Phil Minton [voice]
Thomas Lehn [analog-synthesizer]
Ute Wassermann [voice]
With his project speak easy, percussionist Martin Blume embarks on a vocal extreme tour. Phil Minton's sonorous voice is capable of producing disturbing sound collages, whereas Ute Wassermann's polyphonic technique makes the room resonate with harmonics. Coupled with Blume's finely nuanced percussive work and Thomas Lehn's extraordinary analogue synthesizer sounds, a physical immediacy of rare intensity is achieved.
speak easy is an organism rather than an ensemble, grown out of high musical competence and full of creative energy.
On short notice there was a change in instrumentation. Speak easy performed as a trio.
Michael Vatcher [drums]
Joe Fonda [bass and voice]
Xu Fengxia [sanxian, voice]
Song material from old China is the basis for these bizarre happenings crossing continental cultural boundaries. Xu Fengxia from Shanghai is a classically trained player of traditional Chinese instruments like the guzheng or the sanxian, rarely to be heard in these parts, a small, snakeskin-coated guitar.
Along with New York bassist Joe Fonda, whose roots are in the jazz of the 70's, she introduces strange perspectives on musical traditions.
A resident of Amsterdam, Californian Michael Vatcher acts as a clear-cut counterpart in this trio, constantly initiating new facets with his driving drumming.
Jacques Demierre [piano]
Dorothea Schürch [voice and singing saw]
Urs Leimgruber [saxophone]
Charlotte Hug [viola]
Anne Gillot [clarinet, flutes]
Thomas Lehn [analog synthesizer]
The music of SIX is based on free improvisation, on string and wind instruments, voices and electroacoustic sounds as well as on the energetic, acoustic and architectural properties of a given concert setting.
Their approach grows deliberately and uniquely out of the performance space, using and revealing its acoustic potential. Mutually affecting each other, music, sounds, noises and silence evolve through its dynamics.
The boundaries between instruments, techniques and disciplines are dissolved. This crossing of lines changes the listeners' perception, turning them into - knowing or unknowing - co-authors of an incomparable musical experience.
"The natural context provides a score which the players are unconsciously interpreting in their playing. Not a score that is explicitly articulated in the music and hence of no further interest to the listener as is generally the case in traditional music, but one that coexists inseparably with the music, standing side by side with it and sustaining it." (Cornelius Cardew).
The performance of SIX is kindly supported by the Swiss Arts Council prohelvetia
and the Fondation Suisa 
.
Philip Zoubek [piano]
Paul Hubweber [trombone]
Using a mercurial exchange of ideas with lots of freedom and virtually unrestrained by conceptual and conventional limitations, Paul Hubweber and Philip Zoubek have dedicated themselves to the traditions of modernism and jazz, evolving their own musical cosmos since 2004.
As a composer, Philip Zoubek works within the context of his own formation Philz with Radek Stawarz (violin) and Matthias Muche (trombone). He is adept at traditional piano playing as well as at preparation techniques for extending the sonic possibilities of his instrument.
Paul Hubweber's trombone has been heard, partly for many years, with the likes of Claus van Bebber, Erhard Hirt, Paul Lytton, John Butcher, Markus Eichenberger and Jürgen Morgenstern. Current ensembles: PaPaJo with Paul Lovens and John Edwards, Schnack with electronics player Ulrich Boettcher and Markus Eichenberger's Domino Orchestra.
Phil Durrant [laptop, software sampler]
Burkhard Beins [percussion, objects, small electrics]
Bertrand Denzler [tenor saxophone]
This is disciplined, focused music, the sound of people really thinking and playing, and close attention is consistently rewarded, Clive Bell in the music magazine The Wire.
This group brings together an English electronics specialist, a Swiss saxophonist and a German percussion player, all very committed in the European contemporary experimental music.
Approaching the computer like an acoustic instrument, with all the precision that this implies, Phil Durrant is part of the Mimeo project. Treating the saxophone like a sound generator with flexible parameters, Bertrand Denzler is a member of Hubbub. Burkhard Beins amplifies selected objects with assorted acoustic resonators and takes part in groups like Perlonex, Polwechsel or Phosphor.
All group members have developed distinctive and personal styles on their instruments and their sounds open up an analogue/digital field in which they can move freely and build asymmetrical forms and structures.
Trio Sowari played its first concert in November 2004 at Centre Culturel André Malraux in Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy. Since then, the group has performed in France, UK, Switzerland, Belgium and Germany, taking part in several Festivals like the LMC Festival (London), Musiques Innovatrices (Saint-Etienne), Free Music (Mulhouse) and NPAI (Parthenay).
The first CD Three Dances was released in May 2005 on Potlatch. The new CD Shortcut will come out in Summer 2008 on Cathnor Recordings.
Merci - We thank the Institut français here in Munich for kindly supporting both events in June!
Pascal Gully & Alexandre Kittel
[Schlagzeug, Objekte, Laptop, Rhythm box, Sequencer, Keyboard]
Free Music Dynamique - der Name passt! Aber auch Free Music Dynamite wäre eine gute Beschreibung der Musik dieser beiden Musiker aus dem französischen Mulhouse: Eine hochenergetische Auseinandersetzung mit perkussiven und elektronischen Klängen.
Parallel zum etablierten Sommer-Festival Jazz à Mulhouse initiierte Alexandre Kittel sein genreübergreifendes Festival Plein les sens mit Musikern und Aktionskünstlern aus Tanz, Theater und Performance.
Pascal Gully´s Schlagzeug kann auf einigen Tonträgern des CD Labels von John Zorn nachgehört werden – der einzigen dort vertretenen französischen Gruppe! Zusammen spielten sie mit so bekannten Künstlern wie Ninh Le Quan, Harald Kimmig, Bertrand Gauguet.
Tom Blancarte [bass]
Peter Evans [trumpet]
Trumpet player Peter Evans and bassist Tom Blancarte, both from New York City, are active in a wide array of musical activities.
Tom Blancarte, originally from Texas, moved to New York after university graduation and plays in numerous young and adventurous improvisation settings all worthwhile still to discover there as well as here.
Peter Evans, from Boston, surprises with the mastering of many specific styles in his different band settings, such as chamber orchestra music, free bebop, imaginary folk or performance art settings. Perry Robinson, Butch Morris, Taylor Ho Bynum or Dave Douglas are just a few of his collaboration partners.
They are on their second European tour in May 2008, where they play numerous festivals. Offene Ohren e.V. can proudly announce their Munich premiere during this time, since Peter and Tom found a free day between the Ring Ring Festival in Belgrade and the renowned Moers Festival for a short musical stopover in our city.
We thank the Consulate General of the United States here in Munich for kindly supporting this event!
Harald Lillmeyer [guitar and electronics]
Goh Lee Kwang [electronic mixer-feedback]
Margarita Holzbauer [cello, viola da gamba]
To start, we initiate a truly intercultural musical meeting: Goh Lee Kwang, a sonic and visual artist from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, will be our guest during his touring of Europe 2008. In his solo performance, he will push frontiers between minimalistic meditation and electronic feedback sounds. Interacting with munich-based improvisators Margarita Holzbauer and Harald Lillmeyer, we will experience intensive dialogues between pure-electronic mixer on the one hand and acoustical instruments like cello or guitar, with or without electronic treatment.
Concerts 2007
Concerts 2006
Concerts 2005
Concerts 2004