SoundScapes Berlin #4 – International Festival for Contemporary Improvised Music

Since 2013 the concert series SoundScapes has been taking place with several concerts per year at  different venues in Berlin. Harri Sjöström, initiator and artistic director of the concert and festival series SoundScapes, has initiated numerous musical projects in the field of contemporary improvised music during his 40 years in Berlin and has collaborated with many outstanding and world-renowned avant-garde musicians. His aim was and is to provide a platform for the exchange of international Instant Composing musicians of different generations and to raise awareness of this art form.

The SoundScapes #4 festival presents 19 renowned international musicians of contemporary improvised music on two concert evenings. The musicians will play in a wide variety of formations, up to a maximum of tutti, with the line-up changing about every 15 minutes.

Celebrated pioneers and legendary innovators of instant composing come together with virtuoso musicians and composers of the younger generations from the international avant-garde music scene in intense musical encounters. Examples of this are the Present-Time-Composition pioneers Philipp Wachsmann and Giancarlo Schiaffini as well as – for the middle and younger generations – John Edwards, Veli Kujala, Elisabeth Harnik and Liz Allbee.

Instant Composing exclusively uses free improvisation. The musicians see themselves as composers-performers and use an extensive, continuously expanding spectrum of sounds, noises and contemporary playing techniques, as well as sometimes individually extended or prepared instruments. Instant composing processes are always unpredictable and offer diverse possibilities for new experiences of listening and perception. They demand the highest musicality and the unconditional willingness to create and celebrate an orchestral ensemble sound.


Tuesday, October 31 + Wednesday, November 1
Kuppelhalle
Doors: 6.30 pm / Start: 7 pm
Tickets

 

SoundScapes Festival #4 is supported by Musikfonds and the Commissioner of the Federal Government for Culture and Media.