junk & the beast

Veronika Mayer: electronics, accordion

Petr Vrba: trumpet, clarinet

A spontaneous open air jam session in the middle of Austria´s beautiful nowhere around Nickelsdorf was the starting point for the artistic collaboration of the composer and sound artist Veronika Mayer and the musician Petr Vrba.

Experimenting with air, beat frequencies and the subtle meandering of combination tones and smooth changes in intonation, the duo junk & the beast creates a stirring atmosphere with their mixture of acoustic instruments and electronic sound generators.

Concentrated on the essence, they reach a radical clarity in transitions of dense to porous episodes and tension to release.

Veronika Mayer is a freelance composer, musician and sound artist living in Vienna. Her works include instrumental and electroacoustic compositions, sound installations and performances with live electronics.

She is active as electronic improviser, performing solo and in different collaborations, also with visual artists. Her works have been presented at various festivals for contemporary and experimental music and soundart in Austria, Germany, Czech Republic, Denmark, Great Britain and

Mexico. She received commissions by Wien Modern, Jeunesse Wien, ÖGZM, Ensemble Reconsil, Ensemble Platypus, The International Rosario Marciano Piano Competition, amongst others.

Veronika Mayer studied electronic music, composition and classical piano at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and is a member of the Austrian network snim – spontaneous network for improvised music.

www.veronikamayer.com

Petr Vrba joined the scene of improvised music in 2005 with his collaboration with Slovakian band Eduardo Borsuci In Optima Forma (later Sound brigade). Since then his unrelenting explorations of non-idiomatic improvisation using trumpets, clarinet, vibrating speakers, egg cutters etc., made him one of the most active experimental musicians in Prague. In 2010 he became one of the founding members of improvisational ensemble IQ+1 which released a highly acclaimed CD Tváří v tvář in 2011. In the same year, he constituted Yanagi duo with experimenter Ryu Hankil (alarm clock, typewriters). With American musician/composer George Cremaschi (doublebass, electronic) they have regular duo and play also with invited musician as a trio like with Chris Heenan (contrabass clarinet, alt sax) or Susanna Gartmayer (bass clarinet). Since 2012 Vrba also regularly collaborates with sax player/composer from Slovakia Miro Tóth, and explores the possibilities of audiovisual improvisation with SeEun Lee and Ken Ganfield in project Total Verquert. In 2012 with George Cremaschi they founded Prague Improvisation Orchestra. Recently he started to collaborate with Maja Osojnik and Matija Schellander under so called doppeltrio in which every player uses an acoustic, as well as an electronic instrument. Osojnik is playing on a sub-bass flute and on the different electronic devices, Schellander on doublebass and on modular synthesizer and Vrba, beside trumpet, uses his bizarre vibrating speakers. For other projects, including dance collaboration, releases etc see his webpage.

Since 2010 he curates the musical programme of Communication Space Školská 28 which is a multifunctional space for various nonprofit cultural and artistic activities.

Since 1994 he plays as a DJ at Radio 1 in Prague, and was also a temporary student of gamelan music at Institute of Art of Indonesia in Yogyakarta (1997–1998).

http://www.vrrrba.cz/

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k o m m a n d o r a u m s c h i f f z i t r o n e

kai fagaschinski | clarinet

christof kurzmann | lloopp, devices & clarinet

once upon a long time, when kai has been the commander of raumschiff zitrone (engl.: spaceship lemon), he became

tired to fill that position on his own. alone! there came christof, still quite new to the city of berlin, and offered his

helping hand. so one was the commanders of raumschiff zitrone from now on together.

for the big christmas-gala of the etablissement in the year 2002 the two met for the first time as commanders in music,

and recorded a christmas-cd with the special charm, which is required for such a cause. their story continued with a

few concerts for special occasions in berlin and vienna. in 2004 they produced their first full length album first time

ever i saw your face in vienna, which was released in september 2006 with quincunx sound recordings (london).

record release concerts were helt in berlin and new york.

in their music the fusion and the contrast between clarinet and computer is the matter. with all the sense for the abstract

and the sound as such, again and again their love for pop music nevertheless gleams through.

Christof Kurzmann (vocals, lloopp) is an Austrian musician, performer, composer currently living in Buenos Aires.

