Altro bell'omaggio l'exploratorium di Berlino l'aveva offerto un paio di settimane fa al compianto Hans Reichel (1949-2011), dedicandogli gran parte del programma di concerti, conferenze e attività di networking da remoto Improfest Berlin- Radical Luthiery, Teleperformance, and the Legacy of Hans Reichel, ideato in collaborazione con il Brazilian Improfest - Festival Internacional de Improvisação e Arte Sonora curato da Paulo Hartmann. Trasmesso in live streaming lo scorso 6 settembre, lo si ritrova ora conservato in due parti su YT.

The Berlin edition of Improfest is dedicated to the intersections of experimental music, improvisation, and innovative instrument building. It serves as a transatlantic platform for artistic innovation, bringing together Brazil’s creative Gambiarra culture and Berlin’s Echtzeitmusik scene. At its core lies the legacy of guitarist and instrument builder Hans Reichel, whose work understood the instrument not merely as a tool for sound production, but as an extension of body, perception, and imagination. This perspective is reflected in three afternoon showcases by Paulo Hartmann, sound artist and composer-performer Annette Krebs, and daxophone expert Kriton Beyer, as well as in a panel discussion, followed by two duo performances and a quartet performance, also featuring Emilio Gordoa on vibraphone. The program additionally explores the potential of network technologies as a medium for contemporary improvisation. If Hans Reichel’s legacy lives on in the wood and wire of hand-built instruments, Ethernet Orchestra carries the same spirit of invention into the digital realm through tele-improvised music. Founded by trumpeter, composer, and improviser Roger Mills, the ensemble emerged from a research project connecting geographically distributed musicians and sound artists across cultures. The Berlin performance features stick player and Soundjack software inventor Alexander Carôt, joined on stage by Ethernet Orchestra bassist Paulo Hartmann and Luam Clarindo, performing on his extended cuíca, a hand-built instrument based on the legendary Brazilian voice of Samba School carnival parades. Further members of the networked ensemble are Magdalena Chudy, Fábio Furlanete, Wesley Ribeiro, Chris Vine, and Joy Yang.

https://exploratorium-berlin.de/improfest-berlin

Il compleanno dei settantacinque è stato già celebrato quest'anno a febbraio, ma per il benamato Jon Rose la festa continua: quattro giorni a partire da oggi tutti dedicati a lui - e alla sua famiglia allargata di strumenti reali, fittizi, super-intelligenti e immaginari nota come Rosenberg Museum - fitti fitti di iniziative, proiezioni, conferenze e concerti. In presenza a Berlino, presso l'impareggiabile exploratorium, e anche in live streaming: A String is a String is a String...

A String is a String is a String is a four-evening festival dedicated to the family of string instruments in the context of contemporary improvisation. Conceived to celebrate the 75th birthday of Australian violinist, composer, instrument inventor, author, and sound artist Jon Rose, the festival brings together close artistic collaborators and musicians from Berlin and beyond whose work resonates with his singular artistic vision. For more than five decades, Rose has redefined the possibilities of bowed and string instruments through improvisation, composition, instrument building, performance, and research. Rather than looking back on a remarkable career, the festival explores his ideas as a living artistic practice – through performances, encounters, films, and conversation.

After leaving formal musical training at the age of fifteen, Jon Rose developed an independent artistic practice that has ranged from free improvisation and contemporary composition to sound installations, radio art, environmental projects, and experimental instrument building. A central figure in Australian free improvisation before moving to Berlin in 1986, Rose developed his long-term project The Relative Violin, creating more than thirty new instruments, exploring extended performance formats, interactive electronics, and alternative histories of the violin. His work has consistently challenged conventional ideas of the instrument and opened new perspectives on what string instruments can be and do. Since 2001, Rose has increasingly worked in the Australian outback on large-scale environmental projects such as The Great Fences of Australia and collaborations with Indigenous communities, including The Wild Violins of Warmun and the ongoing Singing Telegraph project. He is the author of four books, founder of the Rosenberg Museum – a unique collection of more than 1000 violin-related artefacts – and recipient of Australia’s Don Banks Music Award for lifetime achievement. In 2025, he and his wife, violinist and composer Hollis Taylor, received the Richard Gill Award for Distinguished Services to Australian Music.

exploratorium berlin
Zossener Straße 24
10961 Berlin (Kreuzberg)

https://exploratorium-berlin.de/a-string-is-a-string-is-a-string-day1
https://exploratorium-berlin.de/a-string-is-a-string-is-a-string-day2
https://exploratorium-berlin.de/a-string-is-a-string-is-a-string-day3
https://exploratorium-berlin.de/a-string-is-a-string-is-a-string-day4

Naturalmente la canzone-manifesto dell'intero album di Fuzz Kitchen è Song of Canterbury, proposta in due riprese, alla cui riuscita danno man forte tra gli altri Richard Sinclair, Brian Hopper e le plausibilissime Kitchenettes. E non di poco rilievo è il testo, pieno zeppo di nomi, cognomi, dediche e riferimenti espliciti - ma anche impliciti, come quello a What's Rattlin' - guidato dalla finta ingenuità del soggetto parlante: "Canterbury... A mystical musical scene, where some on the scene are from elsewhere and some of the guys who are there say that there’s never been a scene, but the feeling in the songs and the music is so strong, I thought there must be a scene. So to verify this image, I made my own pilgrimage..."

https://fuzzkitchen.bandcamp.com/fuzz-kitchen