Christian Wolfarth

Christian Wolfarth studied with Billy Brooks at the Swiss Jazz School and later with Pierre Favre at the conservatory Lucerne and composition studies with Siegfried Kutterer in Basel. Since the 1980’s activities in the international improvised music community. Collaborations with John Butcher, Gene Coleman, Bertrand Denzler, John Edwards, Donat Fisch, Christoph Gallio, Malcolm Goldstein, Eugen Gomringer, Charlotte Hug, Jason Kahn, Hans Koch, Tomas Korber, Annette Krebs, Urs Leimgruber, Lè Quan Ninh, London Improvisers Orchestra, Paul Lovens, Werner Lüdi. Albert Mangelsdorff, Michael Moser, Günter Müller, Andrea Neumann, Lucas Niggli, Evan Parker, Irène Schweizer, Martin Siewert, Alexander von Schlippenbach and many others and as a solo artist.
Christian Wolfarth reducing his drumset down to the minimum of two snare drums and some cymbals. Unlike many contemporary drummers, he has never expanded his instrument with electronic devices, nevertheless he explores an aesthetic that could be called „electronic“ in some respects. Reduction plays an important role in Wolfarth’s music as does an almost obsessive love for the detail and an impressive palette of sonic possibilities that the drummer has been developing over the past 15 years of intense solo-playing. He uses a big range of techniques with bows and with his hands and fingers to reach his very own sound qualities and textures.