Awarded annually to up to three musicians from the different aesthetic (pop/rock/ electro/hip-hop, jazz/world, classical/contemporary) since 2020, the Global Project Grant supports artists in the development of an ambitious medium- or long-term project aimed at boosting their career through promotion, marketing and dissemination, as well as the acquisition of know-how in the music industry. Kultur | lx accompanies the artists and their teams in each step of the project.
After Josh Island (pop/rock), Greg Lamy (jazz), and following a call for applications, the selection committee, composed of Stephanie Baustert (manager), Marc Hauser (Rotondes) Florence Martin (United Instruments of Lucilin), Marc Nickts (SACEM Luxembourg) and John Rech (opderschmelz), unanimously decided to award the Global Project Grant to C’est Karma (pop/rock/electro/hip-hop) and Pascal Schumacher (Classical/Contemporary).
C’est Karma
Statement of the artist
I am filled to the brim with joy to have been awarded next year’s Global Project Grant. I’ve spent the last few years working hard on my identity as an artist and musician and on putting together my dream team. With a lot of exciting projects coming up next year, the financial support granted through the Global Project Grant will help me put those plans into action. Aside from the financial aspect it also means a lot to me to be given the trust and faith in my vision.
Biography
For C’est Karma music is a tool for change. From causing trouble with her punk band in the age of 14 to her bold, hyperpop-infused 2022 EP „Amuse-Bouche“, Karma Catena’s passionate activist heart always beats at the core.
The daughter of two first generation immigrants grew up in Luxembourg but relocated to Amsterdam to „study the Internet“, as she calls it. Channeling her frustration into words and music has gained the 21-year-old critical acclaim from renowned publications such as Rolling Stone, GQ, ELLE or The Line Of Best Fit and collaborations with Canal+ or La Blogothèque, who also invited C’est Karma to their 2021 edition of arte concert Festival in Paris next to Damon Albarn and Joan As Police Woman.
Ploughing furrows covered with hyperpop, alt-pop and noise/industrial influences, Karmas songs range from attacking the inaction on the climate crisis and the disparity between the filthy rich and the less fortunate to her love for women, the cinema and the closest thing to her heart: Pasta.
On the back of extensive praise for her riveting one-woman live show at her first ever North America concerts, C’est Karma has recently embarked on her biggest and most ambitious project to date.
Presentation of the project
After having experimented with different musical genres over the past years, C’est Karma has found her artistic vision. On the back of significant live experiences, critical acclaim from renowned international media and together with a team of highly experienced industry professionals, Karma is ready to release her debut album. Being aimed for release in the second half of 2024, the album draws back to her musical inspirations throughout the years. It refers to musical icons like Björk, Kate Bush or Imogen Heap and draws inspiration from contemporary avant-garde idols like Arca, SOPHIE or Caroline Polachek. Being without a doubt her most personal and introspective work to date, the album explores the space between comfort and discomfort. It confesses her love to her younger brother, to her partner, to her family’s country of origin, Portugal and to the loss of control in the nightlife scene. It also opens up about abuse and fear.
With this album Karma and her team aim to build a sustainable foundation for a long-lasting career. Therefore, they have created a visual identity and drafted an extensive multi-facetted strategy to build a dedicated global fan-community that enables Karma to make a living from her art in the long run. To nurture long-term relationships Karma will combine in-person community-building events around Europe with artist-growth campaigns on social platforms such as Instagram or TikTok, cross-media PR campaigns and her very own Mailing list. In addition, she and her live team are currently creating a memorable live performance that she will present on stages around the world, starting with renowned ESNS Festival in The Netherlands in January 2024.
Pascal Schumacher
Statement of the artist
I’m absolutely enchanted to receive the 2024 Global Grant, a crucial boost for my upcoming project, GLASS TWO. Teaming up with the accomplished German-Greek pianist Danae Dörken, we are shaping a deeply personal rendition of Philip Glass’s oeuvre, interwoven with original compositions infused by his unique style and aesthetics. This funding is crucial for both the tour and the promotional campaign of the upcoming album.
Biography
Pascal Schumacher, a versatile artist from Luxembourg, seamlessly blends classical training with contemporary innovation. He pursued studies in classical percussion and jazz vibraphone at prestigious European conservatories, earning Master’s Degrees in musicology from Marc Bloch University in Strasbourg and music focused on jazz vibraphone from the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague. Collaborating with a diverse array of talents like Jef Neve, Francesco Tristano, Sylvain Rifflet, Kenny Barron, and Magic Malik, Schumacher has honed a unique musical identity. Today, his music defies traditional categorization, fusing emotional classical melodies with minimal electronic elements, liberating his compositions from genre constraints to explore a boundless musical landscape.
