The 37th edition of the international festival “Ulrichsberger Kaleidophon” (April 28th to 30th, 2023, Jazzatelier Ulrichsberg) presents a mixture of current music forms. Eleven current formations and ensembles from areas such as jazz, improvised music and new music are represented in the program.
The festival starts on Friday, April 28th at 7pm with a project by the German saxophonist Frank Gratkowski. The quartet plays in a traditional jazz line-up with saxophone, piano, bass and drums. However, the music presented goes far beyond the classical jazz context: Freely improvised or filigree chamber music also has its place here. In the second concert of the evening there will be a reunion with the British vocal acrobat Phil Minton, who will perform in a duo with the tuba player Carl Ludwig Hübsch. Roger Turner on drums will round off the first day of the festival together with two heroes of the Japanese free jazz scene: Masahiko Satoh on piano and Otomo Yoshihide on electric guitar together with Turner form the “Sea Trio”, which will be performed for the first time on this tour will give concerts in Europe.
Day 2 of the festival, Saturday 29 April, begins with an “Italian opening”: compositions for two violins by Luigi Nono, Giacinto Scelsi and Salvatore Sciarrino are on the program that Annelie Gahl and Alexander Gheorghiu will perform at 3pm in the Ulrichsberger Pfarrkirche will present. It continues at 6:00 p.m. in the jazz studio with a performance by the Sicilian trombone master Sebi Tramontana, who will play an improvised duo with the cellist Luca Tilli (Rome). The geographical context is then expanded considerably in the next concert: Gunda Gottschalk, Xu Fengxia and Peter Jacquemyn play their version of global folk music. In Memoriam Global Village is the name of their project, which for this concert will be expanded to include percussionist Günter Baby Sommer from Dresden, a pioneer of European improvisational music. The Saturday final then belongs entirely to jazz: Sylvie Courvoisier from New York, freshly crowned winner of the German jazz prize in the piano category, will perform with her trio, featuring Drew Gress on bass and Kenny Wollesen on drums.
The Sunday program begins at 4 p.m. with the Austrian premiere of Peter Ablinger’s new piece “An den Mond” – a composition for violin and computer, interpreted by the Bulgarian violinist Biliana Voutchkova, together with Peter Ablinger, who can also be seen as a performer here for the first time becomes. The second concert on April 30th will also be performed by a duo: Josef Novotny and Peter Herbert present concentrated improvisational music for piano and double bass, reduced to the essentials, so to speak. This is followed by the trio “Jane in Ether”, three young Berlin musicians with recorder, piano and violin and music with a range from Feldmanesque-calm soundscapes to violent, massive sound clusters. John Butcher’s trio “Last Dream of the Morning” will then close the festival: three English master improvisers who work together on an astonishingly precise collective improvisation – from restrained and typically British pointillism to energetic and jazz-inspired free flights.
Beginning with the kaleidophon, the exhibition “50 Years of Jazzatelier” also starts: photos and posters from the club’s 50-year history are on display – to be seen on all three days of the festival in the gallery and throughout the house.
You can always find out more details regarding the program and the current status of things at:
