The Pre-sale for our Parallel Universe Festival in October is ongoing. All information about the festival can be found here on the site: www.offeneohren.org/festival (only in German).
Parallel Universe is the title of the three-day festival celebrating the 20th anniversary of Offene Ohren e.V., from 18 October to 20 October, at the Munich schwere reiter Hall.
The parallel universe of improvisational music will be showcased through high-caliber concerts.
"Espresso & Mud" explores the interaction of vocal, acoustic, and electronic instruments.
Nina Polaschegg, bass [A]
Bruno Strobl, electronics [A]
Ute Wassermann, voice [D]
"Gonggong 225088" brings together improvisers from Korea, Argentina, and Greece.
Yorgos Dimitriadis, percussion/electronics [Greek]
Han-earl Park, guitar [Korea]
Camila Nebbia, saxophone [Argentina]
"Le 7ème Continent"offers radical musical interpretations of socio-political themes.
Joachim Badenhorst, clarinet [B]
Elisabeth Coudoux, cello [D]
Pascal Niggenkemper, bass [F]
Mona Matbou Riahi, clarinet [Iran]
Artemis Vavatsika, accordion [Griechenland]
Tizia Zimmermann, akkordion [CH]
"- TAMUOO -" is a cross-genre collaboration of local and international improvisers from music and dance.
Wiebke Dobers, dance [D]
Emilio Gordoa, vibraphone [Mexico/D]
Daniela Graca, dance [D]
Georg Janker, bass/electronics [D]
Quindell Orton, Tanz [Australien/D]
Fredi Pröll, drums [A]
Torsten Töpp, electirc guitar [D]
Christofer Varner, trombone [D]
From Japan comes an internationally acclaimed grandmaster of piano improvisation:
Masahiko Satoh, piano [Japan]
"Windows & Mirrors" represent the melodic side of free improvisation:
Sergio Armaroli, vibraphone [I]
Veli Kujala, accordion [Finland]
Giancarlo Schiaffini, trombone[I]
Livia Schweizer, flute [I]
Harri Sjöström, saxophone [Finland]
"King Übü Örchestrü"pays homage to the first generation of European improvisers as an alternative to American free jazz.
Mark Charig, cornet [GB]
Axel Dörner, trumpet [D]
Erhard Hirt, guitar/electronics [D]
Stefan Keune, sopranino saxophone [D]
Paul Lytton, percussion [GB/B]
Phil Minton, voice [GB]
Matthias Muche, trombone [D]
Melvyn Poore, tuba [GB]
Phillipp Wachsmann, violine/electronics [GB]
Alfred Zimmerlin, cello [CH]
This festival is financially supported by additional funding from Musikfonds e.V.
Thanks also to BR-KLASSIK for its financial support; Parallel Universe will be recorded by BR-KLASSIK. The planned broadcast dates are:
BR-KLASSIK Jazztime on October 29, 2024 (10:03 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.)
BR-KLASSIK BR Jazzclub on November 8, 2024 (11:03 p.m. to midnight)
Details and registration: www.offeneohren.org/festival
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Samo Kutin, hurdy-gurdy, objects, resonators [Slovenia]
Pascal Battus, rotating surfaces, objects, cymbal [F]
Photo: © Jernej Babnik Romaniuk
A new duo of unconventional sound artists, celebrated at last year’s Slovenian Sajeta Art&Music Festival 2023, presents us with a fascinating sequence of the unknown unknown – a catalogue of cool sounds, intriguingly combined.
Strange melodies, creaking, fluttering, crunching, groaning, humming, and screaming – all are brought together in a precarious and fragile acoustic tower architecture.
Sometimes the sounds accumulate, sometimes a few layers shift and tremble, and sometimes parts withdraw like in an invisible, purely audible game of Mikado – which, wonderfully, never quite reaches the point where everything collapses.
Samo Kutin is a very active multi-instrumentalist known for his use of unconventional and self-made musical instruments and sound-generating objects. Among the traditional instruments in his repertoire is the Hungarian medieval string instrument hurdy-gurdy, which he frequently plays at experimental and improvisational music events. In the field of free improvisation, he is deeply dedicated to exploring the diverse possibilities of the hurdy-gurdy, achieving extreme acoustic dimensions, from gentle rustling to roaring drone, from soft beats to unbearable whining, through the preparation and amplification of the instrument, using both contact microphones and acoustic resonators.
The sound artist, improviser, and composer Pascal Battus has developed a practice that focuses more on the active listening to sound gestures and the situation they determine rather than on a specific instrument. His sound sources include guitar pickups and rotating surfaces.
He has performed across Europe, as well as in the USA, Canada, Asia, the Middle East, and Australia – both solo and more often with other musicians, such as Jean-Luc Guionnet, Thierry Madiot, Seijiro Murayama, Thomas Lehn, and Martin Tétreault. He also enjoys connecting his sound universe with other art forms such as dance (with Maki Watanabe), visual arts (video with Kamel Maad, light installations with Christophe Cardoen), or sculpture (with Denis Tricot), sound drawings, or as a co-inventor of sound massages (les Massages Sonores).