Presentation of the project
GLASS TWO is a collaborative project featuring Luxembourg’s vibraphonist and composer Pascal Schumacher and the talented German-Greek pianist Danae Dörken, as they delve into the works of the iconic American minimalist composer Philip Glass. The album is slated for release in the third quarter of 2024 under the German label NEUE MEISTER (edel/ KULTUR). This project represents a significant step forward in Schumacher’s artistic journey, extending well beyond its initial inspiration.
In order to facilitate the circulation of Luxembourg musical creation and its performers at European level, and keen to be part of cross-border touring networks, Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg joined the Impuls neue Musik fund in January 2023, joining the French, German and Swiss partners.
The 17th Impuls Artistic Committee meeting was held on 28 September 2023. Composed of Carl Adalsteinsson (artistic director of CAPE-Centre des Arts Pluriels Ettelbruck), Julien Annoni (percussionist, cultural mediator and event creator), Bernhard Günther (artistic director of the Wien Modern festival), Jean-Luc Hervé (composer), Cathy Milliken (composer, musician), Anne Montaron (Radio France) and Carol Robinson (musician, composer), the Artistic Committee selected 10 projects, including three with a link to Luxembourg. Two productions with a Luxembourgish component – Déposer by United Instruments of Lucilin and Elsa Biston, and ANTIPODES by the Kollektiv Unruhe – and one coproduction of which the rainy days festival is part – Onceim, Double Commande à Genevieve Murphy et Christian Marclay – are supported by the Impuls neue Musik fund.
These projects show the commitment of Luxembourgish artists and institutions in cross-border collaborations. In the first year of its partnership, Kultur | lx is delighted by the support provided by Impuls, which is helping to promote the vibrant Luxembourg contemporary music scene and its international dissemination.
United Instruments of Lucilin, Elsa Biston, Déposer (installation-concert) | 10 000 €
Déposer is a sound installation by Elsa Biston and a 30-minute musical performance by the Luxembourgish ensemble United Instruments of Lucilin. The installation consists of instruments scattered around the space such as cymbals, skins and everyday objects.
They form a complex, apparently living organism in which vibrations are transmitted from one object to the other. During the performances, the sounds of the musicians are picked up by the installation, setting the objects in motion. Outside the performances, visitors can move between the objects and are invited to operate cranks, for example, to make the objects suspended from the ceiling move and change the soundscape. Both the installation and the performances are based on a search for involuntary gestures and loss of control, allowing the musicians to enter into a symbiotic relationship with the installation.
© Alfonso Salgueiro
Kollektiv Unruhe e. V., Antipodes | 10 000 €
The ANTIPODES project by KOLLEKTIV UNRUHE and Ensemble Orbis aims to reconcile local community and international exchange, while taking care to preserve each individual’s identity. It links Berlin and Lyon through music, with Luxembourg as its focal point. The four creations, each signed by two members of each of the two ensembles, highlight the unique sonorities of each group to create a unique sound experience. Three young composers from the training institutions of the three towns will provide miniatures, thus deepening the links that exist at local level. The concerts presenting the project will take place at Silent Green in Berlin, Grame in Lyon and at the Philharmonie Luxembourg. The project will run from January to December 2024 and will focus on the theme of “Unity in diversity”. With ANTIPODES, these two young collectives/ensembles in the making hope to establish a long-term collaboration.
KOLLEKTIV UNRUHE, of which Luxembourg composer Nik Bohnenberger is a member, stands for a musical practice that is self-organised and self-responsible in shaping the conditions for its own artistic work and constantly wants to cross the boundaries to other art forms and scenes.
© Norbert Frank
Onceim, Double Commande à Genevieve Murphy et Christian Marclay | 15 000 €
L’Onceim impulses a European co-production uniting France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Germany, with Gaudeamus (NL), Musica (FR), Rainy Days (LU) and Exploratorium (DE). Two exclusive musical commissions will be entrusted to the talented Scottish performer and composer Genevieve Murphy and the renowned Swiss-American visual artist Christian Marclay. For both of them, this collaboration is their first experience with a large, experimental ensemble (30 musicians). Another milestone of the collaboration is a three-day residency in Berlin, which includes workshops and concerts in ensembles of 2 to 30 musicians. Together, they focus on collaborative creation and bring together the stakeholders of the Berlin scene as well as the orchestra members for improvisation sessions and the presentation of commissioned works. This initiative continues the experimental and research work initiated by Onceim and funded by Impuls Neue Musik since 2012.
