determines: to let sink in oneself consecutively, having a limited interim time.

Premiere
Fünf Flure, eine Stunde
Radioplay in one take
from Luise Voigt
directed by the author
with Lisa Charlotte Friederich, Philippe Ledun, Nele Niemeyer, Pirmin Sedlmeir, Anna Sonnenschein
music and sound effects: [SNDNG STTNS] Milena Kipfmüller and Klaus Janek
sound engineering: Thomas Rombach
production: HR/SWR/Deutschlandfunk Kultur 2020
duration: 53’35

listen to the radioplay here

jan 25, 8pm: hauskonzert at Ingo’s with Maria Lucchese, teremin, voice, ocean drum, Matthias Bauer, db, Milena Kipfmüller, voice processing, Ingo Reulecke, dance and Klaus Janek db, electronics, Berlin

march 6,/7,/8,/12, 8pm: Schweigen Impossible, Thikwa Theater, F40, Berlin

due to corona from here on the performances were postponed or cancelled.

march 20, 21, 8pm: prepremiere DIVE, Anna Konjetzky Company, Tafelhalle, Nürnberg

march 28 8pm: premiere DIVE, Anna Konjetzky Company, kammerspiele, München
march 29, 30 8pm: DIVE, Anna Konjetzky Company, Kammerspiele, München

april 4, 8pm, april 5 3pm: DIVE, Anna Konjetzky Company, Statetheatre, Pretoria, South Africa

april 30, 8pm: Ensemble Extrakte, Elisabethkirche, Berlin

may 1, 8pm: trio with Ulrike Brand, cello, Ingo Reulecke, dance, Klaus Janek contrabass electronics

may 5 – 10: Pixelsinfonie, Michael Rauter, Ensemble Kaleidoskop, Schlossfestspiele, Ludwigsburg

may 17, 8pm: Ensemble Extrakte, Neuevokalsolisten, Stuttgart

may 18 – 20: Ensemble Extrakte, Berlin

june 29 – july 6: Ensemble Extrakte, Musiikin Aika,Viitasaari, Finnland

set 26, 27: Schweigen Impossible, Bird-Festival, Tottori, Japan

oct 21 – 25: Pixelsinfonie, Michael Rauter, Ensemble Kaleidoskop, Bonn

nov 12 – 15: Ensemble Extrakte, Humboldforum, Berlin tbc

This performances will happen or happened:

nov 26 – 29: Sumpfgeborene, matthaei&konsorten, Sophiensaele, Berlin

oct 17th: Zero, Land der Zukunft! live Audio Walk on Spreeufer. Macchina Som Allstars (Kipfmüller, Janek, Matthaei), Dystopie Sound Art Festival 2020 Berlin-Brazil

oct 9th: P600, Nicolas Wiese, Luca Marini, Bilwa, KJ, Werkhalle Wiesengrund

sep 20th: Probebohrungen/Sumpfgeborene, matthaei&konsorten: Rieselfeld, Gatow
sep 19th: Probebohrungen/Sumpfgeborene, matthaei&konsorten: Microbiologisches Institut, Berlin
sep 17th: Probebohrungen/Sumpfgeborene, matthaei&konsorten: Nicolaikirche, Berlin
sep 16th: Probebohrungen/Sumpfgeborene, matthaei&konsorten: Recyclinghalle, Heinersdorf, Berlin

august 21st to 23rd: ensemble extrakte, HOW TO INHABIT THESE DIFFERENT TEMPORALITIES, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin

july 29th: [SNDG STTNS], Hosek Contemporary, Berlin – cancelled

june 18th: Pixelsymphonie, Beethoven/Michael Rauter, Schlossfestspiele Ludwigsburg. Watch/listen here

The monthlong stay in Bruxelles was funded by the two institutions and included a residency at Q-02 and a “staging-sound” mentoring at a.pass.

a.pass is an artistic research environment that develops research on performativity and scenography, in an international artistic and educational context. The institute includes two complementary bodies that operate in parallel and in dialogue: a Post-master Program and a Research Centre.

[SNDNG STTNS] was invited to share knowledge and experience of -staging sound – in a kind of quick’n dirty mentoring task.

Q-02 hosts [SNDNG STTNS] for the second time, and we enjoy the atmosphere and working and living situation. In 2017 we started our project concerto ambulante as a radio-phonic side-specific walking concert. This work gave the base to other  formats like the radio-phonic and sidespecific opera format with its first sketch “Musraropera” (winner of the ITI Music Theatre Now competition 2018). This time and residency we dedicated ourselfs to develop further the piece “to be in a time of war” with the text from Lebanese writer Etel Adnan. The first set of the presentation held nov 7th, at Q-02 was a listening of the piece. In the second set we performed as macchina som allstars elaborating Lukas’ idea of the daily encounters of death, not in its form as being a threat but more in its dailiy phenomena.

“A RECIPROCAL ACTION OR ARRANGEMENT INVOLVES TWO PEOPLE OR GROUPS OF PEOPLE WHO BEHAVE IN THE SAME WAY OR AGREE TO HELP EACH OTHER AND GIVE EACH OTHER ADVANTAGES” (CAMBRIDGE DICTIONARY). THE OXFORD DICTIONARY POINTS OUT A DIFFERENT MEANING, FOCUSING ON THE SYLLABLE RE MEANING BACK AND THE SYLLABLE PRO MEANING FORWARD. MUSIC PERFORMED TOGETHER IN THE PAST BUILDS THE SOURCE MATERIAL FOR A COMPOSITION THAT EMBRACES THE FACT THAT IN THE ACT OF MUSIC CREATION ALL MUSICIANS INVOLVED GROW RECIPROCALLY. THE LIVED NOW FORMULATES THE NOTION OF PRESENT/PRESENCE AND WRITES THE FUTURE NOW.
THE ALBUM CONSISTS OF MUSIC CHOSEN FROM A POOL OF RECORDINGS MADE OVER A TIME SPAN OF 10 YEARS AND ACCORDING TO ITS EXPRESSION COMPOSED ‘TOGETHER’. ALL OF THE MUSIC WAS CREATED THROUGH A PRACTICE OF COMBINING THE COMPOSITIONAL AND THE PERFORMATIVE ACT. THE ALBUM MAKING PROCESS CONSISTS OF TWO LEVELS: THE MUSIC CREATED IN THE PAST FUNCTIONS AS MATERIAL AND IS PUT INTO FORM THROUGH THE INSPIRATION IT PROVIDES. THIS MUSIC WITNESSES THE TRUST BETWEEN THE CREATORS IN THE ACT OF DOING AND ON A FURTHER STEP ITS AFFIRMATION TO THE RE-CONTEXTUALIZATION.

SIDE A
RECIPROCUM PART I …………………………………………………………………… 25:33
MATERIAL FROM RECORDING SESSIONS WITH KLAUS JANEK AND HEINER REINHARD, WILLI KELLERS, ANDY GRAYDON, NILS OSTENDORF, BILIANA VOUTCHKOVA (GRAPESHADE), MARK WEAVER, CHRISTIAN PINCOCK PUT IN FORM BY KLAUS JANEK

SIDE B
RECIPROCUM PART II ………………………………………………………………….. 22:10
MATERIAL FROM RECORDING SESSIONS WITH KLAUS JANEK AND NICOLAS WIESE, WILLIAM BILWA COSTA, LUCA MARINI (P600), ANDREW LAFKAS, BARRY WEISSBLAD, ROBERT SCHWARZ, SCOTT LOONEY, MARC MATTER, LUKAS MATTHAEI, MILENA KIPFMÜLLER (RADIOFON), WOUTER JASPERS, CHRIS DOUGLAS, BRENDAN DOUGHERTY, CLAYTON THOMAS PUT IN FORM BY MILENA KIPFMÜLLER
THE ALBUM WAS CREATED IN ITS MATERIAL BETWEEN 2010 AND 2017 AND IN ITS FORM IN 2018. MY GRATITUDE GOES TO ALL INVOLVED FOR THEIR MUSIC AND FOR THE TRUST IN THIS IDEA. ARTWORK BY STEPHANIE RODERER, WWW.STUDIO-PINGPONG.DE, THE ALBUM IS FUNDED PARTIALLY BY PROVINCIA DI BOLZANO/SÜDTIROL

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THE DUO SOUNDING SITUATIONS – KLAUS JANEK AND MILENA KIPFMÜLLER – EXPLORES THE NOTION OF BRIDGING BY PROSPECTING INTO CONCRETE SOUNDS, SPOKEN WORDS AND MUSIC MATERIAL.
SIDE A OF THE ALBUM STARTS ITS WAY WITH THE RECORDINGS DONE BY GÜNTER KIPFMÜLLER OF BRAZILIAN TRADITIONAL IMPROVISED MUSIC OF THE ‚VIOLEIROS‘ IN THE 70‘S. THIS SOURCE MATERIAL, AS WELL AS THE SOUNDS OF THE OLD RECORDING DEVICE – A UHER REPORTER – IS COMBINED WITH ELECTRONIC PROCESSING AND THE MUSICAL ACTING OF [SNDNG STTNS] IN THE PRESENT, CONNECTING DIFFERENT HISTORICAL CONTEXTS, GEOGRAPHICAL LANDSPACES AND TECHNOLOGICAL PROCESSES OVER 40 YEARS.
SIDE B HOSTS MUSIC MINED FROM LANGUAGE – SOUNDS THAT ARE NOT PRIMARILY PRODUCED WITH A MUSICAL INTENTION: USERS OF A LIBRARY RECORD 20 SEC OF READING OF A BOOK PASSAGE INTO AN ARTISTIC INTERACTIVE SYSTEM. KLAUS JANEK AND MILENA KIPFMÜLLER EXCLUSIVELY USE THE VOICES OF THE AUDIENCE AND THE AUDIENCES‘ REACTIONS TO PERFORM AND ALSO TO TRANSFORM THEM LIVE INTO A MUSICAL COMPOSITION. THE PARTICIPATIVE PERFORMANCE INSTALLATION IS NAMED AFTER ANOTHER FORM OF PROSPECTING: THE ECHO SONAR – ECHOLOT. IN AN ONGOING RESEARCH THE TWO MEMBERS EXPLORE THE JUNCTION OF SEMANTICS AND MUSICALITY IN LANGUAGE AS SOURCE MATERIAL FOR COMPOSITION.

SIDE A
VIOLEIROS REVISITADOS ……………………………………………. 11:09 RECORDED RECORDERS …………………………………………….. 14:03
SOURCE MATERIAL RECORDINGS BY GÜNTER KIPFMÜLLER ON A UHER REPORT 4000 IN THE 70‘S IN NORTHEAST BRAZIL AND THE SOUND OF THE TAPE MACHINE ITSELF. PROCESSING OF THE MATERIAL: MILENA KIPFMÜLLER. CONTRABASS AND ELECTRONICS: KLAUS JANEK. RECORDED IN PANKOW, BERLIN IN OCTOBER 2018.

SIDE B
ECHOLOT – MONTREAL / SÃO PAULO …………………………… 22:02
RECORDED DURING THE PERFORMATIVE INSTALLATION ECHOLOT COMMISSIONED BY THE GOETHE INSTITUT, MONTREAL FOR THE WHITE NIGHTS FESTIVAL IN FEB 2016 AND DURING ECHOLOT TAKING PLACE IN THE GOETHE INSTITUT SÃO PAULO IN JUNE 2017, WWW.SOUNDING-SITUATIONS.COM ARTWORK BY STEPHANIE RODERER, WWW.STUDIO-PINGPONG.DE, THE ALBUM IS FUNDED PARTIALLY BY PROVINCIA DI BOLZANO/SÜDTIROL

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THE WORK FOLLOWS AN EMOTIONAL PATH A MAN LIVES THROUGH A LOSS: FIGHTING AGAINST IT, ACCEPTING IT, FREEZING INTO NUMBNESS, AWAKENING FROM IMPOTENCE, SENSING AWARENESS AND REDISCOVERING POSSIBILITY. AESTHETICALLY IT FOLLOWS A RULE OF ABSTRACTION TOWARDS THE NARRATION AND SEEKS FOR THE IN-BETWEEN. THE COMPOSITION ORBITS AROUND THE QUESTION, IF THE NOW IS MANIFESTED THROUGH THE NARRATIVE, THE PERFORMED AND THE PERCEIVED ONE, AND IF THE NON-TOLD (PAST MEMORY RESERVOIR, FUTURE PROJECTIONS) INFECTS THE MUSICAL LISTENING. IT DOESN‘T SHOW IT, BUT THE POSSIBILITY OF IT. THE PIECE IS INSPIRED BY THE POEM „LETTERA AMOROSA“ FROM RENÉ CHAR.

