Jonas Kocher Solo & daRocha / Horn

Jonas Kocher Solo

Antoine Chessex (*1980) Decadere, 1st performance
Stefan Thut (*1968) eine/r 1-6 (2007)
Christian Kesten (*1966) [untitled (solo for accordion)], 1st performance
Alvin Lucier (*1931): Music for Accordion with Slow Sweep Pure Wave Oscillators (1993)

performed by Jonas Kocher, accordion

Antoine Chessex is a Swiss composer, saxophonist and experimental musician born in 1980 in Vevey (CH). His sonic researches include compositions for ensembles, solo works, transdisciplinary collaborations and sound installations. Chessex´s works are based on the exploration of the physicality of sounds and spaces. His solo works feature dense layers of sustained pitches reacting with the architecture of the space or massive clouds of amplified saxophone resulting in an intense and total immersion in the sound. He presents his works worldwide and has appeared at numerous international venues and festivals in the United States, Japan, China, Russia and all around Europe. Recent compositional works include "DUST" for 3 violins and electronics (commissioned by Pro Helvetia), "Resonant Water" a site specific piece for acoustic ensemble, "Metakatharsis" commissioned by the Phoenix Ensemble in Basel, "CHUTE" for the Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, as well as numerous works of electronic music.
http://www.soundimplant.com/achessex.html

Christian Kesten is a vocalist, performer, composer, sound and intermedia artist. He studied music and interdisciplinary studies at UdK Berlin. He has developed a repertoire of extended vocal techniques, focusing on noise and subtle nuances of sound colors. His work explores the connections between voice and action, music and language, and music and visual arts, and also deals with the interpenetration of sound and space. Kesten has given solo performances as a composer-performer in Europe, the United States, Canada, and Japan, and has collaborated with Emmett Williams, Alison Knowles, Alessandro Bosetti, Lucio Capece, Chris Abrahams, Andrea Ermke, Mark Trayle, Axel Dörner, Makiko Nishikaze, and others. His ensemble compositions have been presented at MUMOK Vienna, Ontological New York, MusiMars Montreal, Théâtre 2.21 Lausanne, Dampfzentrale Berne, Parochialkirche Berlin, and elsewhere. Kesten is a member of the ensemble Maulwerker and artistic director of the series ‘maulwerker performing music’. He is also an interpreter of New Vocal Music and music theatre (with premieres by Demierre, Mello, Nishikaze, ter Schiphorst, and Schnebel, among others). Kesten has held teaching positions and given guest lectures in Europe, Israel, and the United States and serves as co-curator of the Labor Sonor series for experimental music, film and performance art in Berlin.
http://www.christiankesten.de

Composer and cellist born 1968, Stefan Thut  lives in Solothurn (CH). Trained at the Lucerne Conservatory and at Boston University School of Music. Most of his scores are to be rendered by performers; some scores serve as a template in feld recording and sound art. In his compositions he operates with relatively determined open systems. Scores were realised at the Kunstraum Düsseldorf (2007), at Kid Ailack Concert Hall, Tokyo (2007/09) and at the Diapason Gallery, New York (2010) among other locations. As interpreter he has premiered solo-pieces by Jürg Frey, Radu Malfatti, Tim Parkinson, James Saunders, Taku Sugimoto, Taku Unami and Manfred Werder and he has performed with the ensemble incidental music  in Berlin, Brussels, London and Zurich.
http://www.wandelweiser.de/stefan-thut.html

Project supported by Canton of Bern.
Commisssions are supported by Foundation Nicati-de Luze and Foundation SUISA

daRocha / Horn

Maria daRocha: viola
Maria Horn: live electronics

Maria and Maria met on a concert in one of Berlins many impro venues, where they decided to begin working together. In the meeting of their different styles and methods some exiting moments came to exist, on the tipping point between intimate, delicate noise and sustained harsh tones. With a flavor of love and rebellion towards the convenient, sparkled by an elaborating approach, inspired by everyday uniqueness and familiarity.

https://soundcloud.com/mariahorn/provoking-a-disaster