About Impuls neue Musik
Impuls neue Musik supports musical projects that favour exchanges between the German- and French-speaking cultural and linguistic spaces. It binds together the contemporary music scenes of Germany, France, Switzerland and Luxembourg. Since its establishment, Impuls neue Musik supported 214 projects to an amount of 1,6 million €. Its partners are the Sacem, the French Embassy in Germany, the CNM, the Institut Français, the Fondation Francis et Mica Salabert, the Goethe Institute, the Swiss Foundation for culture Pro Helvetia, the Musikfonds and Kultur | lx.
Georg Ruby & Sascha Ley | The Laughter of the Red Moon. Dedicated to Hildegard Knef
Album release: October 12, 2023 | JazzHausMusik
Georg Ruby and Sascha Ley allow a wide range of musical parameters to take effect, creating original reinterpretations of the chansons and lyrics of the great German actress, singer and author Hildegard Knef (1925-2002) without imposing any stylistic boundaries.
Dock in Absolute | [RE]FLEKT
Album release: October 13, 2023 | Cam Jazz
Piano trio Dock In Absolute are perhaps the leading lights of a tremendous recent resurgence of creative music in Luxembourg, a territory that punches well above its weight in musical terms. The group’s previous work for CAM JAZZ established a distinctive voice, energised by pianist Jean-Philippe Koch’s compositions but realised by the energetic and thoroughly musical contributions of bassist Arne Weigand and drummer Victor Kraus. With roots in the vast literature of jazz piano trios, but with eyes set very much on the present, Dock In Absolute offer a music that is unmistakably contemporary and fresh but aware of tradition as well. Recorded in CAM JAZZ’s signature bright, responsive sound, [RE]FLEKT is set to be one of the must-have jazz records of the year. (Liner notes by Brian Morton)
Shauli Einav | Living Organs
Album release: November 18, 2023 | Outside in Music Europe
After six albums as a leader with only acoustic instrumentation, Shauli Einav, an Israeli saxophone player based in Luxembourg, explores more electronic and electric soundscapes. The music is inspired by both jazz and music from outside the jazz idiom. Einav aims to revive the sounds he was listening to in the 1990s: British artists such as Jamiroquai, The Prodigy, Simply Red or David Bowie, mediaeval folk music, and modern jazz-influenced harmonies.
“In a way, this is my homage to my teenage years where I aim to bring more audiences to jazz music, by building a bridge from the younger generation’s popular aesthetics to today’s mainstream jazz.”
For this new project, Einav’s band was selected for a week-long residency at opderschmelz, a week dedicated to getting deep into Einav’s new compositions and tightening the band! Einav teamed up with some of the rising stars of the European jazz scene: Dutch guitarist Eran Har Even, French organist Laurent Coulondre as well as Luxembourg drummer Paul Wiltgen.
Michel Reis | For A Better Tomorrow
Album release: December 1, 2023 | CamJazz
If jazz remains the “sound of surprise”, Luxembourgish pianist Michel Reis still cleaves to that hoary definition of the music. While still attractively accessible, Reis’s solo improvisations constantly take unexpected directions. He plays the piano “straight”, but still somehow manages to make it sound deliciously unfamiliar, as if it was only invented yesterday.
On his second recording for CAM JAZZ, Reis dedicates his music For A Better Tomorrow. There’s no clear political agenda in that title, but simply a dedication to the notion that in constantly reinventing itself, jazz is inherently progressive and committed to a human desire for improvement and self-development. Not a fiery showman, Reis is more like a close-up magician. One can hear everything he does, but it isn’t always quite clear how he does it. The magic of a music that never stops moving forward… (Liner notes by Brian Morton).
Under the supervision of music producer Ermanno Basso, For A Better Tomorrow was recorded and mixed in January 2023 by Stefano Amerio at Artesuono Recording Studio in Cavalicco (UD), Italy, and mastered by Danilo Rossi.
“The diversity and richness of Luxembourg’s musical life was showcased in the best possible way, with two days featuring remarkable performances. We can only be delighted to have been able to take part in such an event, which not only opens up and deepens perspectives, but also creates an emulation that is not about to fade away.” – Jean Lacroix, Crescendo Magazine, October 2023.
