Bands and artists at the
Avantgarde Festival Schiphorst 2006

Charles Hayward / Shape Moreton

Charles Haywards probably is the best British Rock drummer. He was a founding member and leader of This Heat and Camberwell Now. He plays besides Bill Laswell and Fred Frith in the trio Massacre. His dicography is endless. Last year he performed solo in Schiphorst - for many itwas one of the truly unforgettable concerts . This year he is going to present his new band project Shape Moreton which he describes to be in its experimental early stages. The line-up with Chris Cornetto, Nick Doyne-Ditmas, Ashleigh Marsh and Rob Mills promises high class Rock music with elements of Jazz, Electronic and free flowing Ambiance music. One of the events where nobody quite knows what will happen but you may regret not having been there.

www.squidco.com/rer/Hayward.Charles.html

The Legendary Pink Dots

For   26 years the band has been oscillating in various formations around   Edward Ka-Spel. It has been moving from Pop to Avant-garde to Psychedelic Rock and other "waves" since the Eighties. The fama says that a really good offer by a record company got lost in the post and thus the band was saved for the "underground". Fans love their integrity and credibilty and for many the music of the Dots is the soundtrack of their life, essential part of the good and bad days. For a band that has toured the world a concert in Schiphorst is something special - and so they promise an equally special performance.

www.brainwashed.com/lpd

Asmus Tietchens

Asmus Tietchens from Hamburg is seen as one of the most influential German composers following   Karlheinz Stockhausen which he modestly denies... He started as an amateur musician in the mid-Sixties experimenting with guitar sounds and Revox taperecorders. Later he turned "electronic" and became a specialist in the alienation of field recordings. Some aspects of his work are   forerunners of modern popmusic and its use of loops and samples, and as such they are a   good example of the influence of avant-garde on what later came to be   Pop Music for the masses. Tietchens' live performances resemble lectures underlined with sound samples and demand power of concentration from the audience.

www.tietjens.de

Z'EV

Z'EV is the artist's name of the Californian Stefan Joel Weisser, currently living in London, and one of the most exciting drummers in the world. His education in ethnomusicology already in the late Sixties and early Seventies lays the fundament of his combination of African, Indian an Indonesian drum art with abstract meters and the art of building rooms with drum strokes. A room becomes a stage, a wall a painting, and this by the mere power of drums. Z'EV is one of the founders of Industrial Music and Industrial Arts as a whole. His artistic works cover a multitude of recordings on LP and CD, performances and room installations, choreographies and academic teaching at many international schools and museums.

www.rhythmajik.com

Faust

Surviving prehistoric rocks of the Seventies'   Krautrock scene. Until now of great influence on Neo-Classic and all styles of New Music as well as on sophisticated Industrial, Noise and Techno.   One of the most influential and worldwide respected German bands presents itself with a new line-up. Founding members Jean-Hervé Péron and Werner "Zappi" Diermaier are supported by Olivier Manchion and Amaury Cambuzat   both known as members of the Bologna based   Ulan Bator. Last year they performed the meanwhile legendary "Concert on a combine harvester". They've spent the last couple of weeks in a remote village in southern France practising for their new CD   and later they recorded in a studio in Hamburg. Samples of their new work   will be available on CD at the Festival.

www.faust-pages.com

La Société des Timides à la Parade des Oisaux

Their music has been described as "an iron fist in a velvet glove" but the band from Rennes   is anything but shy as their name " The society of the shy people at a birds parade" might suggest. Jazz and neo-classical elements are interwoven with   complex Rock compositions which can be compared to Henry Cow and Fred Frith's solo performances. Lyrical romanticism meets unfiltered expressions of emotional pains and total amazement about the state of the world. The listeners aren't spared anything but due to the perfect mastering of the instruments the result is rather high class than musical chaos and German listeners will be surprised by a piece of subtle poetry inspired by Paul Celan - recited in German.