SIDE A
PROLOG ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 4:21

AUTUMN ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 14:26

WINTER PART I ………………………………………………………………………………… 9:20

SIDE B
WINTER PART II ……………………………………………………………………………….. 6:20

SPRING ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 12:44

TOUCH …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 7:20

KLAUS JANEK CONTRABASS. COMPOSED AND PERFORMED LIVE, RECORDED IN FEBRUARY 2003 AT STUDIO 2, FUNKHAUS, BERLIN, MIXED AND MASTERED BY NIKOLAUS WOERNLE, PRODUCED BY OLIVER KRIEGER. MY GRATITUDE GOES TO ALL INVOLVED IN THE PROCESS AND THIERRY NIANG. ARTWORK BY STEPHANIE RODERER, WWW.STUDIO-PINGPONG.DE, THE ALBUM IS FUNDED PARTIALLY BY PROVINCIA DI BOLZANO/ SÜDTIROL

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THE PROCESS REFLECTS AN UNBALANCED RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ACOUSTIC SOUND PRODUCTION AND ITS ELECTRONIC PROCESSING. THE TWO PARTS INVOLVED ARE CLEARLY HIERARCHICALLY POSITIONED: THE FIRST STEP AND INITIAL BANG IS ALWAYS PRODUCED BY THE ACOUSTIC CONTRABASS. THE ELECTRONIC SET DOESN‘T INCORPORATE THE POSSIBILITY OF TONE PRODUCTION AND EXCLUSIVELY REACTS WITH ITS MEANS. THE RESEARCH FOCUSES ON THE DIFFERENT QUALITIES THE TWO UNITS OFFER IN FUNCTION TO THE PERCEPTION OF ‘NOW’. THE CONTRABASS REPRESENTS THE MANUAL AND SENSIBLE LABOR INTENSIVE PRODUCTION OF SOUND. CONTRARY TO THIS, THE ELECTRONIC SET BLURS BY DECEIVING THE EFFORT OF PROCESSING AND GIVES A SENSATION OF INFINITE SOUND – LIKE A PERPETUUM MOBILE. TIME HAS NO REPRESENTATION OF ITSELF, IT ONLY BECOMES PERCEIVABLE BY ACTIONS HAPPENING IN IT. THEREFORE A TONE INTERVAL SHOWS THE PROGRESSION OF TIME, A DRONE MUCH LESS, BECAUSE OF ITS LACK OF TIME ORIENTATION FOR THE LISTENER. ANOTHER TOPIC OF RESEARCH IN THIS WORK LIES IN THE FORMS OF EXCHANGE OF MUSIC INFORMATION: COMMUNICATION, NARRATION, COLOURING AMBIENT AND FULFILLING FUNCTION.
A SOURCE OF INSPIRATION AND TRIGGER WAS THE NOVEL SOLARIS BY PHILOSOPHER AND AUTHOR STANISLAW LEM AND THE SOCIAL OBSERVATIONS IN PROSPECT PARK, NYC, NEXT TO WHERE I WAS LIVING DURING THE MAIN RESEARCH PERIOD FOR THIS WORK.

SIDE A
INFINITE BANG PART I ……………………………………………………… 24:08

SIDE B
INFINITE BANG PART II …………………………………………………….. 22:42

KLAUS JANEK CONTRABASS AND ELECTRONICS. THE COMPOSITION WAS PLAYED LIVE AND RECORDED DURING A RESIDENCY AT KLANGALERIE, BERLIN IN NOVEMBER 2018. MY GRATITUDE GOES TO ANDREAS PAOLO PERGER. ARTWORK BY STEPHANIE RODERER, WWW.STUDIO-PINGPONG.DE, THE ALBUM IS FUNDED PARTIALLY BY PROVINCIA DI BOLZANO/SÜDTIROL

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WHILE EXPLORING ALTERNATIVE, NON-TRADITIONAL PLAYING TECHNIQUES ON THE CONTRABASS TO DE- AND REFORMULATE THE IDEA OF BEAUTY, I CAME ACROSS THE HISTORICAL FIGURE OF KASPAR HAUSER. AS A CHILD, BORN IN THE EARLY 19TH CENTURY, HE WAS IMPRISONED IN A WOODEN BOX FOR APPROXIMATELY 16 YEARS AND THEN RELEASED INTO AN UNPERCEIVED AND COMPLETELY UNKNOWN WORLD. IN AN INTERVIEW HELD YEARS LATER BY THE JUDGE VON FEUERBACH, HAUSER DESCRIBED HIS PERCEPTION OF PHENOMENA, FOR EXAMPLE TREES OR BIRDS, AS COMPLETELY DISTORTED FROM THE COMMONLY KNOWN READING. ONCE SET FREE, PROCESSES OF DECIPHERING AND SORTING OF SOUNDS, SENSES AND IMPRESSIONS BEGIN. IN MY OWN PRACTICE THIS THOUGHT BROUGHT ME TO REDEFINE BY DISCOVER AND RECOVER THE POTENTIALITY SOUND AND TONE EMBODIES.

SIDE A
PART I ………………………………………… 3:46
PART II………………………………………… 4:16
PART III ……………………………………… 2:47
PART IV……………………………………….. 10:32

SIDE B
PART V ……………………………………….. 2:48
PART VI ……………………………………… 13:27
PART VII ……………………………………… 1:34
PRAYER BEADS* …………………………………. 3:09
*COMPOSED BY MARC JOHNSON

KLAUS JANEK CONTRABASS. PART I, II, III, VI, VII RECORDED JULY 12, 13, 15 1997 BY OLIVER GAYK & JENS UNTERDORFER. PART IV, V RECORDED JUNE 11, 1998 BY ANDREAS ALBRECHT. PART VIII RECORDED SEPTEMBER 27, 1994 BY MICHAEL SEBERICH FOR RARA RECORDS. MASTERED BY SILBERBLICK AT WHITEHOUSE STUDIO, BERLIN. THE RECORD WAS RELEASED FIRST FOR SOLPONTICELLO, ATHENS GA, USA IN 2001, AND AN ALTERNATIVE VERSION OF THE WORK IN 2004 FOR FMP A.L.L., BERLIN. MY GRATITUDE GOES TO ALL PEOPLE INVOLVED IN THE REALIZATION OF THIS WORK AND TO MAURO MURARO, GÜNTHER PITSCHEIDER, MARCO CRISTOFOLINI AND MARCELLO FERA FOR THEIR GENEROSITY IN SHARING THEIR KNOWLEDGE WITH ME. ARTWORK BY STEPHANIE RODERER, WWW.STUDIO-PINGPONG.DE, THE ALBUM IS PARTIALLY FUNDED BY PROVINCIA DI BOLZANO/SÜDTIROL

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words

> Klaus Janek is a master of contemporary classical and free jazz expression. His solo 5-string doublebass album Caspar is a milestone recording in recent European artistry. (CD baby)

>Klaus Janek is a prime force on the avant-garde double bass scene.  (Matt Shimmer/ Indieville)

>Janek plucks, bows, bends, and warps the bass in ways that are almost pornographic…Then, when you realize that this is not the product of effects pedals or any overdubbing, your mind is blown….It leaves you a spectator to Janek’s mastery over his instrument. (Bill Campbell / ink19)

>This elaborate, highly visual piece is a milestone in the doublebass repertoire. Comes with our highest recommendation. (drimala records)

>Janek’s work will be the beautiful discovery of a passionate musician who has an innovative viewpoint on an age-old instrument’s infinite capabilities. (Andrew Magilow/splendid)

>This CD simply is superb…Janek’s playing deserves to be heard. Strongly recommended. (Francois Couture / All music guide)

words

VITAL WEEKLY number 1204
KLAUS JANEK – CASPAR (LP by Almenrauschen)
KLAUS JANEK – THREE SEASONS (LP by Almenrauschen)
KLAUS JANEK – INFINITE BANG (LP by Almenrauschen)
Often I feel a bit reserved when I put a CD of solo recordings in my player; afraid that things might become boring, one dimensional, etc. But in the case of Klaus Janek, there is absolutely no reason to be afraid of this. Also when it is your opinion that the double bass isn’t such a rich instrument.
Janek opens a wide range of possibilities that find their way in some intriguing compositions. Music that is deeply emotional and human, fascinating and frightening. So I soon felt absorbed in his musical worlds. What a voice! Born in Bolzano, in the north of Italy, Janek is based in Berlin for many years. In his early years, he studied soprano and alto flute, trumpet as well as classical percussion. He started in local rock and jazz bands. Since 1988 he concentrated on double bass, studying with Mauro Muraro among others, and participated in workshops with Dave Holland, Butch Morris and Peter Kowald. Since the 90s he is into avant-garde and improvised music with a special interest for thecombination of double bass and electronics. Besides he composes music for cinema, theatre and dance productions. He released the core of his (solo) work so far on 5 albums, all to be released in 2019. This edition is titled ‘Almenrauschen’, a name that may by an allusion to the mountains around Bolzano where Janek grew up. Anyway, three of the albums are out so far. All solo ones. ‘Reciprocum’ and ‘Prospecting’ will be released later. Recordings for ‘Caspar’ took place on several occasions in the ’90s, spanning some four years. The album was first released in 2001 for Solponticello. It was his debut recording. It is a work in seven parts. Janek was inspired by the life of Kaspar Hauser who grew up imprisoned. Once set free he perceived reality, ordinary phenomena like trees and birds in a completely distorted way from what was common. He had to develop his way of deciphering, etc. of what he perceived. This story
inspired Janek trying to discover newpossibilities from a radical approach. He creates beautiful drones, contrasted with restless bowing and plucking, etc. At moments Janek also sings. At one moment he sings unison with the double bass playing a melodic line. Or he screams and howls, or tries some throat singing techniques. Also, some – accidental – environmental sounds pop up at a few places. Part four has Janek playing in an extremely sharp and dynamic way. Vibrant and dramatic improvisation by a player he puts his soul into his playing. The lp closes with a beautiful jazz composition, ‘Prayer Beads’ by American bassist and composer Marc Johnson, with Janek playing with deep and warm sounds. ‘Three Seasons’ was recorded live in February 2003 in Berlin. He plays the composition by Janek on contrabass. For this composition in six parts, Janek is inspired by what we go through inthe case of a loss: fighting it, accepting it, etc. So here Janek evokes moods and emotions. Again Janek impresses the listener with very sensitive playing; making poetry of the dramatic experiences that inspire him here; a musical meditation on the human condition. The opening of ´Winter part 2´ is one of those places where Janek creates some very specific sounds and sonorities. ´Spring´ starts from a repeated pattern that is coloured in different ways before Janek accelerates and works towards a peak of baffling intensity and beauty. Ending with a melodic coda; a very lively and expressive statement. The third album, ‘Infinite Bang’, was also live recorded at Klanggalerie, Berlin. Recordings took place in November last year. This time Janek takes inspiration from the book ‘Solaris’ by Polish author Stanislaw Lem. It resulted in one lengthy composition of over 45 minutes that has Janek playing double bass and electronics. After an acoustic start, the work continues after a few minutes on another plain with looped and processed sounds from the double bass. After a while, the double bass engages with the electronic environment and so on. Compared with the two other albums this one is even more abstracting from conventions. His approach here is more reduced to a pure sound investigation; a very proportionate and effective combination of acoustics and electronics. It is multi-layered but there is no overkill. At moments his bass sounds like a creepy, screaming voice. An impressive work. These releases convincingly illustrate that Janek is an important player open for experiment and with a story to tell. Very relevant and urgent stuff. (DM)