In the frame of the Echter’Classic Festival, organised every fall by the Trifolion Echternach, Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg organised a Focus celebrating the classical musicians from Luxembourg who were showcased during the festival. On this occasion, a delegation of European professionals (agents, bookers, journalists) was invited to discover the festival and its concerts. This Focus also gave Luxembourg artists and representatives of institutions the opportunity to have informal and formal exchanges with the international delegation, notably during a speedmeeting session, which gave an impetus to first contacts.
This first Classical Music Focus – following on from the Luxembourg Classical Meetings – was a privileged showcase for the Luxembourg classical music scene, enabling exchanges and concrete touring perspectives for the artists present at the event.
The Focus programmes, central to the work of Kultur | lx, are part of its mission to promote and support the Luxembourg music scene in a number of aspects. First and foremost, these programmes help to identify artists from the Grand Duchy at an international level, but they are also intended to show international delegations the richness of the programmes offered by cultural institutions at a national level, and thus encourage cross-border collaborations which play a key role in the process of artistic touring.
In the frame of its mission to promote and support the artists from Luxembourg, Kultur | lx joins forces with the Trifolion Echternach and its Echter’Classic Festival to organise a Focus dedicated to classical music.
On October 6th and 7th, Kultur | lx will welcome a delegation of international professionals coming from the European Classical music scene to (re)discover Luxembourgish Classical music artists featured at the Echter’Classic Festival. For two days, the international guests, the artists and Luxembourgish professionals will have the opportunity to exchange during formal and informal networking moments. A speedmeeting session will allow Luxembourg artists and professionals to initiate contacts and consider potential touring perspectives for the seasons to come.
About the Echter’Classic festival
At the start of every autumn, the festival Echter’Classic makes Echternach vibrate to the sounds of chamber music, baroque music and much more. Concerts take place in various venues around Echternach, including the TRIFOLION, the Church of St. Peter & Paul and the Basilica of St. Willibrord. Located in the heart of Müllerthal, also known as “Luxembourg’s Little Switzerland”, Echternach is Luxembourg’s oldest city, and has shown a vibrant cultural and musical life for decades.
Programme of the 2023 edition:
October 6th:
- 6:00 pm: Zala & Val Kravos
- 7:30 pm: Bohnenberger Plus – Kammerata Luxembourg
- 9:00 pm: Maurice Clement
07.10.2023
- 11:30 am: Ensemble La Chapelle St. Marc
- 3:30 pm: Hear Eyes Move – Dances with Ligeti
- 5:00 pm: Benjamin Kruithof
- 6:00 pm: Sandrine Cantoreggi
- 7:30 pm: Canto Ostinato – Victor Kraus Group
To promote the Luxembourg artists taking to the stage at the Echter’Classic, Kultur | lx has developed a new video format that will be released on 15 September on Instagram.
More information on Echter’Classic here.
Are you an international professional with an interest for the Classical Music Focus? You can contact Clémence Creff, Project manager for classical/contemporary music: clemence.creff@kulturlx.lu
Arthur Possing | ID:entity
Album release: August 25th 2023 | Double Moon/Challenge Records
ID:entity, the first solo album, draws a deep and intense introspection – both musically and humanly – into the world of pianist and composer Arthur Possing. The singer-songwriter format has always had an impact on the artist and the essence of songs has been the essential guideline for this new record. By using multiple textures of the piano, Arthur creates a very personal and intimate universe, combining originals with covers of influential songs and free improvisation.
Listen to ID:entity album
Listen to ID:entity’s first single : The Essence of Joy
Jambal | Enterprises of great pith and moment
Release: September 15th
Jambal and L.A. based composer/producer Tristan de Liège teamed up last summer to record a new full-length collaboration album called Enterprises of Great Pith and Moment.
After one week of songwriting, composing, arranging and rehearsing, they started putting the album together at Unison studios in Differdange.
The result is a very intimate insight into the unique band-sound of Jambal, which has evolved considerably since their first EP release in 2021. A blend of experimental textures, modern grooves, and shifting harmonies, as well as improvisations, heavily influenced by contemporary jazz. The album also features a string quartet, played by L.A. based musician Gregory Allison and Luxembourgish artist Claire Parsons. Sound engineering as well as mixing was done by Eric ‘Slunnes’ Slunecko, the mastering has been made by Nate Wood.
Their first single Uncertainties just recently got a spin on John Osborne’s show on JazzFM UK.
