During the months of june and july, guitar duo Oh Mensch is back in residency at Akademie Schloss Solitude, near Stuttgart. We've been very busy working on new repertoire, recording, performing and preparing some exciting upcoming projects!
On june 14th we had the pleasure to premier Christopher Trapani's beautiful new piece for two steel string guitars called "Alcohol and Algebra" at the Sommer in Stuttgart festival, alongside other pieces by Brian Ferneyhough, Matthias Spahlinger and Larry Polansky.
During this time composer Turgut Ercetin paid us a visit to work on a new ambitious piece for two guitars called "Catalysis (a): Şafak and Bahtiyar", which will be premiered in january 2016.
Working with Turgut Ercetin in our studio at Schloss Solitude.
A week later we went to Berlin to perform at Acker Stadt Palast and work with composer Matthias Spahlinger on his piece "Entfernte Ergänzung" in a version for two guitars.
Working with Matthias Spahlinger at Acker Stadt Palast, Berlin
In may we also started recording music for an upcoming album which will feature pieces centered around the theme of microtonality. We recorded pieces by Brian Ferneyhough, Arthur Kampela and Larry Polansky in Johan Vandermaelen's studio near Brussels and are now continuing our recordings at Schloss Solitude with pieces written for us by Tim Mariën and Christopher Trapani. In later stage we will also add Turgut Ercetin's new piece to the set.
Recording at Johan Vandermaelens's studio near Brussels in may.
Next up here in Schloss Solitude is a presentation of Christopher Trapani's music featuring his "Alcohol and Algebra" as well as the solo piece "Really Coming Down" on the 10th of july here at Schloss Solitude. Then we'll start rehearsing for a performance during the 25th anniversary festival of Akademie Schloss Solitude, where we'll perform Xavier Leroy's choreography on Helmut Lachenmann's "Salut für Caudwell"!
Lastly, Oh Mensch will finally also perform in Brazil in the end of july! A mini-tour will bring us to Sao Paolo for a performance at FIME (Festival International de Musica Experimental) on july 28th and Belo Horizonte for a concert at Fundação de Educação Artistica. Our program will feature the Brazilian premier of Helmut Lachenmann's "Salut for Caudwell", next to pieces by Matthias Spahlinger and Arthur Kampela.