James Wyness works with instrumental, environmental and electronic sound. Using field and studio recordings, hand-made acoustic and electronic instruments and found objects, he creates compositions, live performances, sound installations, work for fixed media and digital publications.
His work is currently directed towards a rigorous investigation of complexity and the materiality of sound. This includes an examination of the forms and spatial behaviours of sound in various natural and architectural listening environments.
James Wyness runs The Creative Applications of Sound, a monthly series of creative labs which combines indoor studio and listening sessions with field trips. He also collaborates regularly with artists of other disciplines on projects, often research-based, which explore aspects of art as social practice. James Wyness has a small record label, Reekin lum records. Releases for 2013 include three limited edition series cds of field recordings.
He is also involved in traditional music both as an accompanist and educator, working regularly with the new generation of young musicians from 'both sides the Tweed'.
James Wyness has a PhD in electroacoustic composition from the University of Aberdeen where he studied with Pete Stollery.
James Wyness describes his solo performance as freely improvised music for prepared hand-made bowed psaltery, amplified metal objects and recorded sound.
Voutchkova/Thieke duo
The duo has worked intensively since 2011. As a result of this close collaboration it developed a strong interest in exploring micro elements that increase the sensitivity of perception for themselves as well as their audiences, leading to music that focuses on micro tonality and intimate, slow moving soundscapes. The musicians are intrigued by instant composition and improvisation, as well as by contemporary composition, and their search is continuous and ever expanding.
Occasionally the duo performs with guests (among those dancers Ingo Reulecke, Franz Rogowski, and accordionist Luca Venitucci) or works in alternative environments such as complete darkness.
Upcoming concerts will also include compositions by composers Tristan Murail, Peter Ablinger and Antoine Beuger, in addition to the improvised program.
Besides recent concerts in Italy, Austria, Bulgaria, Serbia and Germany, (Reheat Festival (A) and Radialsystem/Berlin) the musicians released the CD "Already there" on the swiss label flexion records in autumn 2013.
Biliana Voutchkova studies classical violin, in her college years starts being involved with the contemporary and improvised music scene in New York. Dedicated improviser/creator/interpreter whose work spans the widest possible range of music, sound and movement, a risk taker approaching contemporary and classical repertoire with the same inspiration and freedom characteristic of her forceful improvisations. Lives in Berlin, involved in interaction with dancers, improvisers, composers and visual artists, among those her colleagues from GRAPESHADE, Frances-Marie Uitti, Matthias Bauer, Audrey Chen, Louise Wagner, Chiyoko Szlavnics, Michael Thieke. Appears at festivals and concert series worldwide, collaborates with Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, Ensemble Modern, the Splitter Orchestra, Insomnio and MozaikEnsembles, Das Neue Ensemble Hannover, Oper Dynamo West and others. Her most recent/current projects include the sound installation-performance "RheingoldResonanzen" and " Milk flow, Q bed, Gralsmaschinen - A site Lohengrin " at Pèlerinages Kunstfest Weimar, a two week research residency and performance at Künstlerhaus Ahrenshoop on the topic of blurriness, "Dark was the night" with Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, "Urbanscapes" choreographic intervention by muvingstudies - Matthaei/Reulecke and the Flexion records release "Already there" of duo CD, collaboration with clarinetist Michael Thieke.
Michael Thieke
Clarinet | composer/performer, *1971 in Düsseldorf/D , lives in Berlin and Rome, Michael Thieke is currently involved in a number of projects which focus on diverse and contrasting facets of his musical interest. They reach from song based bands, outer jazz areas, totally composed material to projects with the concentration on the silent noises and sounds.
Some of his current Projects are: Michael Thieke Unununium (with Luca Venitucci acc/p, Eric Schaefer dr, Derek Shirley b, CD on charhizma), The International Nothing (with Kai Fagaschinski cl, CD on ftarri), The Magic I.D. (with Christof Kurzmann, Kai Fagaschinski, Margareth Kammerer, CD on ErstPop), Hotelgäste (with Derek Shirley b, Dave Bennett g, CD on schraum), Nickendes Perlgras (with Michael Anderson tp, Eric Schaefer dr, CD on JHM and Konnex), TGW (with Christian Weber b, Michael Griener dr, CD on ayler records), Spirit Songs (with Mike Cooper voc/g, Elio Martusciello el, Fabrizio Spera dr, Luca Venitucci acc/el.), Roman Tics (with Burkhard Beins, Luca Venitucci, CD on Cathnor). He played on festivals such as Donaueschinger Musiktage (Donaueschingen/D 2007), Jazz a Mulhouse (Mulhouse/F 2007), Standard:Abweichung (Marburg/D 2007), Risonanze (Venezia/I 2007), Ahornfelder Festival (Leipzig/D 2007), Stuttgarter Jazztage (Stuttgart/D 2007), Music Unlimited (Wels/A 2006), ZJFT (Groningen/NL 2006), Contemporaneamente (Lodi/I 2006), Festival de la Cité (Lausanne/CH 2005), Jazz em Agosto (Lisbon/P 2005), International Jazz Festival Münster (Münster/D 2005), Jazz Focus (Berlin/D 2003), Festival Brugge (Brugge/B 2002), Kryptonale (Berlin/D 2002), Konstanzer Jazzherbst (Konstanz/D 2002), Wintersongs (Cologne/D 2001), In Planten und Blomen (Hamburg/D 2000).