Listen to Jambal:
04.08. : release of Uncertainties
01.09. : release of Collisions of Light
15.09. : album release
VictorKrausGroup | Canto Ostinato
Album release: October 7th | Donemus Records
For Canto Ostinato, Victor Kraus (playing the marimba) is joined by eight of the best musicians from the Luxembourg and international music scene: Kae Shiraki (piano), Aniela Stoffels (flute), Anik Schwall (cello), Max Mausen (clarinet), Guy Frisch (vibraphone), Emre Sevindik (electronics), Michel de Souza (voice) and Pit Brosius (conductor). In collaboration with this team, performing as the VictorKrausGroup, he has developed a hybrid project around the 1976 piece Canto Ostinato by Dutch composer Simeon ten Holt. Other projects are currently being planned and will follow in 2024/2025.
The project began in 2017 as part of a production by German broadcaster NDR at the international festival Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Germany), culminating in 2023 in the recording of an album to mark the composer’s 100th anniversary during an artist residency at Trifolion in Echternach (Luxembourg). Simeon ten Holt used the term “genetic code” to describe the rhythmic foundation of his piece. It is a quintuplet that develops Canto Ostinato by exploring 106 repeated cells ad libitum.
Victor Kraus presents a brand-new version by adding wind and string instruments, electronic elements and vocals to this magnificent piece, originally written for multiple keyboard instruments. Electronics and vocals play a predominant role in this project, which is conceived as a hybrid project, an artwork and a sensual performance, blending a “classical” work with minimalist transformations, electronic music, singing, lighting and recitation of poems by Fernando Pessoa, Gianni Rodari, Gabriel Marcel and Anise Koltz.
Maria Miteva | Golden Lights
Album release: October 22nd
Flutist Maria Miteva’s new album Golden Lights features works by four Luxembourgish composers and five Bulgarian composers – Boris Schmidt, Alexander Müllenbach, A. Petrovic-Vratchanska, Ivan Boumans, Miroslav Danev, Dimitar Bodurov, Milcho Leviev, Antoni Donchev, Valeri Kostov. After her last album Ways, Maria Miteva shows a new face of her work, merging jazz and classical music together along with world-renowned classical and jazz musicians.
Maria Miteva -Flute
Eugenia Radoslava -Piano (contemporary pieces)
Antoni Donchev – Piano (jazz pièces)
Boris Dinev – Drums, Tupan, Percussions
Boris Schmidt – Doublebass
Luc Hemmer – Vibraphone
Josip Dragnić-Gitarre
Olivier Dartevelle – Clarinet
Mariya Parashkevova – Voice (recording)
The album was recorded at the Luxembourgish Studio Tonstudio Schlim.
With the support of Ministry of culture, Fondation Independance by BIL, and the SACEM
Claude Lenners | Hôtel à insectes
Release: September 15th | NEOS Music
Carried by contemporary music and works, the CD Hôtel à insectes explores the extraordinary and abundant of insects through a 25-piece cycle with texts by Shakespeare, Kafka, Grass, Neruda, Virgil, as well as Schlechter. It is a collection of texts with insects as a central topics, addressed on different points of view.
The works are recorded by the Noise Watchers Ensemble:
Marie-Reine Nimax (soprano),
Max Mausen (clarinet)
Hany Heshmat (guitar)
The Global Project Grant, available to artists in the Luxembourgish music scene, offers them the chance of setting out and proposing a project that will enable them to kick-start their career development, promotion and marketing, participation in tours, involvement in international workshops/conferences, and to increase the depth of their compositional work.
This initiative is intended to add value to the project and to encourage artists and their teams to plan their strategy one year ahead, with a dedicated budget. For its part, Kultur | lx is committed to accompanying the laureates in all stages of the project.
More information about Global Project Grant here
Deadline to apply: September 18, 2023
In 2022, Francis of Delirium embarked on three tours: early in the year, a first-ever North American tour as support act for The Districts, with around thirty dates across the USA and Canada, including their first headline gig in New York at Baby’s All Right; the band then supported Briston Maroney across Europe before touring the UK as headliners in the autumn. Francis of Delirium have also released a series of three EPs with The Funhouse, out on 27 April on Dalliance Recordings.
Francesco Tristano released his new album on early music on 11 February 2022 via Sony Classical. The promotion of this album, which marks his return to the baroque repertoire, was accompanied by a series of concerts in Europe and a marketing strategy designed to promote both the release of the album and tour dates in specific territories.
