Duo: Roman Stolyar & Sonja Heller / Trio: Frank Gratkowski – Michael Vorfeld – Richard Scott / Temporary Ensemble
Roman Stolyar (RU) & Sonja Heller (D)
Having met through an improvisation with Marco Eneidi in Vienna 2 years ago, Roman Stolyar and Sonja Heller continue their collaboration in NK. Sonja Heller will produce sounds by drawing with charcoals attached on different body points intertwining with Roman Stolyar’s improvisation on prepared piano, flute, synthesizers and voice.
Roman Stolyar Educated both as jazz pianist and contemporary composer, Siberian improviser Roman Stolyar melts various styles and genres in his playing – from ancient polyphony to modern counterpoints and clusters. One of key figures in Russian improvised music, he has collaborated with many outstanding musicians, including Dominic Duval, William Parker, Vinny Golya, Susan Allen, Weasel Walter, Assif Tsahar, Martin Kuchen, Carl Bergstroem-Nielsen, and many others. His improvisational workshops have garnered him an international reputation, and have led to many invitations to create and implement workshops for organizations and universities around the world, including the University of Michigan, Mannes College, the California Institute of the Arts, Chateu d’Oex Music School in Switzerland, and the Versailles Conservatory. He is an author on the first Russian book on teaching free improvisation – “Modern Improvisation: A Practical Guide for Piano”.
Sonja Heller is a performer, sound and visual artist based in Berlin. Starting early to be trained in ballet, and classical music, she graduated as an actress 2004 in Berlin. From 2007- 2013 she concentrated on Dance Theater, creating also sound pieces for her performances, and working in Latin America, Europe, the Baltic States, Russia and Iceland. In the last years the focus of her performances shifted towards an interdisciplinary approach and especially into involving sound art, leading to productions like the solo “Silence” (2010, ada studio Berlin), collaboration “Architects of Change” (2012, MOMA Moscow) and the duo “The Discipline of Do Easy” (2014 Brotfabrik Berlin).
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GRATKOWSI, VORFELD, SCOTT
Frank Gratkowski – alto saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet
Michael Vorfeld – percussion
Richard Scott – modular synthesizer, electronics
In this new trio project reed player Frank Gratkowski, percussionist Michael Vorfeld and electronic musician Richard Scott explore the overlaps and spaces within their strongly individual approaches to music. Using very different methods of sound production these three musicians create an interwoven world of sound merging between acoustic and electronic music, filigree textures, dense noisy structures and complex sound-webs. This collaboration leads to an intense and powerful live performance and presents an extremely flexible and vivid trio sound full of sudden, surprising changes.
Frank Gratkowski Born in Hamburg, 1963. Started playing the saxophone at 16 and, following a period at the Hamburg Conservatory of music, moved in 1985 to study at the Cologne Conservatory of Music with Heiner Wiberny, graduating in 1990. Since 2008 he lives in Berlin. Further studies with Charlie Mariano, Sal Nistico and Steve Lacy. Frank Gratkowski has been working as a soloist in various international formations (Zeitkratzer, Musikfabrik, WDR Orchestra, WDR Big band, Münchener Kammerorchester, etc.). Since 1990 he has been giving solo performances throughout Europe, Canada and the USA. Frank Gratkowski played on nearly every German and on numerous international New Music and Jazz Festivals including Vancouver, Toronto, Chicago, New York, Seattle, Quebec, Les Mans, Muelhuus, Groeningen, Nickelsdorf, Barcelona, Lithuania, Warsaw, Zagreb, Prague, Bratislava, Sofia, Bucharest, Odessa, Belgrad, Madrid, Barcelona, Göteborg, Huddersfield, London and Roma. Furthermore he has performed with Robert Dick, Phil Wachsmann, Radu Malfatti, Herb Robertson, Marcio Mattos, Eugenio Colombo, Peter Kowald, Ray Anderson, Michael Moore, Ken Vandermark, Greg Osby, Kenny Wheeler, Louis Sclavis, John Betsch, Jane Ira Bloom, Connie and Hannes Bauer, Xu Fengxia, James Newton, Muhal Richard Abrams, John Lindberg, Michael Formaneck, Ernst Reijseger, Fred van Hove, Theo Jörgensmann, Phil Minton, Peter Brötzmann, Mark Dresser, Mark Feldman, Hamid Drake, Michiel Braam, Han Bennink, Zeena Parkins, Mal Waldron, Misha Mengelberg, Beat Furrer a.m.o.
