MIND LIKE WATER Sophie Hassfurther - Oğuz BüyükberberIt all started at Salon Goldschlag in 2018. Actually it started much earlier, but that concert in June 2018 was where we presented our program for the first time the way it was recorded in the following days and put out on the CD which we will be presenting in two weeks.
I had an inspiring conversation with a friend the other day. A graphic artist herself, she admired how musicians can improvise, create music on the spot. It seemed like magic to her. There are technical aspects of course, music theory to be learned and forgotten, physical boundaries and the limitations of the instrument. But the act of improvising remains magic.
We had been working on the raw material for the previous two years to develop fourteen duo pieces. There is a mix of compositional strategies. Some pieces are fully composed. Some are purely improvised. And some consist of composed and improvised sections. As Christoph Irrgeher of Wiener Zeitung put it:
“A dialogue of airy, often lyrical sound gestures unfolds, carried out on the frontiers between Jazz vocabulary and free tonal expression.”.
The fact that it is hard to tell to which extent the music is improvised / written out is intentional. This open setting of little or no prior agreements demands a lot of musical empathy and trust from the people involved. It won't work with just about anybody. It works very well between Oğuz and me. Henk Jansen of the Dutch Klarinet magazine had flattering words for it:
“Their interplay is strong, intimate and unerring”.
We will be playing a series of concerts in Vienna, Passau (D) and Hallein. Ö1 Jazznacht will be hosting me on Saturday Nov 9th and our concert on the 11th of November will be broadcast on national radio. Woohoo!
For those who will not be around, join the
live stream:
Jazznacht 2019-11-09-23:05 UTC+1
5 Mio Pesos Spezial 2019-11-11-19:30 UTC+1
The streams will be available for seven days after the broadcast, I will post a link once they are uploaded.
For those who can be around: please check the dates we have lined up for November and come to one of our concerts, I'd be happy to see you!
09.11.2019
Passau Café Museum 19:30
Ocouture-Burmeister, Innstadtkellerweg 11
10.11.2019
Hallein Cafe Pan 18:30
11.11.2019
Wien Radiokulturhaus 19:30
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