Claire Parsons and Laurent Peckels founded the collective The Aquatic Museum, at the crossroads of pop and chamber music. The collective worked on their eponymous album, which combines jazz harmonies with pop sounds, while retaining the delicacy of chamber music. Alongside this album, an application is currently being developed that will transport users into an aquatic museum and guide them through the rooms of this virtual space.
Previous laureates
2023
Pop/Rock/electro/hip-hop : Josh Island
Jazz/World : Greg Lamy
2022
Pop/Rock/electro/hip-hop : Francis of Delirium
Jazz/World : Claire Parsons
Classical/contemporary : Francesco Tristano
2021
Pop/Rock/electro/hip-hop : TUYS
Jazz/World : Michel Meis 4TET
Classical/contemporary : Cathy Krier
Michel Meis 4tet, Lollipop Moment
Release: May 25, 2023
The quartet around the Luxembourg drummer Michel Meis is back with their third opus Lollipop Moment.
The record features three new compositions (Puff Puff Puff, Silberfell and The Madness) embedded in a freely improvised session. The musicians remain Meis’s usual fellows: Alisa Klein on trombone, Cédric Hanriot on piano and Stephan Goldbach on double bass. In contrast, the instrumentation moves towards a more electronic sound with the addition of synthesisers and effects.
While improvisation is the common thread of the album, the new hybrid acoustic and electronic sound enhances the band’s sonic spectrum. In contrast to smooth transitions between these two poles, hard cuts underline the band’s career-spanning explosive, edgy, and slightly provocative character.
Through its diverse moods and complex yet never arbitrary structures, Lollipop Moment offers music that is as elaborate as it is spontaneous, giving jazz a fresh touch by breaking down genre boundaries.
Inspired by Drew Dudley’s definition of a lollipop moment, where someone said or did something that fundamentally made someone else’s life better, Michel Meis wants to touch people with his music and accompany them on their journey.
Singles to discover:
21/04/2023 – Puff Puff Puff
02/05/2023 – Silberfell
12/05/2023 – The Madness
Triana y Luca, Fragmentos del Olvidos
Release: June 2023
Triana y Luca’s goal is to transcend the barriers between the old and the new. They aim to reconnect listeners to their roots, wherever they may lie buried. As children of first- and second-generation immigrants, their project explores origins and identities. They emphasise the importance of tradition, even in modern times where it may seem obsolete, to encourage listeners to come on the journey of reunification with cultural knowledge and lost stories.
Their upcoming EP, Fragmentos del Olvidos, was recorded at Tritone Studios (LU) and produced by Mike Butcher (producer of Black Sabbath, Rod Stewart, Jaco Pastorius) and is set to be released in June 2023. The EP is a collection of stories and sonority recompiled in five songs of different styles and rhythms. Earlier this year, the duo released their first two singles Raíz and Recuerdos de Tánger. On April 21st, they published Malinche, a letter dedicated to one of the most important women in the history of the Americas.
Tele-Port, Please Disperse
Release: May 2023
From hypnotic minimalism to fully improvised supernovas to powerful groove songs, this energetic quartet blends European tradition, American jazz and Eastern influences to create an exciting modern sound. The band is composed of leading figures of the Luxembourg jazz scene: Pol Belardi (bass), Jérôme Klein (keyboards) and Jeff Herr (drums) who have teamed up with Zhenya Strigalev, an adventurous saxophonist from London. Their new album, “Please Disperse”, will be released in May 2023 by Double Moon/Challenge Records.
Markus Brönnimann, Bachs, Benda And Brönnimann
Release : June 15th, 2023 (Toccata Next)
Markus Brönnimann, Jean Halsdorf, Léon Berben, Ensemble Pyramide
Solo flutist of the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Markus Brönimann is about to release a CD dedicated to flute works by the Bach family, Franz Benda and his own composition. Combining works from different times, the album seeks to reflect on the posterity of ancient music works and our contemporary relationship to this music.
Nik Bohnenberger, d|ecken
Nik Bohnenberger presents his last composition d|ecken on YouTube. d|ecken combines textile processes – graphic conception, cutting and fabric sewing – with electroacoustic experiences. The result of this is an Instrument that associates the childish concept of a castle with the idea of the tent. Fabric strips from the installation form a semi-permeable surface between the internal and external worlds. The interaction between textile and electronique can be perceived, heard and seen by the visitors themselves.