Michael Vorfeld
percussion
Michael Vorfeld, musician and visual artist, based in Berlin, plays percussion and self designed stringed instruments and realises electro-acoustic sound pieces. He works in the field of experimental, improvised music and sound art. Michael Vorfeld realises site-specific installations and performances with light and sound, works with photography and film. Besides his solo activities he is a member of various ensembles and collaborates with artists who work in many different art forms. His list of activities includes numerous concerts, performances and exhibitions in Europe, America, Asia and Australia. Michael Vorfeld participated in the documenta 8, Kassel with the sound performance group ‚Heinrich Mucken’. Among many others he performed in the Palais des Beaux Art, Brussel, in the Tonhalle, Duesseldorf, in the Podewil, Berlin, in the t-u-b-e, gallery for radiophonic art, Munich, at the festival Sonic Protest, Paris, in the Akademie der Kuenste, Berlin, in the Goethe Institut, Hanoi, at Logos Foundation, Ghent, at Experimental Intermedia, New York, in the Center of Contemporary Art, Warsaw,, at the Apollohuis, Eindhoven, at the humanoise congress, Wiesbaden, in the Archa Theatre, Prague, in the Tesla, Berlin, at the Outer Ear Festival, Chicago, at the festival Liquid Architecture, Melbourne and Brisbane, at the festival MaerzMusik, Berlin, at L.A.C.E., Los Angeles, at the festival Bogong Electric, Australia at the festival Rojo Nova, Rio De Janeiro, at the Tsonami Sound Art Festival, Valparaiso, Chile, at the Dark Circuit Festival, New York…
Richard Scott is a composer and free improvising musician working with analogue modular synthesizers and alternative controllers such as his own self-designed WiGi infra red controller developed at STEIM, the Buchla Thunder and Buchla Lightning. He has been composing and performing improvised music for over 25 years, producing, performing and recording with artists such as Evan Parker, Twinkle³, Edward Barton, Clive Bell, Olaf Rupp, Robin Hayward, Richard Barrett, Gustavo Aguilar, David Ross, Bark! and Grutronic. He studied improvisation with John Stevens, saxophone with Elton Dean and Steve Lacy, Action Theater improvisation with Sten Rudstrom and electroacoustic composition with David Berezan and Ricardo Climent. His work has been featured on BBC Radio 3 and 4, International Computer Music Conference, London Jazz Festival, BEAM, Bratislava NEXT Festival of Advanced Music, SARC Sonorities Belfast, Berlin Interaktion Improvised Music Festival and MANTIS Electroacoustic Music Festival, Manchester. He is a long term artistic resident at STEIM in Amsterdam, sometimes a Lecturer in Music at Lancaster University and co-curator of two underground experimental, improvised and electronic concert series in Berlin: AUXXX Berlin and Basic Electricity. In 1993 he was awarded a PhD from London University for his thesis on free improvisation. In 2010 he completed a MusM (distinction) in Electroacoustic Music Composition at NOVARS, Manchester University. He wrote extensively for Wire magazine, was administrator at the LMC (London Musician’s Collective) and has been an active member of the improvising and electroacoustic communities in London, Manchester and Berlin.
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Temporary Ensemble:
Lucie Vítková – accordion
Rebecca Lane – flute
Stella Veloce – violoncello
Evelyn Saylor – piano
Ellen Arkbro – el. guitar
Anton Alfvén – clarinet
Ritwik Banerji – tenor saxophone
Andrew Fedorovitch – alto saxophone
Aziz Lewandowski – violoncello
Perform Christian Wolff:
Changing the System (1973-74)
Peace March 10 (for John Heartfield) (2003)
Die Originalität der Musik von dem amerikanischen Komponisten Christian Wolff geht aus einer Erforschung der sozialen Interaktion zwischen den Spielern und ihre Ansatze durch seine Musik und verschiedene Weisen der Notation. Das Konzert wird Ergebnisse der Komponistin Lucie Vítková in der Zusammenarbeit mit der Gruppe von Berliner Komponisten-Interpreten (aka Temporary Ensemble), mit dessen sie an der Forschung arbeitet, einführen. Bei dem Konzert werden Hauptstücke von Wolff aus seinem politischen Zeitraum gespielt, wie beispielsweise „Changing the System“ und „Peace March 10 (for John Heartfield)“.