VITAL WEEKLY number 1216
KLAUS JANEK – PROSPECTING (LP by Almenrauschen)
KLAUS JANEK – RECIPROCUM (LP by Almenrauschen)
In 2019 Klaus Janek, a Berlin-based composer, contrabassist and researcher released a set of 5 albums of his solo and collaborative work. First three albums (‘Caspar’, ‘Three Seasons’ and ‘Infinite Bang’) we reviewed here earlier. Now we are focusing on the two other albums that complete this special edition called ‘Almenrauschen’, namely ‘Prospecting’ and ‘Reciprocum’. Compared with the earlier reviewed albums from this edition, these albums show Janek not so much as an accomplished double bass player, but far more his activity in the field of electro-acoustic music. The album ‘Prospecting’ contains duo works by Janek with Milena Kipfmüller as Sounding Situations. Kipfmüller is a sound artist, producer, theatre dramaturge, interested in developing new forms of ‘performative and live radio play’. ‘Violeiros Revisitados’ is built from recordings of traditional Brazilian vocal music by the Violeiros, dating from the 70s and looped sounds. Janek adds nice solo lines on contrabass. Through processing, this is finished in a warm sound work of deep sounds. Similar for  ‘Recorded Recorders’ that starts with a fine solo by Janek, accompanied with deep and low sounds that evolve along with cyclic procedures. The work develops along with a deep echoing cadence, centred around a hypnotizing pattern. Again the sound material is of imaginative quality. Both are very intensive and moving works. On the B-side, we find ‘Echolot-Montreal/Sao Paolo’. Echolot is a performance installation by Kipfmüller and Janek, presented in Montreal (2016) and Sao Paolo (2017). Non-musical material of spoken word (French and German) is the main ingredient in this work that can be situated between audio play and music. Again a truly absorbing sound work where they successfully investigate into the musical qualities of the spoken word. The album ‘Reciprocum’ contains one giant work in two parts. The first part is based on recording sessions by Janek with Heiner Reinhard, Willi Kellers, Andy Graydon, Nils Ostendorf, Biliana Voutchkova, Mark Weaver and Christian Pincock that are reworked and assembled by Janek into one work. The second part is based on recordings sessions of Janek and Nicolas Wiese, William Bilwa Costa, Luca Marini, among others, processed by Milena Kipfmüller. Both Janek and Kipfmüller manage to integrate these recordings into one organic (meta-)musical work. Sometimes the original recordings are treated beyond recognition, sometimes not. Also, the length of the outtakes is very different. There is a very long one with fantastic violin playing by Voutchkova. It is impressive how Janek and Kipfmüller take up these improvised sections in a new musical context. For sure we are dealing here with multi-layered and multidimensional works by two artists who have a strong musical vision of what they aiming at. Music that fascinates from start to finish! (DM)

FreiStil #89 März/April 2020

Bass is the place

Almenrauschen – fünf LPs von Klaus Janek
Ein Kontrabassist aus der Champions League, den ich noch nicht kenne? Zeigenossen gibt’s, die gibt’s gar nicht. Der Berliner Bassgeiger, in den 90er Jahren aus dem italienischen Südtirol in die deutsche Metropole übersiedelt, hat mit der Veröffentlichung von gleich fünf Langspielplatten unter dem etwas kryptischen Motto Almenrauschen meine letzten Zweifel an seiner Kunstfertigkeit beseitigt. Denn was die fünf Platten einigt, allesamt mit jeweils anders eingefärbtem Cover in einheitlichem Design, ist ihre grundverschiedene Ausrichtung:

caspar (gelb) dokumentiert auf der A-Seite ein ausgedehntes Solo samt minimaler Vokalbegleitung und versammelt auf der zweiten Seite kürzeste Kürzel, Motive, Sketches of Kontrabasshausen sozusagen. Oft genügt nur ein Strich, nur ein Hauch,m nur ein Oberton, eine flüchtige Verwandlung Janeks in ein Digeridoo. Diese Musik ähnelt einem Gebäude mit klienen Räumen, aus denen man durch Fenster in angrenzende blicken kann. Das ist Pointilismus ohne spektakuläre Pointen, dafür mit Pausen dazwischen, mit Luftlöchern – und am Ende hält mal die Wiederkehr von Jimmy Garrison für möglich.
three seasons (grün) werden durchwegs mit dem Bogen gestrichen, eine andere Ästhetik als zuvor ist evident. Aber, fragt man sich, was ist mit der vierten Jahreszeit? Wann wird’s mal wieder richtig Sommer? Kann Vivaldi das Rätsel lösen?
infinite bang (rot) passiert, wenn Janek weiderum neue Klangwelten generiert, diesmal im Aufeinandertreffen von Kontrabass und Elektronik. Spärische Schwebezustände alternieren da mit einer gewissen Atemlosigkeit. Die Qualität dieser Sounds geht Länge mal Breite ins Flächige, herausragende Sequenzen sind eher eine Seltenheit.

prospecting (blau) nennt Klaus Janek seine Duoplatte mit Milena Kipfmüller, die sein Bassspiel vokal, instrumental und mit elektronischen Zuspielungen garniert. Auch diese Platte zeichnet sich durch eigenen, eingenwilligen Charakter aus. Die B-Seite kreist um literarische Texte bzw. deren mehrsprachige Insterpreatation und weist dadurch eine nahe Verwandtschaft mit einem Hörspiel auf. Auf der A-Seite werden Assoziationen an Filmmusiken wach. Im Hintergrund ahnt man Echos aus Afrika, womöglich, prospfting erzeugt – eigenltich in bester Philip-Jeck-Manier – auf Seite A eine stille, nicht selten meditative Atmosphäre, der es gleichwohl nicht an Dichte und Intesität mangelt. So gerät die erste Seite dieses Stücks Vinyl zur subjektiv schönsten, weil berührendsten Einspielung. Für sich genommen, eine Plattenseite des Monats! Mein Favorit.
reciprocum (pink) ist wiederum Janeks Ensemble-Platte bzw. vielmehr Material aus diversen Aufnahmesessions, die neu bearbeitet wird. Partners in crime sind, neben einigen anderen, Biliana Voutchkova, Willi Kellers, Nicolas Wiese, Clayton Thomas – und wieder, wie schon in der blauen Phase, Milena Kipfmüller. Dem Ausgangsmaterial für neue Erkundungen kommt zumeist die Funktion eines brodelnden resp., bebenden Untergrunds zu, auf dem Klaus Janeks Contrabass die Balance und die Contenance zu halten sich bemüht. Auch hübsch super.
Klaus Janek outet sich mit diesem fünffachen Almenrauschen nicht nur als großartiger, sonder auch noch als diskurswilliger Musiker. Soviel ist wenigstens aus den liner notes herauszulesen. Ob sein Wille zur Diskussion und zur Reflexion den musikalischen Wehrwert auslöst und ob das Eine das Andere vorraussetzt, bleibe einmal dahingstellt. Dennoch, mit theoretischem Überbau oder ohne ihn: in seiner Vielgestaltigkeit und stilistischen Offenheit zeit sich Klaus Janek um ein aussagekräftiges Statement nicht verlegen. (Andreas Fellinger)

The sound projector

31/07/2020 Paul Khimasia Morgan

Klaus Janek’s Almenrauschen: Five Colours Black

spontanous music tibune, Friday, February 28 2020

Klaus Janek! Altered States of Double Bass!

Klaus Janek, a German double bass player, improviser and composer with Italian roots (also a Slavic name!), Celebrated his 50th birthday last year. We not only know in the editorial office that this is a good time to make a life (here, artistic) resume.
For this noble occasion, the musician has prepared a five-disc set of his recordings, both those of the early 90s of the last century, as well as completely new ones made in recent years. Thanks to the support of the Italian taxpayer, this editorial package was successfully dressed in a beautiful set of black vinyls with homogeneous, stylish covers. The publisher of the whole – it is possible that founded for the needs of this venture – was named with a lowercase almenrauschen.
The artist, who works a bit on the edge of the mainstream improvised music, is a significant figure of the Berlin music scene, perhaps he is more widely perceived in the field of broadly understood contemporary music. Nevertheless, with a set of CDs that we will discuss in a moment in detail, Janek absolutely fits into the current of an intriguing, fully emancipated, improvising double bass of the European music scene. So, if you haven’t come across this musician yet, you have a unique moment to catch up and join the club of enthusiasts of his work without a shadow of a doubt.
Caspar
Recordings for double bass (fully acoustic) made in 1994-1998, with most of the material from June 1997. Eight episodes, which the musician defines as compositions (including one foreign), we complement the image for the sake of clarity – examples of structured improvisation (music originally released on CD by the label Solponticello, 2001).