As a trumpet player, composer, arranger and conductor, Gast Waltzing started 2023 with numerous concerts and artistic encounters that show the diversity of his projects and musical interests: a collaboration with the jazz musician Kyle Eastwood, a new CD release with Myles Sanko and the Orchestre philharmonique du Luxembourg, concerts worldwide with his long-standing artistic partner Angélique Kidjo, but also Shiho, the mythical band Alphaville, as well as Morgane Ji. All these international collaborations, that Gast Waltzing had with many other musicians such as Gregory Porter, Dionne Warwick, were all steps that paved the way to a Grammy Award winning in 2016.
Gast Waltzing was indeed awarded this outstanding distinction with Angélique Kidjo in 2016 for the album “Sings” recorded with the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg (429 Records). This project started years before, when the conductor suggested the Beninese singer to arrange her most successful tracks for symphonic orchestra. A crazy project, according to Kidjo, which won over the audience and is still filling concert halls today. The duo has just returned from a series of concerts in the south of France with the Orchestre national Avignon-Provence in January, and then in Tromsø and Bodø (NO) with the Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra in February, showing how this project has managed to conquer the whole of Europe.
This collaboration with Angélique Kidjo, coupled with the Grammy, allowed Gast Waltzing to gain a certain notoriety and to be increasingly identified as a conductor of his own arrangements and compositions. This is how the project “Eastwood Symphonic” was able to grow. Developed with the renowned jazz bassist Kyle Eastwood, it is described as a “musical road-movie” giving a tribute to the music scores of Clint Eastwood’s best movies, orchestrated by Gast Waltzing. “Eastwood Symphonic” premiered at the Nancy Jazz Pulsation festival in 2022, and will start its tour in May with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra (NO), the Czech national Symphony Orchestra (CZ), the Orchestre philharmonique du Luxembourg (LU), the Orchestre régional de Normandie (FR), and the Orchestre national d’Avignon-Provence (FR). Many other concerts are to be announced soon.
Gast Waltzing also reinforces his identification as conductor and orchestrator through an upcoming release on which he contributed under both hats: the singer Myles Sanko is indeed to publish a recording of his concert with the Orchestre philharmonique du Luxembourg in 2020.
Beyond the international collaborations and the Grammy Award, which he considers more as a “facilitator” than as an end in itself, Gast Waltzing’s great strength undoubtedly lies in his openness and his involvement in projects with diverse musical aesthetics. He will for instance conduct the German Film Orchestra Babelsberg with the German band Alphaville, who celebrate their 40th anniversary and look back on their greatest hits, for a tour across Germany and Switzerland. On the jazz side, 2023 will punctuated by concerts with the singer Morgane Ji, and the development of the project “Peace, Drugs and Love” with the violinist Jean-Jacques Mailliet and the contemporary music ensemble United Instruments of Lucilin.
All this eclectism reveals Gast Waltzing’s willingness to differentiate, something he considers a pillar of his career, and which he intends to cultivate for the projects he is developing for the years to come.
Confirmed dates:
05.05: Eastwood Symphonic, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Stavanger, Norway
17.05: Eastwood Symphonic, Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra, Luxembourg, Luxembourg
20.05: Eastwood Symphonic, Orchestre Régional de Normandie, Coutances, France
27.05: German Film Orchestra Babelsberg & Alphaville, Konzerthaus, Freiburg, Germany
28.05: German Film Orchestra Babelsberg & Alphaville, Liederhalle, Stuttgart, Germany
29.05: German Film Orchestra Babelsberg & Alphaville, KKL, Luzern, Switzerland
16.06: German Film Orchestra Babelsberg & Alphaville, Isarphilharmonie, München, Germany
17.06: German Film Orchestra Babelsberg & Alphaville, Meistersinghalle, Nürnberg, Germany
21.06: Eastwood Symphonic, Czech national symphony orchestra, Prague, Czech Republic
08.07: Eastwood Symphonic, Umbria Jazz festival, Umbria, Italy
15.07: Eastwood Symphonic, Orchestre de Cannes, Cannes, France
18.07: Eastwood Symphonic, Orchestre d’Avignon-Provence, Avignon, France
19.10: German Film Orchestra Babelsberg & Alphaville, Laeiszhalle, Hamburg, Germany
06.11: German Film Orchestra Babelsberg & Alphaville, Tonhalle, Düsseldorf, Germany
13.11: German Film Orchestra Babelsberg & Alphaville, Laeiszhalle, Hamburg, Germany
14.11: German Film Orchestra Babelsberg & Alphaville, Theater am Aegi, Hannover, Germany
04.12: German Film Orchestra Babelsberg & Alphaville, Philharmonie, Essen, Germany
Bach Stage, Francesco Tristano and Leo Margue (Scala Music)
Release on March 3rd, 2023 on Scala Music.