Beginning in 1994 he started his work in the field of experimental electronic music. Since that time Christof has

collaborated with some of the most significant artists working in contemporary music and improvisation- including

Toto Alvarez, Martin Brandlmayr, John Butcher, Eden Carrasco, Sebi Ciurcina, Werner Dafeldecker, Kai

Fagaschinski, Fernanda Farrah, Bernhard Fleischmann, Michaela Grill, Margareth Kammerer, Leonel Kaplan,

Bernhard Lang, Andrea Neumann, Fernando Perales, Eva Reiter, Marina Rosenfeld, Ursula Rucked, Burkhard Stangl,

Michael Thieke, and Clayton Thomas- in groups such as El Infierno Musical, The Magic I.D., and Schee. During the

course of his career Christof has performed throughout Europe, Japan, North and South Amercia. He has also been a

music curator since the mid 1980““““s, and in 1999 founded the record label, charisma, which has released more than 30

cds.

kai fagaschinski clarinetist | composer/performer | nightwatch

* 6.10.1974 in dannenberg/elbe (d)

the berlin-based clarinetist and composer/performer focuses on a subtle musicality of sound and noise phenomena. as

an autodidact he has developed an anomalous language on his instrument. his music is rooted in abstractness,

including increasingly an insidious expressivity and a pre-melodic quality. he works on the borderline of composition

and improvisation, with a preference for long-term collaborations.

his projects are the international nothing – clarinet duo with michael thieke (cd: mainstream, ftarri 2006 /less action,

less excitement, less everything, ftarri 2010), los glissandinos with klaus filip (cd: stand clear, creative sources

2005), the magic i.d. – song project with margareth kammerer, christof kurzmann & michael thieke (cd/vinyl: till my

breath gives out, erstwhile 2008 / i““““m so awake – sleepless i feel, staubgold 2011), duo with burkhard stangl (cd: musik

– ein portrait in sehnsucht, erstwhile 2009), the dogmatics with chris abrahams (lp: the sacrifice for the music became

our lifestyle, monotype 2012),here comes the sun with gunter schneider & barbara romen (cd: here comes the sun,

mikroton 2012),kommando raumschiff zitrone with christof kurzmann (cd: first time ever i saw your face, quincunx

2006), duo with bernhard gal (cd: going round in serpentines, charhizma 2005), rebecca with michael renkel

(cd:rebecca [two variations], charhizma 2003), no furniture with boris baltschun and axel dörner (cd: no furniture,

creative sources 2003), and (exceptionally) solo.

he performed his music in austria, belgium, canada, china, czech republic, denmark, england, france, germany, italy,

ireland, japan, korea, netherlands, norway, poland, portugal, russia, slovenia, spain, sweden, switzerland and u.s.a.,

including concerts atamplify (berlin 2004), angelica festival (bologna 2008), art center nabi (seoul 2008), audio

poverty(berlin 2009), donaueschinger musiktage(donaueschingen 2007), erstquake (new york 2006),experimental

intermedia (new york 2009), ftarri festival (tokyo & kyoto 2008), gateway to oblivion(montreal 2007), internationale

ferienkurse für neue musik (darmstadt 2012), interface (berlin 2007), jazz a mulhouse / meteo festival (mulhouse 2007

& 2012),miji festival (beijing & shanghai 2013), kaleidophon(ulrichsberg 2008), klangwerkstatt (berlin 2003 &

2012), konfrontationen (nickelsdorf 2004, 2008 & 2011), liebesliederwettbewerb (berlin 2004),maerzmusik (berlin

2009), musee d““““art moderne et contemporain (strasbourg 2007 & 2008), music lovers““““ field companion (newcastle

2007), music unlimited (wels 2006 & 2012), musikprotokoll (graz 2005 & 2008), musiques innovatrices (saint-etienne

2007 & 2010), renaissance society (chicago 2006),seattle improvised music festival (seattle 2009),serralves em

festa (porto 2010), taktlos festival(zürich 2012), teatro fondamenta nuove (venice 2007), tonart (bern 2005), turning

sounds (warsaw 2005), uchiage! (berlin & vienna 2004), your hitparade(vancouver 2009), etc.

kai has been the commander of raumschiff zitrone from 2000 to 2006, joined by christof kurzmann in 2002. recently

both commanders have been retired and closed the legendary raumschiff zitrone which has presented concerts of

countless international artists. in 2001 he co-initiated together with gregor hotz and conrad noack berlin‘s experimental

music platform www.echtzeitmusik.de.

kai was artist-in-residense at quartier21 (part of museumsquartierwien, vienna) in 2004. as a result of fruitful

collaborations and good friendships vienna feels like a second home for him.