At exploratorium berlin, we are delighted to close this year’s Monat der zeitgenössischen Musik with two compelling highlights: The pianists Kaja Draksler and Eve Risser celebrate their instruments with devotion and curiosity, unleashing their imaginations across two grand pianos. And Fred Frith, a defining figure of free music, unites with master improvisers Lotte Anker and Núria Andorrà in the new trio Frelonia – a congenial ensemble that channels unimagined musical energies.
The performance of Kaja Draksler and Eve Risser is a rare meeting of two of Europe’s most distinctive and adventurous pianists. To Pianos is both a celebration and an exploration of the instrument. Working side by side at two grand pianos, they venture into uncharted sonic terrain –through prepared techniques, inner-piano manipulations, and intense dialogic interplay – constructing a living architecture of resonance, timbre, space, and silence. The result is music of exceptional subtlety and intensity: at once microscopic and expansive, rigorous and playful, deeply human and strangely mechanical. All while retaining their individual voices within a shared, selfless creation.
Kaja Draksler (Slovenia) is a pianist and composer working at the intersection of jazz, contemporary composition, and free improvisation. After studying jazz piano in Groningen and composition in Amsterdam, she became an influential voice in the European improvised music scene. She leads acclaimed ensembles including her Amsterdam-based Octet and the trio Punkt.Vrt.Plastik, and has collaborated widely with artists such as Terrie Ex, Susana Santos Silva, and Szymon Gąsiorek. Deeply influenced by Cecil Taylor, Draksler’s music fuses folk resonance, extended technique, and formal clarity. Eve Risser (France) is a composer, improviser, and pianist whose percussive, poetic approach to the instrument combines free jazz, extended techniques, and performative innovation. A graduate of the conservatoires of Colmar and Strasbourg and a former member of the Orchestre National de Jazz (2008–13), Risser has founded ensembles such as Donkey Monkey, En Corps, and the White/Red Desert Orchestras. Her artistic language draws on nature, body, and dream as much as on resistance, collectivity, and feminist critique.
After their celebrated duo recordings (Edge of the Light with Lotte Anker and Dancing Like Dust with Núria Andorrà), guitarist Fred Frith now brings these musical partnerships together in Frelonia, an electrifying trio of improvisers. Here, three unique voices converge to create volatile textures, sudden convergences, and unrepeatable moments of sound. Expect unpredictable energy, radical empathy, and fierce attention.
Fred Frith (UK/US) is a pioneer of the extended electric guitar and a central figure in experimental music since the late 1960s. From the avant-rock of Henry Cow and Art Bears to collaborations with John Zorn, Susana Santos Silva, and numerous composers and filmmakers, Frith has continuously redefined the guitar’s possibilities. His film scores include Rivers and Tides, The Tango Lesson, and the Oscar-nominated Last Day of Freedom. Lotte Anker (Denmark) is a saxophonist and composer operating at the threshold between free improvisation, experimental jazz, and contemporary music. Her work explores the interplay between form and freedom, sound and silence. She has performed in long-standing projects with Craig Taborn and Gerald Cleaver, Ute Wassermann and Andrea Parkins, and leads ensembles such as What River and Electric Habitat. Her international presence spans Europe, North America, the Middle East, and beyond. Núria Andorrà (Catalonia/Spain) is a percussionist, improviser, and composer who merges classical training with an interdisciplinary, emotionally charged approach to performance. Known for her collaborations with Fred Frith, Joëlle Léandre, Michel Doneda, and numerous choreographers, Andorrà works at the nexus of sound, movement, and image. She teaches percussion and improvisation in Barcelona and creates works that challenge boundaries between music, theater, and physical expression.
19:00: soundwalk with Thomas Gerwin
Final concert »Monat der zeitgenössischen Musik«
The concert is part of the Monat der zeitgenössischen Musik Berlin.
https://www.field-notes.berlin/