The bow introduces us to the wide stream of sound stream, which dynamically scrubs the chilled strings of a double bass. The sound of the instrument is very deep, massive, an example of baroque style definitely served in a sharp, kind of post-contemporary impro! In the next episode, smyk goes lower, the narrative takes on a dark glow. The texture swells, pulsates with power and acoustic inevitability, you can get the impression that even two double basses play. The musician has fantastic control over the dynamics of the performance. In the third part, he uses the pizzicato technique, sings under his breath, full of melody and frivolous dance. After a while the sharp bow returns, the strings bleed profusely, making this somewhat prepared fragment truly beautiful. The cheerful smyk sings, whistles, jumps to the sky, and on the very end of the first page of the vinyl goes down to the basement.
At the opening of the other side, our heroic bow sounds almost industrial, as if in the background were accompanied by sounds of disturbed surroundings. The musician adds voice preparations to the whole picture, his instrument does almost the same! We smoothly enter the sixth, no doubt, key, nearly 14-minute epic of the liberated double bass. At the start we are accompanied by a drone of dense air drawn from lead strings. An acoustic ambient that bursts with the beauty of every sound, as if the burnt baroque stood unexpectedly at the gates of real hell. The musician lets a lot of space into the narrative, including accents of silence. Spiritual chamber – from the bottom up, with the power of eternal cosmos and the delicacy of a peacock feather, in silence and in noise. Preparations and voice ornaments – oh yes, Peter Kowald is here with us and sincere fangs with satisfaction! Distracted deep black bowed bass flows in the mantra of liberated self-awareness. The whole effect is enhanced by percussion accents on the neck and high finish singing against the backdrop of greasy pizzicato. Perfectly! We finish the record unexpectedly – the seventh episode, just over 90 seconds, again with the accents of Far Eastern, guttural singing, almost spiritual firing and deep lock that looks for the bottom. Finally, the equally enigmatic finale, played by jazz pizzicato (a composition by Mark Johnson), pulls us out of sleep and exposes us to the reality. An example of how a semi-brilliant album can be trivially and without flashing finished.
Three seasons
We continue listening to recordings for solo double bass (again full acoustic). February 2003, the studio circumstances, as the artist himself – the music composed and performed live. Six parts with titles, including three seasons after Vivaldi, do not know why, but deprived of the summer part.
We start without surprises – a baroque but massive instrument and bow outfit that dances on the neck. The narrative seems more thoughtful, studied, structured than it was on the previous album. The second episode wakes us up with a truly bear roar. Smyk seems to sound even more beautiful. Precise flow, with a lot of air between the strings, with an adequate dose of dramatic order. The story slowly gains dynamics and thickens to form solidified lava. Contemporary magic – Autumn lasting nearly a quarter of an hour is captivating in every dimension. The final descent into active silence is equally effective. Time for a threatening winter! The bow focuses on constructive minimalism. It flows from the bottom up, and then travels back. The sound seems to be delicately prepared, once it resembles horse neighing, at other times a camel’s croak. The narrative, every now and then, approaches the level of silence – a howl of a dry bow, the breath of a sweaty double bass. The musician and his clever instrument are in a constant process of searching for a new sound. The narrative does not have the spontaneity of its predecessor, but its artistic study shines with its original beauty, and even makes noise for the finale! The second, shorter part of Winter (once you have to flip the black plate) is livelier, it flows on an icy hill, it even enters a gallop for a moment. Smyk continues to be the center of our attention.
Spring begins in the nooks of silence, kind of silent sonore – baroque rushes upwards, baroque descents downwards. This part also provides new sounds, sometimes very filigree. On the decay, the smyk sings beautifully with a high alto, making the work lightly soiled with timbre. Show! For the finale, instead of the soothing, airy Summer, it’s time for the part called Touch. Massive trembling of the striker who dances percussion on the neck. Then the really filigree phase, the musician uses his fingers and builds small flow by pizzicato. On the last straight, the nimble bow returns and puts a baroque quality stamp.
Infinite Bang
We have already learned the sound of Janek’s double bass quite well, so we add him strong electronic support. Berlin, November 2018, concert with Klangalerie, two elaborate compositions (the musician insists on this term, we prefer again – structured improvisations).
The repetition of a snarling and bubbling knock on a greasy double bass neck – a massive and resonating sound band drills a hole in the brain. Acoustic drones of heavy air, in the background rustling electronics waking up to synthetic life. After a few minutes, the live bands go out, and only the dark post-electronic glow remains on the stage. The living instrument returns after a while, placing micro-stamps of presence. Smyk is comfortable on the neck, the background is sizzling and rustling, collecting fake sounds from the surroundings of the performance. The electroacoustic bass band appears quite unexpected, thanks to which the whole takes on an industrial aftertaste. When everything melts into hazy ambient again, the reviewer can only sigh with delight. Alive returns by pulling the strings and breathing deeply. It crowns the first part, supported by shiny blue ambient.
The second compo-improvisation even more consistently focuses on a repetitive scenario – like a dramatic loop (loop!). The marriage of living and synthetics gains strength, after which it loses it and waits for the next thread. The murmurs of electronics and the flail that slides over the neck is the entry situation. There is no shortage of more dynamic accents and more and more often appearing traces of live proccesing (at least this is how it is heard). These last moments add metaphysical ambiguity to the whole. In the phase of dominance of synthetics, the narrative likes repetition, traces of semi-arrhythmia, minor distortions and pulsations. In the phase of domination of the living – the accents of preparation, trembling of all matter and waiting for the course of events. Raw ambient patches and sweet acoustic slices. In the middle of this part, the narrative bears the mark of a delicate downtime, but this moment does not last too long. A clever entry into the phase of extensive, glassy ambient, which grows with a low bass band, introduces us to the final phase, during which the lively strings begin to rule. The end of the album on the background seems quite delicate, the supremacy of the living is not subject to discussion. Small ambient patches lead the double bass to the last straight, where it performs the closing ritual itself, of course by repetition.
Prospecting
It’s time to end simple dramatic solutions. A far conceptual album is ahead of us. There will be double bass and electronics under the jurisdiction of Klaus, but also Milena Kipfmüller, who will electronically process the material prepared earlier. First, the musicians will take to the workshop field recordings from northern Brazil, from the 70s of the last century (improvised folk songs called Violeiros), then – using the Echolot installation – they will electronically process … the voices of people who read a fragment of a literary text for 20 seconds ( contemporary recordings from Montreal and Sao Paulo). Let’s follow the surprising effect of these activities, both musical and performative.
The first Brazilian story begins with the sound of pouring water, the sound of the forest, songs and rituals. Double bass and electronics work briskly, commenting on reality or deconstructing it creatively. The truth of time, and the truth of sound in a collision with brutal modernity. After some time, we clearly hear a mechanically engaging bow, and even a deaf, massive pizzicato. In the background it flows, often repeats, dims even more often, a range of synthetic sounds. At the very end of the first part, we have a lonely stream of electronics. The second part of the story from the Brazilian forest is like a reprise, something like further electronic reconstruction. Massive, dense magma deep sounds, a couple of strings accompanied by synthetic post-sound. Acoustic bass ambient deconstructing by electronics, notes the meticulous reviewer in Shakespeare’s language. The dramaturgy of the recording is based on repetition, it has its phase of electronics dominance, it also has a spectacular come back of the predatory tearing of the strings of a live instrument. For the finale we return to the original drone, which beautifully connects the whole of the sound exploration.
The other side of the black disc further highlights the conceptual nature of the whole. Human voices, accidental, sometimes aggressive phonemes, something like an organ drone – from all this musicians mold the electronic path of the sound metaphysics of the word. Something like an interactive radio play. After all, the concept defends itself musically – it provides a whole bunch of fascinating sounds, and it doesn’t lose the narrative nerve for a moment. The sounds of the double bass and electronics, which sometimes resemble Berlin post-techno from the 90s, are real cherries on this quite positive cake.
Reciprocum
For the finale of today’s tale of Different States of Contrabass Awareness, it seems that we encounter an even greater stylistic and conceptual volt. Two of the same musicians (Klaus Janek and Milena Kipfmüller) will again electronically prepare the sound material created earlier, however, the basis for these unmasking works will be … real (real) recordings of Klaus, made in 2010-2017 with the participation of other musicians, both in jazz aesthetics as well as freely improvised (we don’t know the details). The set of musicians who participate in these Collaborations (the subtitle of the album) is very extensive, so we will not quote it in full, we can only mention those more known to us, such as Willi Kellers, Bilian Voutchkov or Clayton Thomas (on the A side we hear a double bass, drums, saxophone, clarinet, tuba, trumpet, trombone and violin, on side B – double bass, percussion, multiplayer electronics, piano and voices).
A big double bass, clarinet and drums introduce us to this fairy tale with dry open jazz. Post-production sound fun is immediately sent to us by electroacoustic double bass drones, a handful of trembling matter not fully defined by provenance, in other words a mix of live and synthetic sounds, not without harsh & post-noise elements. In this surprising magma we can point out various phases of narrative – even the clever deconstruction of the sound of the double bass and brass, which after some time stick into electroacoustic, quite free improvisation. Particularly intriguing is the phase in which preparations on the violin dominate (probably Voutchkova!), After which the whole takes on a very chamber character. There is also a phase of a massive, solo double bass, with which everything in the recording seems to resonate, even the reviewer’s turntable. For the first page finale, the open jazz we faced at the beginning of the recording returns.
Milena sits on the other side of the vinyl behind the mixing table. Strings, electroacoustic background, substantial handfuls of electronics from the base recording, percussion and bass – all minimalistic and repetitive. Again, we come across a beautiful post-chamber moment, smoothly immersed in a delicate, synthetic glow. Interesting phases include a piano and double bass with electronic preparations, a pizzicato double bass and voices, or even again a piano with a double bass in a sauce of electronic rasp, decorated with a small percussion. Changing it here, changing it, maybe at times there are even too many of them, but the dreamy finale with strings, free electronics and a handful of reflection compensates a lot.

first solo concert of contrabass and electronics “infinite bang” after its composition and recording at Klanggalerie, Berlin. The concert happened september 1st, at Studio Silk in Jönköping and was invited through Stina Nilson and Helena Boström. The music is available on LP on almenrauschen. You can buy it here

What does tradition mean when the past is tainted by crimes? Who decides what is carried on a collective knowledge and moored in the culture? RWANDAN RECORDS is a sound installation, radio play and live concert. This work of walkable musical theatre by Jens Dietrich and Milena Kipfmüller featuring artists from Rwanda and Germany combines pre-colonial accounts with stories from the present. It invites audience members to immerse themselves in the stories shared by Rwanda and Germany. The Rwandan hip-hop artist Eric 1key and the Berlin-based composer Klaus Janek have created a soundscape of language, traditional sounds, electronic music, beats and field recordings.
#Transculturalism #Klanginstallation #Hörspiel #LiveKonzert #RecordLabel #Tonstudio #Archiv #1000taten #eric1key #Oralhistory #decolonizesound

Ruth Geiersberger: „mit Pflanzen“ |
october 4th 5th und 6th 2019

Ruth Geiersberger & Komplizen
„mit Pflanzen“
art meets science
sound performance in a thinkspace

With Prof. Dieter Volkmann, retired professor of the Institut für zelluläre und molekuläre Botanik der Universität Bonn | Martina Koppelstetter voice, Alfred Zimmerlin cello, Michel Watzinger dulcimer, Klaus Janek contrabass, electronics | Beate Zeller dramaturgy | gardeners.

strategies of communication are not only interesting when they are appearing in between humans or animals. Plants communicate with each other, with each surroundings. Can humans learn from plants communication and gain knowledge for its own interaction? In order to find out, you have to get a close look and a close listen. Its about opening up think space and to develop new sensitivities.

[SNDNG STTNS] – sounding situations staged a performative version of the Echolot project. It was invited by the library of Völs am Schlern/Fié allo Sciliar for its 25th birthday year. It was an outdoor performance and featured and transformed audience book reading into music/soundscape, prospecting into the books as meaning but also sound carrier.

GOLDEN DREAM is an investigation on the concept of limitation. This performance brings to the conscious level the physical and mental limitations that cross us, due to external or internal restrictions, including the social and moral structures and rules that we have incorporated. As the Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han states, the limit in Western society, is often the normative and psychological outcome of the inability to welcome the Other. In the performance, we explore a state of presence that we can experience in the passage between wakefulness and sleep. We explore it together with the audience in a verbal and no-verbal somatic communication.

Concept, choreography, texts: Barbara Berti
Performers: Kareth Schaffer, Barbara Berti
Composition: Klaus Janek
Light: Thomas Cicognani

Co-production for first studio/research Mibac, Ariella Vidach,
Tanzfabrik Berlin, Tir danza, Flutgraben

jam session with sounding situation

Dorcy Rugamba initiated the session for an exchange of the this year Rwandan con memorial festivity band and the artists-in-residence Milena Kipfmüller and Klaus Janek. The initiative was caught on the fly by the director of the Goethe Institut Kigali, who then hosted the event.

Part 1
public rehearsals of ‘to be in a time of war’, Etel Adnan, will be edited by sounding situations (Milena Kipfmüller, Klaus Janek).
It is a combination of voice, poetry and musik.

Part 2
jam session with the band and Milena Kipfmüller and Klaus Janek.

These artists are also part of it Groovy Band:

Iradukunda (aimable drummer)
Nkomeza Alexis (Keys)
Niyobyiringiri Ellam (electric guitar)
Izerimana gad (bass guitar)
Nikeza Alice (singer)
Karinijabo Ignace (singer)
MBONIMPA Methuselah (saxophone)

Goethe-Institut Kigali

workshop soundrecording – sounding situations

The WS was initiated by the Goethe Institut Kigali, the Institut Francais and RAI Rwandan Arts Initiative. The idea of the workshop resulted from the digiTales across the borders performance, and its need to conserve the aural tradition of story telling into a digital media archive. For this the Goethe Institut Kigali invested in a basic equipment, which allows interested people to use the devices and microphones in order to record told stories, interview storytellers and collect material around the topic. Sounding situations conceived the WS not only technical, but also from a perceptional and physical  standpoint. It was organized in lectures on different topics, exercises of listening, and practical hands-on recording, mixing and mastering classes. The dossier can be downloaded here.

 

 

 

 

 

sounding situations performance and workshop

After the first edition last year about the power of tales in the process of reconciliation, DigiTales Across Borders was back again to address the role of tales, therefore, oral culture for the transmission of knowledge through generations in the Great Lakes Region. Generally, tales are vehicle of identities and culture heritage.

Milena Kipfmüller and Klaus Janek, two Berlin based artists working on sounds/recordings together with storytellers from the Great Lakes Region presented 1 week of work between tradition and modernism of storytelling, along with an hybrid live performance.

The final performance was executed by Augustin Gasake, Gran Pere, Muheto Jean Bosco, Huguette, Lion King, Deo Munyakazi and sounding situations. It took place at Impact Hub Kigali on april 27th. In addition to the performance sounding situations (Milena Kipfmüller/Klaus Janek) lectured about listening and recording at RAI Rwandan Arts Initiative on may 29th and 30th. The performances was funded by Goethe-Institut Kigali, Institut Francais, and supported by RAI Rwandan Arts Initiative.

a radioplay by Maren Kames, Milena Kipfmüller, Klaus Janek for swr – broadcast june 26th swr2

“Nimm meinen Schädel in die Hand je eine Schläfe, und justier meinen Schlaf Richtung Süden, wo die Pole längst schmelzen, an den Kappen schon Schollen und das Land längs meiner weißen Angst heißt Antarktika, heiß wa? – Du hängst mir unter der Kopfhaut zu den Sohlen raus, bis zu den Antipoden, wo zu meinen Füßen fläzt mein Schädel und sonnt sich in seiner geographischen Breite 90° 0‘ 0‘‘ S steck mir ein Senklot südlich ins Hirn, nimm den Kopf in die Hand wie ein bauchiges Glas, schwenk aus, lass tropfen, schenk reines Eis nach, den Schmelz bringen wir schon ins Lot noch mit der Rotation der Achsen. Kalt hier? Lass schlafen.”

