BERGISCHE SONGS; BERGISCHE PLACES

Classical, experimental and jazz influenced adaptations of Bergische songs
A 3 year series of concerts in Bergischen Land

Sebastian Gramss (double bass), Jochen Bauer (vocals), Ute Völker (accordion)

Part of dealing with folk songs in a traditional way was that people played and sang them in the way they liked best.
They interpreted them in their own style, and in this way made them their own. Though this principle, lyrics, melodies and songs developed into regional music.
This how to understand the phrase Bergische songs: It does not only refer to music composed and written in this area, but more to all the songs played and played with by the people of this region.
This tradition will be brought back to life with a 3 year series of concerts throughout Bergische Land.

The opening theme is love and family, next year it will be work, and finally nature and hiking songs.
The selected venues are conciously not conventional performance spaces. They are the everyday places where living takes place and they have a relationship to each years theme.

Through the field of tension – the clear demarcation of Bergische Land as the musical source and performance venue on the one hand, and the extension through the cosmopolitan and genre-broadening experience of the musicians, which flows into the songs’ arrangement on the other hand – the possibility of a new way of addressing the regional identity emerges.

WONNE OHNE ENDE

A Video Music theatre from texts by Henri Michaux

with Caroline Keufen (performance)
and Ute Völker (Accordion)
Director Wasiliki Noulesa (Video stage image & direction)

Recreation often has a purpose, usually that of rebuilding the energy for everyday work.
Laziness, on the other hand, is sufficient unto itself.
But who knows how to give themselves to laziness, in these days of free-time stress?
The dallier is far from the present, far from history, far from desires, plans, love and hate - he rewards himself with absolute being.
He opens the window into some of our eternities, the most secret, the most gruesome and also the most laughable.

This video/music theatre piece "wonne ohne ende" is a declaration of love for ease, for transience and for the joy of simply being.

A multimedia adventure about the art of doing nothing.

The soul goes swimming, it lives through highs and lows, moments, sounds, the river of time.

With the humourously meditative texts by the poet Henri Michaux performer Caroline Keufen launches herself on a journey of discovery of the soul. She opens a window to some of our eternities, , the most secret, the most gruesome and also the most laughable.
Through Ute Völker's accordion playing space and time vanish, and director Wasiliki Noulesa's large, colourful video projections put the audience into waking, dreamlike state.




OHNEZEIT

Ike Vogt, Harald Hilscher, Andreas Steffens, Holger Kofler, Ute Völker

ohneZeit is the examination of the themes space, time and perspective by three artists from the field of visual arts (Ike Vogt), sound art (Harald Hiltscher) and music (Ute Völker). Over a long period of time an everyday object - the Alte Markt in Barmen - was watched.
On sound tables the collected impressions, experiences, the play of change between object and subject are transposed through incorporations of images, sound and music and assembled into a unity. The work is complemented by philosophical observations from Dr. Andreas Steffens, which are an integral element of the installation.
In order to make the work accessible outside of the exhibition space, designer Holger Kofler created the website www.ohnezeit.de. On this site further development of the project can be seen.




MUSIC AND READINGS

Music and reading together with the Wuppertal Author Christiane Gibiec
www.cgibiec-autorin-journalistin.de
"Fünf Monde" (Five Moons) - Emons-Verlag, Köln 2006 - A thrilling, poetic, family saga set in the baroque period against the background of the witch hunts.
"Die Reise nach Helsinki" (The Journey to Helsinki) - Emons-Verlag, Köln, 2004 - An historical detective novel set in 1912, leading from Elberfeld, Wuppertal, to the Finnish capital and the mysterious land of seeds.




FESTIVALS OF IMPROVISED MUSIC

2005
Nuit d'hiver (Marseille/France)
FFIM (Dresden)
Musica genera (Stetin/Poland)
Courant d'art (Bourg en Bresse/France)

2004
Densité (Verdun/France)
WIM (Antwerpen/Belgien)
Pannonica (Nantes/France)
Musique Sonor Quotidiene (Albi/France)
Hurta Cordel (Madrid/Spain)

2003
Momente (Hanover)
Jazz Festival Bremen (Bremen)
Hurta Cordel (Madrid/Spain)

2002
Fruits de Mhere (Mhere/France)
Sound et Soni (Elba/Italy)

2001
Densité (Verdun/France)
Real Time Festival (Hamburg)

2000
Humanoise (Wiesbaden)

1999
Nozart-Festival (Cologne)

1996
Festival de l'eau (Niger/France)




THEATRE / PERFORMANCE /SOUND INSTALLATIONS

2005
Realisation of the musical narrative "Werkstatt der Schmetterlinge" (Workshop of the Butterflies) from a text by Giaconda Belli for accordion orchestra, Narrator (Olaf Reitz), Tuba (Carl Ludwig Hübsch) and violin (Gunda Gottschalk). Composition Thomas Beimel. Performances in Bochum und Wuppertal

Video-Music-Theatre "Wonne ohne Ende" with Caroline Keufen (performance) und Wasiliki Noulesa (Video), Ute Völker (Music)

2002
Paticipation as musician in the production "Le voix perdu" by Karlheinz Essl - Staatstheater Stuttgart
Music theatre production "Aquaculi - Musik geht baden" (Music Goes Bathing) with Partita Radicale, Regie Cornelie Müller, performances in Wuppertal, Münster und Köln

2001/2002
Realisation of the space, light and sound composition "Faltenbalg" (Folding Bellows) for 70 Accordionists by Thomas Beimel (composition) and CROSSOVERMEDIA (lighting design). Performances in various cities in North Rhein Westphalia

2000
Theatre production "krimi" (Detective Novel) with the Theatre ensemble "German Stage Service" (Marburg) and Partita Radicale - Performances in Marburg, Wuppertal, Mülheim, Bochum and Düsseldorf

1999
Production of the listening piece "entweder oder" (Either Or) with Steff Flächsenhaar (sound and light design) - performances in Marburg, Essen und Wuppertal

1998
Engagement at Westfälischen Landestheater Castrop-Rauxel for the production "Andorra" - roll of "Jemand" and Bühnenmusik Theatre production "Klavier am Hosenträger" (A Piano on Your Braces) with Sigrid Giese (Schauspiel-Marbuger Theaterwerkstatt) and Cornelie Müller (Director - München pauLine Produktion) performances (among others) in Marburg, München, Stuttgart and Wuppertal

1997
Collaboration with the director Cornelie Müller (Munich): Collaborative conception and creation of the score for "Vierte.Geraune" (Fourth. Murmer) a performance for 15 Accordionists in the framework of "Lauter! Stille Stücke - Ein Spektakel überKlang & Stille in fünf Sätzen" (Louder! Quiet Pieces About Sound and Silence in Five Sentences) by Corenelie Müller

1994
Theater Company Dominique Chevaucher (Paris) Stage music for the piece "Le carnet noir"




READINGS WITH MUSIC

2005
Kai Meister (recitation) "Lilli, Flosse und der Seeteufel" (by Corneliea Funke / childrens book)

2004/2005
Christiane Gibiec (recitation) "Die Reise nach Helsinki" ("The Journey to Helsinki", by Ch. Gibiec / historical detective novel)