“He used to play Bach concertos standing, with energy and vivacity! With this album, pianist Francesco Tristano shakes all our habits. Have we ever listened to these concertos with such an obsessive rhythmic, with 2022-composed cadences, and with such a young and committed ensemble? Without disavowing the interpretations from the past, it is a real slap in the face that awakens our vision of the cantor’s work.”
Johann Sebastian Bach, Concerto No. 1 in D minor BWV 1052
Johann Sebastian Bach, Concerto No. 4 in A major BWV 1055
Johann Sebastian Bach, Concerto No. 7 in G minor BWV 1058
Source: Scala Music
The Aquatic Museum, Claire Parsons & Laurent Peckels – Global Project Grant laureate 2022
Upcoming singles to come. Stay tuned.
A genre-breaking project, The Aquatic Museum skilfully combines the colour palettes of jazz harmony, the delicacy of a chamber ensemble, and the energy of a pop band. Carefully crafted compositions take us on a journey that reinvents the sound of pop delicately weaving moving lyrics with a spectrum falling between the poles of minimalism, the epic, and everything in between. This is chamber pop.
The collective – founded by singer-songwriter Claire Parsons (UK/LU), musician and app developer Laurent Peckels (LU) and in praise of folly violist Nicole Miller (US) – extends beyond European borders bringing together an arsenal of individually accomplished musicians and multimedia artists to bring the album, live concept and app to life striven by the determination to go beyond conventional ways of creating, releasing and performing music.
First single Large Pleasure Watercraft and Trash Tub are available on all platforms. To watch the videoclips directed by Jeanne Held, click here.
Source: The Aquatic Museum
Prismatica, Pascal Schumacher & Goldmund Quartet
Vinyl release on March 31, 2023 under Berlin Classics
“Last summer, I took some time to imagine how to translate the reflections and the different faces of a prism after a commission for string quartet by Goldmund Quartet cellist Raphael Paratore. It was quite a challenge. My new composition “Prismatica” comes as a result of these explorations, and is available on all streaming platforms. In spring, a physical release on vinyl is planned under Berlin Classics.”
Source: Pascal Schumacher
CTRL Variations, Pascal Schumacher, Michel Welfringer, Ian Monk & United Instruments of Lucilin
Vinyl release on April 28th, 2023. More info on the release concert here.
“Is it a love story? Undoubtedly. Is it a play about the strange relationship between people and their computers? Likewise (after all, among other things, quite a few annoying spam mails are given musical honours in it). Is it experimental literature? Certainly, at least in part, because one of the actors from the Oulipo circle of authors around Raymond Queneau and Georges Perec is involved in it. Is it film music for an abstract film with letters instead of actors? In a way, that too (as Pascal Schumacher says? “Film music is cooler to write than other music anyway.”).
When jazz musician and composer Pascal Schumacher, typographer Michel Welfringer and writer Ian Monk join forces to write variations on CTRL (control? the control key? the sounds C, T, R and L? the letters?) for the ensemble United Instruments of Lucilin, a kind of controlled loss of control is preprogrammed.”
Source: United Instruments of Lucilin for 33,7
Coming home, Mathieu Clément
Release on March 24th, 2023, Double Moon Records (Challenge Records) in the series JazzThing Next Generation.
In February 2022, the young drummer Mathieu Clément recorded his first album Coming Home, to be released on March 24th 2023 under Double Moon Records (Challenge Records) in the Jazz Thing Next Generation Series. The music he writes, which can be described as straight ahead/modern jazz, reminds of the compositions of Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter or Thelonious Monk. A first tour (16-28 March) will bring him to Cologne, Luxembourg, Mainz, Dresden, Leipzig, Nürnberg, Vienna and Salzburg.
Source: Mathieu Clément
Mozart : Piano Sonatas Vol. 4, Jean Muller
Release on March 3rd on Hänssler Classic.
Jean Muller just published the fourth volume of Mozart’s complete piano sonatas, after the publication of the first three albums, which were widely praised by the press. This new album makes us discover sonatas no. 7, 13, and 15, and “place the pianist in the first rank of important Mozart interpreters” (Pizzicato.lu)