90° 0‘ 0‘‘ S – der geografische Südpol, der auf dem Kontinent Antarktika unter dem ewigen Eis liegt, wird zum Ausgangspunkt einer Erkundung. Eine Stimme schlägt Schneisen ins Land. Tiefst möglich beugt sie sich über die Häufchen dessen, was sie auftreiben konnte, und sie sticht darin herum. Und sie spricht sie an: “Guten Tag, ich habe eine Bestellung aufzugeben. Ich soll das Land hier bestellen. Bestellt das Land mit Folgendem. Es geht um eine große Besorgung.” Ihr intimes, fast solipsistisches Sprechen wird flankiert und unterbrochen von anderen Stimmen, Gegenreden, Du-Ansprachen. Die Stimmen und Berichte aus dem Land überlagern sich, verstummen und treten an anderer Stelle wie Echos und Erinnerungen wieder auf. Kopflandschaften und Kontinente schieben sich ineinander. Und vielleicht ist es so: An diesen Schollen ist das Land zusammengenäht. Hier wird es reißen. Die Texte bedienen viele sprachliche Register, entwickeln eine eigene Melodie, eine Partitur voller Humor, ebenso unterhaltsam wie hochliterarisch und poetisch. Mit der Regisseurin Milena Kipfmüller und dem Komponisten Klaus Janek, die seit 2013 auch im Künstler-Duo an der Schnittstelle von Performance, Radio- und Klangkunst arbeiten, übersetzt die Autorin die Textlandschaft in eine Soundlandschaft.

walkable music theater

Upon hearing the word Rwanda, most people probably think of the genocide that began 25 years ago in April. There has been massive economic development since then and the country now presents itself as an “African Tiger”. But Rwanda’s younger generation, like Germany’s, has to grapple with a difficult legacy. Crossing magnificent visions of the future with yearnings for dispersed traditions, Dietrich and Kipfmüller, the Rwandan spoken word artist Eric 1key and the Berlin-based composer Klaus Janek have developed “Rwandan Records” – a record label, sound studio, bar and archive of personal recollections. The project presents a new and unusual perspective on identity in a global context. In Rwanda and Germany, there is a similar interest in pop culture and the keywords used in public debate – identity, migration, community, integration, home, tradition and prosperity – are the same. But in Rwanda, they are associated with completely different visions and thus gain new, expanded meanings. After recording many conversations with many people in Rwanda, Dietrich and Kipfmüller have created a heterogeneous ensemble of voices. This work of walkable musical theatre is at once sound installation and radio play, concert and staged space, whose acoustic architecture is shaped by the audience. The composition moves between different times and worlds, between traditional songs, pop music and electronic sounds. The voices of the ensemble and its stories become a moving live symphony. The audience’s movements are tracked so that at the end visitors can download and take home with them a personal album of the stories that they heard. Only the files that are listened to will be saved. The others will vanish. Individual decisions thus enable collective knowledge to be preserved or actively forgotten. A narrative that transcends genre and culture will emerge on the basis of a combination of different times, visions of the past and the future, as well as breaks in people’s biographies.
Jens Dietrich works in Rwanda regularly. He was last there for the theatre production “Planet Kigali” that premiered in winter 2018 in Kigali and at Hamburg’s Kampnagel
theatre. Milena Kipfmüller won the Blind War Veterans’ Radio Drama Prize for her radio version of the play “Hate Radio” and she and Klaus Janek won the 2018 Music Theatre NOW Award for their production “Musraropera”. In 2007, Klaus Janek composed the techno opera “Afterhours” for one actor, 3 sopranos, 1 alto, 1 bass, 1 rock singer, a choir and a sequencer, which premiered at Berlin’s Berghain club. Janek’s music explores the boundaries between “serious” and popular” music, performance and installation, noise and music, traditional and contemporary and analogue and digital.

Premiere
21 March 2019, as part of the „Find the File“ festival (HKW), 5-8 PM
Additional Performances
22 – 24 March 2019, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, 5-8 PM
ARTISTIC DIRECTION & TEXT: Milena Kipfmüller, Jens Dietrich WITH:
Klaus Janek und Eric 1key SPECIALIST COUNSELLING Assumpta
Mugiraneza STAGE DESIGN Jelka Plate MUSIC & COMPOSITION Klaus
Janek ASSISTANCE Amina Nouns LIGHT AND TECHNICAL DIRECTION
Chris Umney PROGRAMMING Marco Peise PR Yven Augustin PRODUCTION
MANAGEMENT Annett Hardegen
VOICES Wesley Ruzibiza, Natacha Muziramakenga, Assumpta Mugiraneza,
Eric 1key, Chris Schwagga, Hervé Kimenyi, Jean Marie Vianney Mushabizi,
Deo Munyakazi, Yannick Kamenzi, Odette Mukakimenyi, Paul
Ntakirutimana, Evariste Karinganire, Jean Marie Vianney Mushabizi.
A PRODUCTION BY Dietrich/Kipfmüller IN CO-OPERATION WITH Haus
der Kulturen der Welt and the Iriba Centre for Multimedia Heritage Kigali
SPONSORED BY Hauptstadtkulturfonds and the Goethe-Institut Kigali SUPPORTED BY
Phonogramm Archiv Berlin

pic by Roberto Duarte

Nº 12: [Tradition(en): Zerlegt & Zusammen: Gesetz] ensemble ɛkstʁaktə
Concert interspersed with discourse
Friday, 1. Februar 2019, 20 h (Saal 1) Exploratorium

Sandeep Bhagwati (IN/DE/CA) – musical direction | Sören Birke – blues harmonica, duduk | Gene Coleman (US/DE) (Gast) – bass clarinet | Klaus Janek – double bass, live electronics | Ji-eun Kang (KR) – Haegeum | Margret Köll – baroque harp | Deniza Popova (BG/DE) – (bulgarian) chant | Ravi Srinivasan (IN/MY) – hindustani chant, tabla, whistles | Hong Yoo (KR) – deageum, changgu

Do we actually stop to develop our listening? Do we always hear the same thing, even when we listen to foreign music? What is foreign music anyway? In a concert we want to explore these questions sensually and verbally.

To this end, we invited the ensemble ɛkstʁaktə, which embodies a special ensemble concept: “Based on the insight that we live in a post-exotic time, in which musical traditions have spread across all geographical, ethnic and ideological orders in the world, the musical cosmopolitans of the ensemble ɛkstʁaktə ask their familiar and foreign musical traditions about their musical potential”, writes Sandeep Bhagwati. In a conversation we will take him at his word.

Moderation: Reinhard Gagel

Label: NOLAND
Cat: NO5
Release: 03.05.2019

Tracklisting:
1. Open End 2:21
2. Moth2 4:25
3. Render the Form 2:38
4. Extrakt 1 2:16
5. An Amorphous Cloud 6:22
6. Modulation Ring 1 4:12
7. Modulation Ring 2 6:16
8. Sifting Mechanisms 4:01
9. Cultures Are Abstract Machines 3:29
10. Loop.Repetition.Loop 2:18
11. Filter/Noise 5:42
12. Twists and Turns 2:59
13. Impression 1 1:33
14. Layer 4:35
15. Extrakt 2 3:21
16. End Open 3:50

All comprovisations and improvisations: Ensemble Extrakte
Working scores: Sandeep Bhagwati
Remixes, Edits and Reinterpretations: Gebrüder Teichmann

Iterations is a musical experiment, that is playing with artistic processes.
So to say it shows what happens when silent post connects with a dynamic feedback loop:
Ensemble Extrakte an intercultural ensemble gets hooked to pioneering techno and electronic tracks. They are interpreting those music, which is unknown to them on the fly.
But not in a sense of “Beatles go Classic”. Much more than harmonic and rhythmic elements, the intention is to catch the energy and the playful transformation of this sounds, all through the instruments and expression techniques that the ensemble brings from a wide range of musical traditions and cultures.
The electronic Dj & musician duo Gebrüder Teichmann then takes it back into their electronic laboratory,
using machines and computers to discover the next level of resonant responses.
What do we hear ? Who is interpreting whom? Who´s influencing who, what is related to what? What´s played live, what is a sample?

The Miyagi Haikus are a score of seventeen musical haikus — brief melodic and rhythmic snapshots — that Sandeep Bhagwati wrote in one day in 2011 as a reaction to the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactor disaster in Fukushima. At HKW, the open score becomes the contact zone for seventeen musicians of various stylistic origins, who take on the score in public rehearsals and two concerts between composition and improvisation and transfer it to their own music tradition for their own instrument. At the final concert, poetic reactions by Christian Filips, Yang Lian, and Yoko Tawada translate this “comprovisation” back into lyrical form.

A trio from the New York jazz scene, with Peter Evans (trumpets), Dave Taylor (bass trombone), and Felix Del Tredici (bass trombone); the Open Music Quartet from Stuttgart, with Felix Borel (violin), Scott Roller (cello), Jürgen Kruse (piano), and Michael Kiedaisch (percussion); and a trio comprising a traditional musician from Korea, Jieun Kang (haegeum), a vocal artist from the musique actuelle scene of Montréal, Gabriel Dharmoo (vocals), and the Berlin-based bass maven Matthias Bauer (double bass); and the trans-traditional Ensemble Extrakte Berlin, with Wu Wei (sheng, erhu), Cathy Milliken (oboe), Ravi Srinivasan (tabla, percussion), Sören Birke (duduk, blues harmonica), and Klaus Janek (double bass)

Readings by Yoko Tawada, Yang Lian, and Christian Filips

Produced, composed and conducted by Sandeep Bhagwati (composer-researcher and director of matralab)
Phase I jan 10th, public rehearsals at HKW / Phase II jan 11th, concert of the orchestra version, auditorium HKW

Ubiquity

in the major variant of this effect, the sound and movement seems to come from everywhere and from nowhere at the same time. In a minor variant, sound and movement seems to come simultaneously from a singular source and from many sources.

Ingo Reulecke, dance, voice
Klaus Janek, doublebass, electronics

in the scope of the 60_minutes performance series
3 November 2018
20:00
Studio 2/ Mime Centrum Berlin / Mariannenplatz 2, 10997 Berlin

a sounding research archive stories,
sounds and tunes from the famous broadcasting complex of the former GDR-radio station in Nalepastraße

Grotest Maru and sound and radio artists Klaus Janek and Milena Kipfmüller revive radio history in their research “Nalepa lives!”. A central role is played by the old studios in Nalepastrasse. Thematic strands are the acoustical peculiarities of the studios, in particular the unique large broadcasting salon, the radio drama, feature and news production of the sixties to the eighties and also the everyday social life in this around-the-clock complex with a maximum of 5,000 workers.

The “Open Nalepa Studio” provides an insight into the current research stand with images, sketches, audio samples and their processing.
Also invited are contemporary witnesses with their own perspectives on the Nalepastrasse: the acoustic expert and former head of the Laboratory for Acoustic-Musical Boundaries, Gerhard Steinke, the former radio editor and current city guide through the Nalepa complex, Wolfhard Besser, a former sound engineer of the Funkhaus and composer Andre Bartetzki and (Ker) Stine Satke, former radio play spokeswoman and former member of the ensemble of speaker children.

Afterwards pasta and radio plays.

Funded by the Senate Departement of Culture, Berlin, and hosted by KuLe, Berlin

Imagine a nomadic tribe would travel from the future to today’s time to share their lore – the stories, songs and dances that reflect their ways of living together, of practicing labour, care and ritual. Would we look at today’s world with different eyes? Would we be spurred on to sensitize ourselves and experiment with spaces and situations of encounter?