www.le-terrier.net/musique/stpo/index.htm

Rother & Moebius

Two of the founding members of the original cosmic Krautrock who still keep the values of Rock Music made in Germany during the Sixtie's and Seventies' internationally alive. The stages of their careers represent an important part of the "Who is Who" of the genre: Kraftwerk; Neu!; Kluster; the later Cluster; Harmonia.   They are much in demand as a duo but both have as well a number of solo projects.   Together they form a strong unit which combines fun and sense, musicality with action, love of experiments and entertainment although one might credit Rother with a certain pop appeal whereas Möbius is more of an sound puzzler.

www.michaelrother.de , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieter_Moebius

Marble Sheep

Marble sheep from Tokyo rather belong to the Psychedelic Rock scene but   as a band and the musicians on their own   have shown in various side projects that they are part of the avant-garde. The band around Ken Matsutani, Rie Miyazaki and BrownNose No 2 as constant members is going to perform with two drummers which reminds of the early   experimental and psychedelic jams in the San Francisco scene but really is part of the here and now. As so many others at this festival they are going to play a special set: the Far East meets Kraut and Acid. An important performance by this band which is   one of the most influential Japanese underground bands beside White Noise and Acid Mother Temple.

www.captaintrip.co.jp

Luigi Archetti / Bo Wiget - Low Tide Digitals

Low Tide Digitals is one of the many projects of the (recently ex) guitar player of   the Krautrock legend Guru Guru. In his electronic and orchestral works - often in co-operation with string players like in this case the cello player Bo Wiget - he deals with the contrasts of sound and silence, the sonic nothingness, which sharpens the acoustic attentiveness and makes everyday sounds seem completely different, which creates relaxation that is perceived by the audience as an almost painful state of emergency. Some smart critics have sometimes questioned whether this is music at all. Yes, indeed it is. It is all well calculated, composed and far from arbitrariness. Low Tide Digitals are among the best that Jazz, Electronic and New Music has to offer these days .

www.luigiarchetti.com , www.bowiget.com

Instant Drone Factory

This German/Italian band was founded for last year's festival. Péron had asked the guitarist and electronic artist Frank Gingeleit whether he'd like to perform at the festival. So far Gingeleit had only done solo works in a studio and felt that he couldn't accept the offer. But the experimental character of this festival gave him the idea to invite friends to join him on stage for an improvised drone jam. Christian Jäger and Thomas Gorny of the Kraut jam band Space Debris and Andrea Tobacco of Elton Junk agreed, and they were most positively received by the audience. In December 2005 they entered a studio and their performance at this year's festival will celebrate the release of their CD "Critical Mass" which will be out in August 2006.

www.instantdronefactory.com

S/T

This duo from Frankfurt with Martin Brauner on guitar and vocals and Joachim Geartner on keyboards is considered in particular in the UK as the seal keeper of   the original cosmic Krautrock. The German Press is a bit less enthusiastic and babbles helplessly about their music which proves once again that prophets are not recognized in their own country, despite a long discography, most positive international press coverings and worldwide appearances at major clubs and festivals. They don't have to prove themselves to their fans at the Schiphorst festival and those who still have doubts can reconsider their prejudices. "Kraut is coming home", an appropriate saying in the year of the World Cup.

www.get-happy-records.com/ST.htm

Electrix Garden

www.electrixgarden.de

...Bender

...Bender from London are a fascinating example of the growing "kitchen underground" scene which produces cost cutting recordings (...Bender's first steps were actually recorded in the kitchen of band leader Steve Gullick). Even though their music reminds of Dark Wave and Post Punk ...Bender in the style of This Mortal Coil they go much further than their examples in the Eighties. With a minimum of instruments   (although betweem them they master and use a large number of instruments) and with most amazing vocals they build bridges from world music and folk noise to avantgarde experimentalism