Location: MUG – Munich Underground at Einstein Kultur
Entrance fee: 15 Euro, members of Offene Ohren e.V. 12 Euro
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Sophie Agnel, piano [F]
Michael Zerang, percussion [USA]
Alexander Frangenheim, bass [D]
Patrick Crossland, trombone [USA]
Photo on the left: © Pablo Assandri | Photo on the right: © PeterGannushkin
This evening brings together two European-American duos (Agnel-Zerang and Crossland-Frangenheim), who, due to their musical convictions, cultural backgrounds, and insatiable curiosity for new sounds and structures, had to come together in their complementary contrasts.
While Sophie Agnel and Alexander Frangenheimhave long left their confining classical past behind in favour of improvisational freedoms, Patrick Crosslandnavigates both the paths of contemporary music and free improvisation.
Michael Zerang, meanwhile, draws from his Assyrian roots as well as from jazz and experimental theatre.
A summit meeting of four heavyweights of free improvisation!
This concert is made possible also by the Federal Culture Prize Applaus, which Offene Ohren e.V. was awarded in autumn 2023.
Location: MUG – Munich Underground at Einstein Kultur
Entrance fee: 15 Euro, members of Offene Ohren e.V. 12 Euro
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Antonio Borghini, double bass [I]
Tobias Delius, tenor saxophone, clarinet [GB]
Christian Marien, drums [D]
Jasper Stadhouders, guitar [NL]
Photo: © Chris Heenan
Music has the power to find in the small what we also seek in the larger: to be free, to take the moment as it is, and to know that only together can we reach that desired other place. Loosely following Ornette Coleman: Beauty is a rare thing.
In the newly formed Christian Marien Quartett, inspired masters of their craft like Tobias Delius, Jasper Stadhouders, and Antonio Borghini take the stage, playing exactly in this spirit.
This is the first ensemble the Berlin-based drummer has launched under his own name. Naturally, it is all about improvisation. And Christian Marien's compositions are primarily there to be reinvented again and again.
„This is a quartet that doesn’t just play together; they breathe together.”
Lynn René Bayley, The Art Music Lounge, 29.1.2024
This concert is made possible also by the Federal Culture Prize Applaus, which Offene Ohren e.V. was awarded in autumn 2023.
Location: MUG – Munich Underground at Einstein Kultur
Entrance fee: 15 Euro, members of Offene Ohren e.V. 12 Euro
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Hanne De Backer, baritone saxophone [B]
Signe Emmeluth, alto saxophone [DK]
Photo: © Geert Vandepoele
An energetic duo is coming to MUG in the first week of December for our penultimate concert of 2024. With fresh energy, the two saxophonists will blow us into the winter break!
Hanne De Backer and Signe Emmeluth have already performed in numerous formations, especially at alternative scene festivals. Signe Emmeluth also impressed in her quartet Amoeba at MUG, both with subtlety and powerful, vibrant free jazz.
As a duo, they skillfully take the audience on a musical rollercoaster ride with surprising and beautiful twists.
Signe Emmeluth and Hanne de Backer met in 2019 in Krakow, where they performed as part of Steve Swell's Tentet. Shortly after, they toured with Paal Nilssen-Love's Large Unit. During this time, they discovered their shared passion for free music and dance. In 2022, they released their first duo album on the Norwegian label Smalltown Supersound. A clip from the recording session is available on Hanne de Backer's YouTube channel.
A small recording of their concert on 6 April 2024 at Skifte Bar, Copenhagen, can be listened to on YouTube.
Location: MUG – Munich Underground at Einstein Kultur
Entrance fee: 15 Euro, members of Offene Ohren e.V. 12 Euro
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Matthias Muche, trombone
Constantin Herzog, bass
Etienne Nillesen, extended snare drum
Photo: © Sophia Hegewald
T.ON - Herzog/Muche/Nillesenplays contemporary music at the intersection of jazz and new music. The goal is to find a simple, abstract language that still has a narrative character; music that ventures beyond well-trodden paths to new sonic adventures and joyfully stretches genre boundaries. At the same time, they expand the contemporary playing techniques of the trombone, snare drum, and double bass.
All three musicians have backgrounds in jazz, contemporary music, and popular music. Combining these styles in compositions and improvisations creates a vast sonic spectrum for their instruments, ranging from intimate simplicity to magnificent soundscapes that encompass various forms of harmony, melody, rhythm, noise, and timbre.
„Stark, wie die drei jedes Mal auf der gleicher Linie sind, bei so vielen Extremen... Gleichermaßen widersetzt sich das Trio jedem Format oder jeder Formel.“ G. T. Briquet - JAZZHALO Belgien (03/2024)
Location: MUG – Munich Underground at Einstein Kultur
Entrance fee: 15 Euro, members of Offene Ohren e.V. 12 Euro
The friends of improvised music of the Offene Ohren e.V. would like to thank the Kulturreferat München for its continuous help allowing to present improvised music in Munich.