These questions are brought to resonate in Projecting [Space[, an in situ creation by Meg Stuart/Damaged Goods, dramaturge Jeroen Peeters and scenographer Jozef Wouters, made at the invitation of Ruhrtriennale 2017. A motley group of artists, performers and technicians, the company Damaged Goods set up camp in a former mining factory in Dinslaken-Lohberg (DE). There, they build a temporary environment prone to change, adaptation and migration. In real and imaginary spaces they unfold precarious collective practices of meeting and making – with living bodies, with tape and wood, with curated sounds and urban noise.

 

Choreography Meg Stuart
Dramaturgy Jeroen Peeters
Stage design Jozef Wouters
Created with and performed by Jorge de Hoyos, Mor Demer, Márcio Kerber Canabarro, Roberto Martínez, Renan Martins de Oliveira, Sonja Pregrad, Mariana Tengner Barros, Sigal Zouk
Soundscapes and -installations Vincent Malstaf
Double Bass and Live Electronics Klaus Janek
Costume design and props Sofie Durnez
Light Sandra Blatterer
Sound design Richard König

A long table in the room, one seat is free. You are guest, intruder, none of both? And what is the connection from what you see with your self? VANITAS is an intimate play and imaginary tabletalk – a performance about affiliation, identity, becoming and decay in a globalized world for one audience member.

Direction and space: Sebastian Blasius * Sound: Klaus Janek * with: Valentin Stroh, Silvia Westenfelder, Anna Kempin, Michael Sandmann, Eloisa Arreola, Alina Reissmann, Vincent Wodrich, Florin Engels, Miriam Arnold, Nicolay Kaps, Hannah Sampé, Ramon Reinirkens, Lino Jötten * pictures: Therese Schuleit

Funded through the city of Köln and the ministery for family, children, youth, culture and sports of NRW.

Winner of the Favoriten Prize of 2018

Concerto Ambulante is a performance and live-audiowalk in dialogue with its environment. The duo Sounding Situations works without any presets or pre-recorded samples and invites to a collective walk with the audience to discover sounds and sceneries that are captured by open mics, ears and eyes. All the sounds for the piece are recorded along the way and transformed into music instantly. In parallel a descriptive frame creates a context, that makes up scenes by the act of observation in dialogue with the musical composition. The performance is broadcasted directly to the audiences smartphones that perceive a synthesis between the different elements in interaction – including themselves. The headphones are permeable so that the source is able to interfere in what is heard. The technical construction of imagination stays always transparent and invites to interact.
In this way the massive architectural structures and wild nature melt into new and shared paths. The landscape becomes a scenery, cars, bicycles, and passers by the performers. The everyday life with transformed soundtrack turns into a fictive film without a screen but real images. The different layers of transition, music creation, description, interpretation and imagination compose a walkable theatrical sound-track.

During the days of collaborative work and research the CAMP collective creates and discusses artistic ideas combining individual creativity with collective needs. The artistic research method is used for topics to be chosen, discussed, produced and presented as art projects.

the this years festival happend at RMPE Stuttgart and hosted following artists:

Goncalo Cruzinha PT | Fried Dähn DE | Neus Estarellas ES | Emilian Gatsov BG | Vladislav Iliev BG | Pepa Ivanova BG | Klaus Janek DE | Hanna Kölbel DE | Mirian Kolev BG | Desiree Lune DE | Sabrina Ma CA | Alexandra Mahnke DE | Thomas Maos DE | Lora Rounevska | BG | Milan Schell DE | Swen Seyerlen DE | Petko Tanchev BG

and here a little presentation feature..
click here

MUSRAROPERA is a mobile-radiophonic-opera developed in a historically charged quarter of Jerusalem, laying between fancy shops, the Palestinian area of Damuskus Gate and the ultraorthodox Mea Shearim. Musrara is a mirror of the city, Israel and the complexity of the Middle East, inhabited by people of divers cultural, religious and political backgrounds, keeping the explosive coexistence of the past in motion. Said this, the story recurs to the voices of this neighbourhood and their visions of the future – flanked by joyful kids speaking in Arabic, linking the here and there, the past and the coming.

In the post-truth time we strategically place this pre-truth opera as a fictive rehearsal and master training to transform the uncertain present. The unbalance between global north and global south, exported wars and Eurocentric perspective is revolving and will only be decided by our acts routed in a wide discourse around all near neighbourhoods. The voices are used as musical elements, composed and melted into a fictive disharmonic choir. A miniorchestra moves though the streets and is captured live and composed electronically into a big cast. The theatrical set is created by the usage of FM-Transmitters and Radios, everyday objects, aligned to the local and global discourses, framing the space to a movable, choreographed set design. The finale happens at a soccerfield, where games and fights are played, one wish against another, still friendly, still exhausting but playful.

[SNDNG STTNS] Milena Kipfmüller & Klaus Janek is invited by Musrara Mix Festival to develop a new work in Jerusalem. We will be researching and developing a mobile radio opera in the old city quarter of Musrara between 26 of March until 26 of April 2018. Performances at Musrara Mix Festival in end of Mai…

During the month-long residency in the quarter of Musrara [SNDNG STTNS] developed a participatory mobile radio opera based on the voices of the neighbourhood. In a collective dialogue we draw a description of the present and futures to be heard in an acoustic portrait. The piece moves as a radiophonic opera through the city landscape transforming it into its stage. How to deal with a format full of past and tradition like the opera, when present is the moment we have, the time frame and power to make transformation happen? Theatre and performance are a strategy to imagine in a concrete way what we do not know and how (personal and collective) history could be staged. It is the fictive rehearsal and master training of transforming the uncertain present into a wished future world in which we want to construct our broader neighbourhood.

a portrait sketch of slow silence and loud breaks

In this musical performance of the series “Close-Up”, one of the most famous and musical Thikwa artists, Tim Petersen, meets the actress and vocal performer Ruth Geiersberger as well as Klaus Janek, double bassist and composer of experimental electronic music – a well-practised and experimental trio.

In this fast world we are living in, the pieces sets a counterpoint by producing spaces of silence and comfort, but also disonances, when the slowness hits the walls of the noisy outside. A performative sound installation with lots of singing and a humorous search for the essence of an extraordinary person.

The piece premiered march 14th. Following performances were march 15th through 17, and 21st through 24th.

 

 

radio play for Deutschland Radio Kultur / Freispiel
macchina som allstars – Milena Kipfmüller-Lukas Matthaei-Klaus Janek

Und wenn es doch die Idioten sind, die das glückliche Leben retten? Die Gütigen und Einfältigen. Die Eigensinnigen, die sich nicht hetzen lassen. Die fröhlichen Winkelbewohner und die sich hemmungslos Verschwendenden.

And what if the idiots are the ones, who save the happy life? The gracious and the simple-minded. The willful onse, who let not rush themselves. The happy Cornerinhabitants and the the once who wast them selves unrestrained.

A four year long research cumulates in the radio play. The piece infects listeners with the idiotic virus. It happend for the first time on march 12th, 2018

 

the event was livestreamed and can be listened back at https://voicerepublic.com/talks/radiofon-no-3

RADIOFON is a series of encounters in the field of radio works in a wide and open definition. We perform and debate formats and contents with outstanding inter/national artists. Every event is designed according to the wishes and needs of the participants. This 3rd event features Cathy Lane, sound artist, composer & academic, based in London.
Her work uses spoken word, field recordings and archive material to explore aspects of our listening relationship with each other and the multiverse. She is currently focused on how sound relates to the past, our histories, environment and our collective and individual memories from a feminist perspective. She is a Professor of Sound Arts and Director of CRiSAP (Creative Research in Sound Arts Practice), University of the Arts London.
https://cathylane.co.uk/

macchina som allstars is Milena Kipfmülle / Lukas Matthaei / Klaus Janek

 

 

 

the event was livestreamed and can be listened back at https://voicerepublic.com/talks/radiofon-no-2

Radiofon is an encounter in the field of radio works – in a wide and open definition. We will perform and debate formats and contents. Every single event is designed according to the wishes and needs of the participants. This second event invites Marc Matter. More about Marc

funded by inm – initiative neue musik berlin

macchina som allstars is Milena Kipfmülle / Lukas Matthaei / Klaus Janek

 

 

Die Zunge als Musikinstrument: im Mund – oder in Zungeninstrumenten aus vielen Traditionen. “Zunge” ist ein Wort für Sprache: Singen und Sprechen sind Zwillingskinder der Zunge – aber sind sie auch innerlich verwandt? In diesem Projekt macht sich das Ensemble Extrakte zusammen mit Dichtern auf in das Herz der Sprache, um dabei für die Musik neue Klänge und Poetiken zu entdecken.

Ensemble Extrakte feat. Nicholas Isherwood, Gabriel Dharmoo, Sameer Dublay und Gebrüder Teichmann. Leitung: Sandeep Bhagwati

The tongue as music instrument: in the mouth – or in Zungeninstrumenten (tongue-instruments) of many different traditions. “tongue” is an expression for language: singing and speaking are twins of the tongue – but are they internally related? In this project the Ensemble Extrakte togethe with poets researches the heart of language, in order to discorver new soundings and poetics for the music.

Ensemble Extrakte features Nicholas Isherwood, Gabriel Dharmoo, Sameer Dublay, Gebrüder Teichmann and the poets Chris. Directed by Sandeep Bhagwati

 

the event was livestreamed and can be listened back at https://voicerepublic.com/talks/radiofon-no-1

Radiofon is an encounter in the field of radio works – in a wide and open definition. We will perform and debate formats and contents. Every single event is designed according to the wishes and needs of the participants. This first event invites Antje Vowinckel. More about Antje

funded by inm – initiative neue musik berlin

macchina som allstars is Milena Kipfmülle / Lukas Matthaei / Klaus Janek

 

 

Klaus Janek, processed contrabass   William “Biwa” Costa, sine tones, field recordings

The electro-acoustic duo of Klaus Janek and William “Bilwa” Costa search for aesthetics and compositional discourse; approaching sound equally from fine art and musical perspectives, both theoretically and practically.

Working within set structures, they allow space for chance and emergence, using listening and assessment as primary compositional tools. Drawing from a palette of sine tones, contrabass (acoustic and processed), amplified objects, feedback, electronics, and field recordings, their process is seemingly transparent and focused on sonic, visual, and spacial qualities.

They use both actual time and manipulated time perception, by displaying time in sound events and music narration. Through repetition, duration, and abstraction, actual (real) time looses its physical measurability. The duo build and break expectations; leaving room for an audience to perceive, question, understand, and introduce personal, emotional memories and experience.

Excerpts from the album which will be released in autum 2017

A long table in the room, one seat is free. You are guest, intruder, none of both? And what is the connection from what you see with your self? VANITAS is an intimate play and imaginary tabletalk – a performance about affiliation, identity, becoming and decay in a globalized world for one audience member.

Direction and space: Sebastian Blasius * Sound: Klaus Janek * with: Valentin Stroh, Silvia Westenfelder, Anna Kempin, Michael Sandmann, Eloisa Arreola, Alina Reissmann, Vincent Wodrich, Florin Engels, Miriam Arnold, Nicolay Kaps, Hannah Sampé, Ramon Reinirkens, Lino Jötten * pictures: Therese Schuleit

Funded through the city of Köln and the ministery for family, children, youth, culture and sports of NRW.

Winner of the Favoriten Prize of 2018

a sound and space accomplishment

created by/with Ruth Geiersberger, Dietrich Kuhlbrodt, Klaus Janek, Simon Spehr and diverse passerbys

It is a meeting of two intellectuals of very different age, one is 20+ the other 80+.
Both argue and act out of their constructed or lived reality. Kuhlbrodt as a retired german left wing prosecutor, with two grown up kids, the memories of his dead wife,  his comrade Christoph Schlingensief, the times in the Hitlerjugend and much more. He struggles with todays achievements as for example the mobile phone, facebook, and his almost romantic vision of the young people chained to computer and internet. Whereas Simon the young intellectuals reality orientates more versus future and now, and the main questions why Kuhlbrodt referes so much towards past, and why internet and computer seems such a big deal. The setting demands from the two a maximum of honesty and authenticity. They don’t play a role – and in fact they don’t. Their action radius is build by lived experience, intellect and knowledge.