www.bend.tv

Geoff Leigh & Lucianne Lassalle

Geoff Leigh known as a founding member of Henry Cow and of the Ethno-Free Jazz band Ex Wise Heads (around the Porcupine Tree bass player Colin Edwin and the percussionist Vincent Salzfaas) and sculpturist and singer Lucianne Lassalle are going to present their performance "Henrico Reed and Lulu". Songs of high expressiveness and deep emotions in the tradition of the neo-classical avant-garde. In his self-descrition as a "recently employed ex unemployed underground cult hero" Leigh points out the fact that many high quality artists from the Seventies are nowadays seen as marginal although quite a number of them are still relevant and innovativ these days. The festival offers an opportunity to see for oneself.

www.aliensatsea.blogspot.com , www.luciannelassalle.co.uk

Troum

Troum - the name is the old High German word for dream - are Stefan Knappe, Martin Gitschel und Nina Kernicke from Bremen. Dreams - daydreams, night dreams, the unconscious in the psychoanalytical sense - are in fact their musical link. Their music touches the deeper regions directly or   associatively; in its free flow - far from   esotericism or New Age - the music develops contrasts like tripping stones which make the listeners stumble and lead them on   to new pathes. But after short moments of irritation the sound collages turn out to be surprisingly accessible - music of the Enlightenment not only for the awake consciousness.

www.troum.de

Kiew

They exist! The new avantgarde! Kiew from Lüneburg combine Electro, Industrial and Techno breakbeats. They are the creators of the internationally known club classic "Feierabend". They combine dancibilty with sense or rather nonsense as the psychic defects of our world without any hope for healing are their ongoing theme.Although new and certainly different, they see their music in the tradition of Faust, Throbbing Gristle, Einstürzende Neubauten. What is old? What is new   What is normality and what is madness? Who decides? The audience should be prepared for anything: they will be part of a "group therapy" à la Kiew.

www.kiew.org

Elke Postler

Elke Postler from Berlin is part of the multi-media action duo Syntron (together with Tom Zunk) and member of the female artist group "Endmoräne". Since 1995 she has developped

her own dance performances which she presents either solo or with others in public places, in museums or at festivals. In Schiphorst she will perform a scenic presentation of the anagram "Staub" ("Dust") by the writer Unika Zürn. Tom Zunk is going to accompany her perfomance with readings from the text. Furthermore she will present her solo performance "Bodybuilding": recorded movements in a bathtub with strange sound effects. Both performances deal with ambiguity, the use of spaces and of elements, rituals and archaic forms of movement.

www.endmoraene.de

Emina 

Fervour and sensitivity - these are the terms to characterise best the literal, artistic and musical work of the Bosnian patriot. Her description of the terror of war in the former Yugoslavia und her commitment to the Bosnian refugees led to a broad public resonance, including political contacts and honours, as well as coverage in the national press. Her friends signify her personality as warmhearted, intelligent and openminded. Though her programme is rather part of the "established" culture than of the avant-garde in the strict sense of the word, she will be speaking of her concern on the afternoon of the festival Sunday, and everybody with an open heart will recognise the art of her lovesongs and sung descriptions of the landscapes of her homeland.

www.emina-kamber.com

PermanentFatalError

PermantFatalEror ist   Olivier Manchion's solo project. Manchion is a founding member of Ulan Bator, a long standing member of the current faust line-up, bass player on Damo Suzuki's "Hollyaris" CD and very active as a solo performer. With his solo project he can present the more quiet aspects of his musical work, smoothe backgrounds, lightly dotted guitar sounds, equally inspired by Jazz and Rock elements. He is one of the creators of the new genre "Post-Jazz-Rock" (Arte). Manchion playfully   manages the jump from" underground" to main feature. The French/German TV station Arte pays an ununsual hommage to his music: "Music hasn't been as filigree, as harmonic and at the same time as varied and clearly composed as by PermanentFatalError."

