Irtijal’16: Ignaz Schick, Magda Mayas, Ute Wassermann, Raed Yassin

– Ignaz Schick solo (de)
*Ignaz Schick: turntables, electronics

Turntablist, sound artist, performer, and composer Ignaz Schick is an active and integral force of the so-called “berlin nouvelle vague” and the blossoming “real-time music” scene. his interest and activities are focused on live electronics, and he has developed his own unique electro-acoustic set-up which he calls “rotating surfaces”. Various objects and materials (wood, metal, plastic, paper, violin bows, and cymbals) are played directly on the rotating metal plate of the turntable and the vibrations are amplified with a small condenser microphone. This set-up allows Schick to cover different styles of contemporary experimental music –from extreme reductionism to ambient, industrial, musique concrète, electronica, and harsh noise.

– Mayas/Wassermann/Yassin (lb/de)
* Magda Mayas: piano * Ute Wassermann: vocals * Raed Yassin: double-bass

Irtijal’16 brings together three outstanding solo performers for one improvised collaboration. Over the last decade or so, Magda Mayas has developed a captivating vocabulary utilizing both the inside and exterior parts of the piano, using preparations and objects. She also performs on a clavinet/pianet, an electric piano from the 60s with strings and metal chimes, where she engages with noise and more visceral sound material. Mayas explores textural, linear and fast moving sound collage, extending the instrumental sound palette by means of extended techniques and devices. Vocal artist Ute Wassermann is a composer, performer, improviser and interpreter of contemporary music. Following studies in vocal performance and classical singing, she developed several multi-voiced vocal techniques, catalogued by register, timbre and articulative sequences. She has given numerous performances of her own solo work and performs regularly with many improvising musicians, in venues ranging in size from lofts to international festivals. as a plastician, Raed Yassin‘s work often originates from an examination of his personal narratives and their workings within a collective history, through the lens of consumer culture and mass production. He has exhibited and performed in numerous museums, festivals and venues across Europe, the Middle East, the United States and japan. He is one of the founders of prominent Lebanese music label annihaya records.

– Neumann/Sehnaoui/Thieke/Vorfeld (lb/de)
*Andrea Neumann: inside piano, electronics * Sharif sehnaoui: acoustic guitar * Michael Thieke: clarinet * Michael Vorfeld: percussion
“nashaz” cd release concert – Al Maslakh records

On the occasion of the release of its first album for Al-Maslakh records, i=Irtijal is proud to present a rare performance by the formidable quartet of Andrea Neumann, Sharif Sehnaoui, Michael Thieke, and Michael Vorfeld. Neumann is an active improviser and composer in the areas of experimental and new music. She has collaborated with numerous Berlin musicians such as Annette Krebs, Ignaz Schick, axel dörner, robin Hayward and Burkhart Beins. Free improvising guitarist Sehnaoui plays both electric and acoustic guitars, with or without extended and prepared techniques, focusing on expanding the intrinsic possibilities of these instruments without the use of effects or electronics. He has performed his music worldwide and as the founder of Irtijal festival, actively contributed to the emergence of an experimental music scene in Lebanon. Thieke is equally at home across a broad range of musical environments, including experimental song forms, collective composition projects, improvising groups, and music on the fringes of jazz. In his clarinet playing, he explores the minutiae of sound, timbre, and noise, with a particular interest in micro-tonality and related sound phenomena, with a preference for long-term collaborations and collective work. Sound and visual artist Vorfeld’s interest in percussion started in rock with the usual teen groups in high school, before eventually turning to experimental and improvised music. He relies on bowed cymbals and homemade string instruments to create shimmering, microtonal music rich in overtones. He has performed in Europe, Japan, and America solo or with other improvisers and occasionally dancers.