The project is divided into two chapters.
1. the two meet for two weeks in an empty and disused apartment to ask and answer questions, to freely associate, analyze the situation and divide the few furniture and rooms between them selves. The cast involves more active people: Ruth Geiersberger, which moderates and functions as master of ceremonie, inspiring the two by contributing her vision being a 50+ generation member. Klaus Janek 40+, archievs the situation via audio, and follows a structure of 2 min recordings. Additionally he archives auditively the apartment and reproduces the space in the second chapter. Judith Hummel functions as guest carer for the audience and questions and answer through her perspective as 30+ .
The situation offers 4 public days: audience is welcomed to witness the sitation

2.the second chapter is situated in a theatre space at hochX in Munich. The apartment setting is abstractly reproduced on the action space – there is no traditionally stage, but a space which is populated by actors (informed – Kuhlbrodt/Spehr/Geiersberger/Hummel/Janek) and not informed (audience). The archive is organized in the way that the recordings of a specific room in the empty apartment is played back in the part of the space claimed to be the mentioned room. Recordings from the Spehr room played back in the Spehr area of the space. The recordings of the public days in the apartment correspond to the performative days. The 2min recordings dissolve after being played – a form of self erasing archive – and while played display a together experienced situation of NOW. The past NOW is combined to the actual NOW.

An auditive ambience is created by the reproduction of the sound situation in the empty apartment, the atmospheric situation is created by the use of the furniture from the apartment.
The first chapters public opening happend in june for 4 days á 4 hours, the second chapter was a 75 min public situation. “Premiere” of the theatre situation was oct 4th, performances on 5th, 6th and 7th. The project was funded by the Kulturreferat der Stadt München and concieved by Ruth Geiersberger.

podcast

 

TREATISES
on Trans-Traditional Aesthetics
Ensemble Extrakte
Sandeep Bhagwati

Sören Birke – Ravi Srinivasan
Cathy Milliken – Deniza Popova
Wu Wei – Ji-eun Kang
Hoo Yong – Farhan Sabbagh
Gregor Schulenburg – Klaus Janek
Sandeep Bhagwati

Dreyer Gaido catalog number: 21104
“Ensemble Extrakte – this name outlines a musical program. The thirteen treatises in this album are seismographic soundscapes of uncommon encounters. When we brought together the eleven musical polyglots of Ensemble Extrakte in music, they came from widely different musical backgrounds and cultures; some were virtuosos in more than one genre or tradition. To each of us, music meant something else, they made their music for different communities and contexts. But they all lived in Berlin – and our idea was to create a music that would truly reflect this new ensemble, its roots and its global aspirations.” Sandeep Bhagwati

 

listen to excerpts of the CD and buy CD at jpc

sounding sitations (Milena Kipfmüller & Klaus Janek) were invited to the sound art festival paisagem sonora 2017 in Cachoeira, Bahia. Due to weather conditions the route had to be changed and brought to equipment-safe conditions, under a big tend. Here are a few picture impressions of the performance.

https://www.facebook.com/paisagemsonoraemcachoeira/videos/1496438127095811/

between april and may 2017 [SNDNG STTNS] Milena Kipfmüller & Klaus Janek were invited residents at Vila Sul, Goethe Institut in Salvador, Brazil. They got nominated by the Sophiensaele, Berlin to propose a project. The project called CERNa was choosen by the jury of curators of Vila Sul. The residence was supported by the Goethe Institut and Robert Bosch Stiftung. In the two month the two artist focussed on the CERNa project (informations about see on project listings) and also collaborated with the poet and performer Alex Simoes in the piece a Capella de Wally a 3 and presented the new project concerto ambulante at the University of Bahia UFBA and got invited to participate with both projects at the Festival Paisagem Sonora 2017 in Chachoeira.

Frequency fields. Milena Kipfmüller & Klaus Janek will engineer a solid set as composition instrument. At the beginning of the research tehy decide about abilities and aesthetic characteristics of the instrument, which will intrinsically define its sounding and performative qualities. At this stage a guest from Berlin, Lukas Matthaei will work with them.
Then they go through try outs with a smaller audience, installing a performative situation in an indoor space, being a stage, a hall, a smaller room, etc. The feedbacks from the listeners give the possibility to go further through the process, bringing the instrument to an outside, urban environment, where the city and its notches (Kerben) puts the work/composition into friction with a specific shaped and resonating space.
At last Milena Kipfmüller & Klaus Janek will try out the possibility of composing in a mobile way, integrating live recorded and processed sound of outside. Specific spaces and its acoustic qualities function as analog live effects as part of the composition.
They experiment with an instrumentation of double-bass, oboe, recorder, laptop, analog gear, pickups on a variety of objects, voices reading text (recorded or live), radio-transmitters and radios.

We, Milena Kipfmüller and Klaus Janek, met during the development of a performative project where sound and urban space were used as a foil for examination of the German participation in today’s wars. After that, during a year long process, it became a radio piece that we perform live with different local guests, therefore scanning different environments and possible interpretations.
This work leaded us to a profound development of radio and soundwork that deals with aspects of processing of musical material, field recordings and language based sound, that, interconnected, change their original definition and become a net of sounding meanings. By the use of the compositional and performative strategies these are constantly redefined. We work on a collaborative and artistic research about the development of a “performative instrument” under the perspective of its philosophical, conceptual and artistic production processes. We both started studying music and then reached out for different directions, over collaborations in performance (deriving from fine arts and dance/theatre), architecture and photography. This makes the faculty of each owns language specific and leads to an inevitably necessary collaboration as an artist entity, which we would like to develop further and strengthen during the residency period.

the instrument:

We feel the necessity to take a closer look to the activity of composition or the multiple fields a composer has to work on. The actual definition of composing derives from the Latin “componere”which literately means to assemble. But what we commonly mean by composing tends towards creation of music. So the composer is mainly the creator of the music and the executor is the interpreter of the score, or the concept created as score. From this thought we would like to deepen the idea of creating music (instead of composing music) by examining the activity itself, and deconstruct „creation“ into different elements: sound objects, process methods and composition techniques.

From this position we feel the urge to research and develop an instrument in order to process artistic content.
Technically speaking, we experiment with an instrumentation of double-bass, oboe, recorder, laptop, analog gear, pickups on a variety of objects, voices reading text (recorded or live), radio-transmitters and radios. The set has different qualities that can be explored:
a) performance situation, b) live installation, c) mobile act.
We work with different kinds of radio devices and the technique of radio transmission, which enables us to use it as a flexible and portable engine for moving performances. The instrument is mounted on a belly tray and transmits the creation via radio frequencies onto portable radio devices, used with or without headphones.The instrument characteristics consist of three fields: sound source, method of processing, composition technique. In previous works we experienced these fields in a way that we are sure about them as a choice – in that a certain presetting is given. The sound source we are using are acoustic instruments (which we play), ambience (live and or recorded) and word-based voice. The method of processing are analog, digital and performative. The techniques of composition are assembling, overlaying, arranging, manipulating, repeating.
We are planning to work first of all on the set itself with the goal of the set fulfilling our artistic needs in terms of haptic behaviour and immediacy of the realization of an idea. The set should be easy and immediate to handle. As second, the set has to function as a working tool of artistic expression, without influencing or colouring too much the result. It needs to be as neutral as possible taking in consideration, that it is anyway by its means and specific existence a statement in it self. The set in general should not only respond auditively but should include the possibility of being staged on a performative level.

the process:

We plan to work during a period of four weeks, where we engineer a solid set as composition instrument.
The first week we decide about abilities and aesthetic characteristics of the instrument, which will intrinsically define its sounding and performative qualities.
During the second and third week we go through try outs with a smaller audience, installing a performative situation in an indoor space, being a stage, a hall, a smaller room, etc. The feedbacks from the listeners give us the possibility to go further through the process, bringing the instrument to an outside, urban environment, where the city and its notches (Kerben)2 puts our work/composition into friction with a specific shaped and resonating space.
In the fourth and last week we will try out the possibility of composing in a mobile way, integrating live recorded and processed sound of outside. Specific spaces and its acoustic qualities function as analog live effects as part of the composition.

a piece on communication, dealing with the different forms and kinds of understanding or being understood – or not. The main focus of the piece lays on Andre Nittel, an actor in wheel chair and with as many spasms as one can imagine – being almost unable to communicate, at least this is what it seems on the first view.. Communication on different levels are celebrated and misleaded in this piece of humor and hidden darkness: sign language meets bodily communication (gesture, dance), verbal communication finds its dead ends during home episodes and music translates emotion.

With: André Nittel, Louis Edler, Karol Golebiowski, Max Edgar Freitag, Christian Wollert, Martin Clausen, Gal Naor, Gerd Hartmann | gesturecoreografy and translation to signlanguage: Gal Naor | live-music: Klaus Janek | direction: Martina Couturier | co-direction: Gerd Hartmann | idea/concept: Gerd Hartmann / Martina Couturier | stage: Isolde Wittke | costumes:  Heike Braitmayer | light: Katri Kuusimäki | technical direction: Ralf Arndt, Torsten Litschko, Wolfgang Ullrich

supported by  Hauptstadt Kultur Fonds

premiered feb 15th other performances: 16th trough 18th /22nd through25th, main stage  Thikwa Theatre

 

https://vimeo.com/204104775

 

This piece comes from a strong desire to be alone on stage, and physicalize the themes I’ve been researching for the past six years: attention, dreams and imagination.
Raw Light is a tangible, physical, sensational solo journey of the body becoming. It is an elusive attempt to form a constantly shifting experience, and to allow for a flow of flickering images to emerge. It is a proximate presence of a liquid, multilayered, kaleidoscopic body that dances in raw lights between real and imagined, felt and dreamt, courageously pointing to the unseen and unknown. The tongue, the eyes and the limbs reach out for brightness. From the cut of soft tissue of time and space, a persistent trust explodes into being.

jan 26th and 27th, Dock 11, Berlin

Concept, choreography, performance: Anna Nowicka
Music: Klaus Janek
Photo: Katarzyna Szugajew

 

…or this is probably going to be a downer, or in lieu of addressing insurmountable graver circumstances, or best to keep on believing, or giddy-up cowboy, or too old to be new, or some more rituals from the discarded catalogue…the title can change, but nothing is to be taken for granted…that’s another possibility. Each night Frank will be out there on the stage dancing, performing, negotiating. Each night there will be a different musical guest. The situation will shift. The moment will never repeat.

“I wouldn’t call it an improvisation, per se, but there is definitely room for material to evolve, to transform, for an encounter with the moment, with the audience, with the other.”

 

 

 

 

by sounding sitations (Klaus Janek & Milena Kipfmuller)
Miss Hecker, Berlin
Echolot searches for hidden sounding and musical material that is saved in books. Written words that transmit semantic meaning are for us scores for sound and music. Transformed through the voice of the visitors into sound, the short and playful recordings get overlayed, (de)composed, sent, resent and recieved by the listener in musicalized form. An inicially „simple“ sembling recording of one voice transforms into a four-part fugue, into a mix of music and language and then into a rythmic-electronic
musicpiece-radioplay. The listener can constantly rearrange, record and re-influence the live mix together with the performers and suggest new and other spoken or musical accents, a different text passage or speak in other languages. The construction is therfore a living instrument to reaserch the sounding depts of the library. Visually we play with different axis, that shift the perpective leading always back to the listening. The books and the readers overlay, scores and players, as basic elements of the always changing composition.
The project was developed for the library of the Goethe Institut Montreal for the nuit blanche 2016 and presented as stage performance at the matralab of the Guy Concordia University Montreal and in december at Miss Hecker, Berlin

#55 nov 6th: Common Ground, Tanzfabrik, Berlin
#54 oct 14th: Somatische Akademie, Berlin
#53 may 22nd: Uferhallen Studio Dirk Bell, Berlin
#52 jan 29th: Club der polnischen Versager, Berlin

The Tartini Effect is a sonic hologram caused by two or more overlying frequencies, two soundobject create a third predominand one – an artistic inspiration to Miriam and myself for an album.

KJ processed doublebas & Miram Akkermann processed flute.

recorded in 2012, Berlin, mastered by Kassian Troyer

pictures by K.Janek/M.Kipfmüller / artwork by Carlos Santos

produced by Ernesto Rodrgues.

buy at shop for 9€ + shipping

words

Vital Weekly 1009:

KLAUS JANEK & MIRIAM AKKERMANN – THE TARTINI (CD by Creative Sources Recordings)

Over the years I don’t think I reviewed a lot of music by Klaus Janek, who plays
processed double bass. In Vital Weekly 962 there was his release with Claudio
Rocchetti, a tour document of their concerts in the Far East. Here he shows up with
a recording from 2012 where he performs with Miriam Akkerman who plays processed
flute. I never heard her work before. I had no idea what to expect here and when I
heard this I could not have imagined it would sound like this. The release is by
Creative Sources Recordings, which, in my book, means this is all about improvised
music, and surely this is too, but it sounds quite different. I have no what kind
of processing these two musicians apply to their instruments, but effectively they
create loops of the lowest fidelity possible. One hardly recognizes the double bass;
it results mostly into a deep dark rumble. With the flute it is actually not a lot
different. It barely resembles a flute in part one; it does to some extent in part
two. The two pieces, around twenty minutes each, are more creations of ambient
industrial music, creating dense fields of utter vague sounds, and sometimes one
thinks; oh a flute! It sounds like music of early zoviet*france being recorded on
a cassette with dirty recording heads. I must say I very much enjoyed this release.
It didn’t sound like something out of the book of improvisations, but something out
of the archives of a band that recorded hissy cassettes in the early 80s. Obviously
a sound I grew up with. This is one of those releases that shatters all expectations
and that’s something I always enjoy a lot; here it results in something that I very
much like, music wise. This music reminded me of so many things and yet coming out
of an entirely different world. Highly recommended. (FdW)

A live radio show that tests individual resistance in the heart of our rapidly growing controlling society: We are celebrating the proud peculiarity that refuses to conform. We reject the sexually charged nature of efficiency and are hammering out skewed models for the bar at the end of the assimilation. We will eavesdrop on the voices of foreign beauty – in the walk-in studio with various theorists, artists and practitioners of idiocy. Updates here – soon!

 

BY AND WITH Liz Allbey (trumpet, radical objects), Klaus Janek, Milena Kipfmüller, Dagmara Kraus (poets and inventor of languages), Jörg Lukas Matthaei, Lorenz Potthast (inventor of the deceleration helmet) of the  and Morten J Ohlsen on rotating bass drum in a dialog with the ‘as-slow-as-possible’ tone, by J. Cage streamed from the church in Halberstadt.

oct 26th at Kantine Sophiensaele, Berlin

Produced by matthaei & konsorten and SOPHIENSÆLE. media partner: taz. die tageszeitung

 

Example of an existing page converted to columns.
concept/realisation: Sebastian Blasius | dramaturgy: Daniel Franz | media artist: Tobias Rosenberger | sound: KJ

premiered set, 7th in: Ballsaal, Bonn further performed at Muffat Werk, Munich

Chimaira is a dance performance for one audience member. You enter the performance space being welcomed by a white square and liturgical singing. Am I alone? and, the room activity is it created for me or triggered by me? am I subject, object both or none of both? What about a Vienna waltz? or with a slize of Sacher cake without  remorse

supported by: Kunststiftung NRW, Ministerium für Familie, Kinder, Jugend, Kultur und Sport des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Bezirk Oberbayern.

An invitation to do music for a

workshop run by Meg Stuart, Pawel Althamer and Artur Zmijewski for the dance webbers from Impulstanz and an

improvisation between Meg Stuart, Keith Hennessy and KJ

This years Impulstanz was curated by Tino Segal focussing on the collaboration between performing and visual arts. Pawel and Artur are working on the idea of social painting, meaning to invite people to contribute to the painting. In this way in the ws week lots of paintings between all participants were created. Every dining situation, debating or just coffee drinking was used for painting.

Milena Kipfmüller and myself created this music work out of a series of sonic object trouvees generated during the impeachement process of Dilma Roussef. It is the experiment of using very concrete verbal statements as music elements and compose them into a piece of music, expressing a very clear readable political opinion. It goes against the otherwise adopted practice in arts of turning subjective perception into a gerneralized abstracted information.  Different emotional statements are overlayed. The basic layer is a conversation held on the phone between Renan Calheiros by then president of the

brazilian senat and Sergio Machado ex president of Transpetro, a company of Petrobrass (biggist oil company of Brazil) and member of parliament. The two talk about the law, who relief once  guilt infront of the court when giving inside information about crime. They debate the possibility of retracking  the law.

The music ends in the sonic situation of a favela boy declaming the famos poem ‘e agora José’, Carlos Drummond de Andrade. The poem is know by every brazilian. Its part of the cultural legacy. It talks about ‘the poor man’, symbol for the common bazilian man, being in a crisis and continuing, no matter what happen.

 

 

By the way, I want idiots to be the title of the interview. Not morality. But actually… Write idiots as the title! You’ll see that it looks so much better that way.

Lemmy Kilmister, frontman of the band Motörhead (†)

The live radio show continues! Packed with music, sandwiches, and contradicting experts from the academic and artistic fields, about life and all its margins. How boring the smoothness of functioning systems is, how glowing are the promises of idiots! On the path to the big conspiracy in the fall…

One thing is sure: the 8 o’clock news and the tuba version of “Felicità”. Still unknown: the guests and the outcome.

BY AND WITH Klaus Janek, Milena Kipfmüller, Jörg Lukas Matthaei and Carmen Köhler (analog astronaut), Jerome Segal (scientist, researching cybernethics in GDR), Adrian Navarro (baroque dance specialist, choreographer)

With friendly support by Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung. media partner: taz.die tageszeitung

may 19th, 2016, Kantine, Sophiensaele

 

A film by Carlos Bustamante who realized the film exactly 50 years ago. Carlos wanted to rework the film and talked to me about the original music, which he didn’t like so much. Since a long time I had in mind to work on a music piece, I was working on in march 2005, so 12 years ago. and here is the result. The music and the film, both were just left as how they were composed 12 and 50 years ago. No editing and adjusting so far. Please watch and see.

chip gets his dipolma from Carlos Bustamante on Vimeo.

30 April | 20 h | Mime Centrum Berlin

Elma Riza – concept, performance
Klaus Janek – sound

„Playgrounds“ is a series of improvised solos in which the rules of the game are constantly reinvented. It involves body, space and object and the interplay of action and abstraction. The emerging landscapes are created by movements and rewriting of the rules of the game in the present moment. Space evolves and is undone; an imagined topography of the game develops in the process of improvisation – based on composition, the presence of the body and sound.
“(…) You start to compose a landscape within wich an event can take place without necessarily knowing what kind of event it will be. But as you begin to assemble objects you are already discovering something about it´s dimension and qualities. Shaping and reshaping the landscape is an integral part of improvisation (…)””Body, space, image: notes towards improvisation and performance”
Miranda Tufnell, Chris Crickmay
Dance Books, 1993

is an urban project (Stadtraum Projekt) dealing with the subject of bio tech in the southest rhine valley. This region has the biggest agglomeration of bio tech on humans, animals, plants worldwide. The idea is to make the researching and engineering visible to the inhabitants of the region without necessarily getting into pro or cons of the subject. The setting was created in form of a kick off event, 7 public daylong events through out 7 places inside the city of Freiburg and a concluding event. The pieces was produced by the Theater Freiburg and matthaei&konsorten ( Lukas Matthaei, direction / Daniel Hengst, new media / Doris Dziersk, scenography / KJ, music, sounddesign) The piece happend between april 15th and 23rd.

KJ realized a classical audio communication process of analyzing different parameters and event in order to get as a result a sound DNA, which whom a sound design production could work. The DNA resulted in a soundlogo, audio and video clips, jingles, podcasts, a soundinstallation surrounding the public event installation and a hymn, which was sung before and during every of the 9 events. The sound identity of superkörper was combined to the soundidentity of the city of Freiburg as well as the soundidentity of the specific districts of the city.

Soundobject#1

Soundobject#2

Soundobject#3

Soundobject#4

hymn – this version is the learning sing-along-file for the cast

Score of the superkörper hymn
sk_hymnus_6.pdf

superkörper podcast#1

matraresidencies
ECHOLOT
Residency Project by
K. Janek & M. Kipfmüller

ECHOLOT is a performance installation by Milena Kipfmüller and Klaus Janek which will be presented at the Goethe Institut, Montréal for Nuit Blanche on February 27, 2016.

On March 2, they will present a lecture performance at matralab that investigates ECHOLOT on a deeper level. The questions that they will work on during the lecture performance are:

Do words function as music objects and information carrier for purely music composition?

Does the semantic understanding deviate the audience from the music meaning?

They will try out different possibilities of creating text material as music objects in english and german.

The transformation from the first pure reading of the text, via the overlaying of different loops, adding sounds and recomposing the donated material as musical source is the transformation process that we will follow in the installation. In the lecture they want to analyze in a collective process the mechanism of semantic and musical reception, changing between different understandable and non-understandable languages as well as a abstract sounds source. What kind of meaning is being lost and which kind of understanding is created?

by sounding sitations (Klaus Janek & Milena Kipfmuller)
Goethe Institut Montreal
Echolot searches for hidden sounding and musical material that is saved in books. Written words that transmit semantic meaning are for us scores for sound and music. Transformed through the voice of the visitors into sound, the short and playful recordings get overlayed, (de)composed, sent, resent and recieved by the listener in musicalized form. An inicially „simple“ sembling recording of one voice transforms into a four-part fugue, into a mix of music and language and then into a rythmic-electronic
musicpiece-radioplay. The listener can constantly rearrange, record and re-influence the live mix together with the performers and suggest new and other spoken or musical accents, a different text passage or speak in other languages. The construction is therfore a living instrument to reaserch the sounding depts of the library. Visually we play with different axis, that shift the perpective leading always back to the listening. The books and the readers overlay, scores and players, as basic elements of the always changing composition.
The project was developed for the library of the Goethe Institut Montreal for the nuit blanche 2016 and presented as stage performance at the matralab of the Guy Concordia University Montreal and in december at Miss Hecker, Berlin

 

Ensemble Extrakte ( 13th Dec 2015 ) #3- Vogel from matralab on Vimeo.

Ensemble Extrakte ( 13th Dec 2015 ) #5- Hark from matralab on Vimeo.

Ensemble Extrakte ( 13th Dec 2015 ) #6- Poetischer Dialog III from matralab on Vimeo.

Ensemble Extrakte ( 13th Dec 2015 ) #7- Rives from matralab on Vimeo.

Ensemble Extrakte ( 13th Dec 2015 ) #9- Dronen from matralab on Vimeo.

#51 sept 12th: Gruppe Dekadenz, Bressanone, Italy
#50 aug 4th: improxchange, Berlin
#49 may 31st: Miss Hecker
#48 april 18th: impro.per.arts, Mime Centrum, Berlin
#47 march 9th: Kunsthaus, Meran, Italy
#46 march 8th: Bodennah/Walthersaal, Klausen, Italy
#45 march 7th: Galerie am Dorfplatz, Völs, Italy
#44 march 1st: 18:00, Echo Bücher, Grüntaler Straße 9, Berlin
#43 jan 10th: IMPROV AT GS Movement/Sound/Vision, Gemeindesaal, Berlin

This is not carnival, it’s a spring procession! It’s a celebration of pertinacity and a eulogy to self-abandonment. On the right-hand side is efficiency, on the left-hand side progress – in between are the colorful hordes of idiots.  This time the live radio show is directing its antennas towards autonomy and resistance in digital, as well as, sounds of stupidity. Of course, all with simultaneous interpretation and various theoreticians, artists and practitioners of idiocy.

From and with Naima Ferré, Daniel Hengst, Klaus Janek, Milena Kipfmüller, Benno Lehmann, Jörg Lukas Matthaei, Peter Pankow and guests

nov 11th, Kantine, Sophiensaele, Berlin

Friendly supported by Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung.

Foto © Ars Electronica