http://permanentfatalerror.free.fr

Franck Lantignac

Last year we saw him with Ulan Bator on stage as their original drummer. This year Franck Lantignac is going to present one of his ciné-concerts: films by famous "unknown" directors    or unknown films by or with celebrities or simply unknown but interesting movies. Lantignac creates his music with a piano and an unvisible backline of loops, sounds and samples. The romantic ballad played on the piano meets abstract sounds and rhythms. The result is magic and creates a new attentiveness for already known pictures. He guides the audience along with his vision but without crushing the original.

www.fromscratch.it/lantignac.htm

Schwefel

Schwefel from Mannheim are heroes of the Eighties' club underground scene when they even made it into the bestselling German teenage magazine "Bravo". They will perform as a duo-Norbert Schwefel and Thomas Hinkel - and present live their musical interpretation of   three films by cult-film maker Kenneth Anger. Anger is an almost mystical figure in the world of film (and the scandal author of "Hollywood Babylon"). He combines occultism with pop appeal and is considered   a main influence on film makers such as Scorsese, David Lynch and Rainer Maria Fassbinder. Schwefel's musical interpretation is a lyrical and psychedelic hommage to the avant-garde of earlier years.

www.norbertschwefel.de

Günther Schickert / Tom Zunk - Ghetto Raga Echodrive

Günther Schickert and Tom Zunk from Berlin are Ghetto Raga Echodrive. They perform live a new score to the film "Berlin. Sinfonie der Großstadt" ("Berlin. Symphony of the City") from 1927 by Walther Ruttmann. The film is an example of the beginning of the classical avant-garde in almost every aspect - modern, fast moving and with revolutinary camera work. They combine it with today's psychedelic avantgarde: a-tonal meta music, driving echos andextraterrestrial sounds coming from a number of instruments - in particular from Zunks waterphone which might be described as a "whale chant harp" and from Schickerts echoed guitar played in the tradtion of Manuel Göttschings or the early Achim Reichel.

www.ghetto-raga.de

Horacz Bluminth

Horacz Bluminth is the musical art figure of the Berlin based multi instrumentalist Martin Buchholz who was a longstanding member of the Eighties' club legend Schwefel and who hasbeen performing solo since 1985. His numerous CDs are very much acclaimed by the critics. For this year's festival he promises a set of piano music roughly in the style of John Cale's scores for French art movies combined with amazing vocal experiments in an invented but world (and space) wide understood language. Irritating but at the same time of a supra-terrestial beauty and power. The audience's changeover from unbelieving amazement to stunned excitement is most fascinating to watch.

www.horacz.de

Medusa

The installation of the female artists group Medusa resembles an altar in a blue room, and is an invitation to contemplations and associations that depend on the perception of the individual viewer. The room is clearly structured and at the same time open for the emotions and vibrations of the visitors. The current members of Medusa are the graphic designers and painters Astrid Hättig from Hamburg and Claudia Diers from Lübeck and the garden Designer and painter Raphaela Langenberg from Labenz. Group works, mainly installations in publicspace, were exhibited in several German cities since 1999. In addition to their main installation at the festival they will create and expose three statues in one of the concert rooms.

Silver Static

Silver Static are Sabisha on vocals and Amaury on guitar and keyboards.
Sabisha contacted Amaury after listening to one of his instrumental pieces and proposed to sing to it. She sent him an mp3 file of her voice. It was in total harmony with Amaury's music. They decided to collaborate for more musical experiments and will record something seriously by the end of August in Italy and will play live together for the first time at the festival. Sabishas background are visual arts, experimental sounds and the "musique concrete". She's the singer of Aerial (NYC), Calxvive (SF), and Lustrine (Paris). Her vocal styles range from experimental music, to Jazz, choir, Folk and Pop... Amaury Cambuzat currently is a member of   the bands Ulan Bator and Faust.

www.myspace.com/analphabetcity , www.myspace.com/lustrine