Swiss Contemporary Music
Michael Wertmüller, a portrait by Gabrielle Weber
Michael Wertmüller’s music sounds anarchic, virtuosic and highly energetic. From the shortest compositions to immersive, expansive music theatre, his works combine approaches from jazz and contemporary music, always dramatic, intense and full on. A portrait by Gabrielle Weber
Continue reading “Making utopias come true: composer Michael Wertmüller”
Jessie Cox is many things: drummer and composer, Assistant Professor at Harvard University and Swiss citizen with roots in Trinidad and Tobago. In his music and research, he refers to Afrofuturism and travels through earthly and cosmic spaces. His first book will be published in February 2025.
Friedemann Dupelius
“Space is the Place” is what Sun Ra declared on his 1973 album by the same name. The African-American composer and bandleader not only dreamed of space as an imaginary destination – for him, it was also a metaphor for a new and progressive world in which black people would be better off than on Earth. Jessie Cox takes Sun Ra literally: his piece Enter the Impossible Cosmos leads us through a musical universe. He developed it in 2022 for the Sun Ra Arkestra, which continues to exist more than 30 years after the death of its founder.
Jessie Cox grew up in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland and now lives in Boston (USA) / © Adrien H. Tillmann Continue reading “Composer Jessie Cox: with music through the planets”
Marc Kilchenmann doesn’t like to repeat himself, what he appreciates is delving deeper when he takes on a subject. For his piece Murhabala, he focussed the women’s struggle for freedom in Iran. In the musical form, overtone and undertone structures meet and clash, sometimes harmoniously, sometimes in dissonant frictions.
A portrait by Friederike Kenneweg
Since the 2024/2025 season, Composer Andreas Eduardo Frank is the new Artistic Director & Co-Director of Basel’s Gare du Nord, one of the most important venues for contemporary music in Switzerland. Frank’s own works are multimedia, playful, humorous and often more political than one might think at first glance. A portrait by Jaronas Scheurer
Continue reading “Andreas Eduardo Frank: Collaborative composing and meta-composing”
Nora Vetter, Lucerne based viola player and composer, benefited in 2023-2024 of the Migros Culture Percentage’s Double Classic network. Each year, this mentoring platform enables several musicians to work on a specific project in depth and supported by a coach. On this occasion, we look back at her creative process and her impressions after a year of coaching, which led to the production of a new work for solo drums. A Portrait by Alexandre Babel.
Portrait Nora Vetter zVg. Nora Vetter Continue reading “Nora Vetter / Performative contexts”
Young jazz saxophonist Tapiwa Svosve (*1995) was awarded one of this year’s BAK music prizes. Svosve does not commit himself to any particular style, switching agilely between free jazz, ambient, noise and progressive rock. However, his musical practice is firmly rooted in the jazz tradition.
Continue reading “Tapiwa Svosve grinds saxophone sounds into the sewage system”
Gabrielle Weber: Lausanne Underground Film and Music Festival awarded music prize
LUFF, Lausanne Underground Film and Music Festival, has been programming experimental music to accompany a selected film programme in Lausanne since 2002. This year, the festival received one of the special music prizes from the Federal Office of Culture (BAK). A few weeks before the start of this year’s edition, I met three members of the management team at the new Lausanne cultural centre Pyxis, right next to the cathedral in Lausanne’s old town, which is where LUFF’s offices are located. A conversation with Thibault Walter and Dimitri Meier, artistic directors of the music programme, and Marie Klay, managing director.
Continue reading “LUFF: Music award for Noise from Lausanne”
Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri’s works are fascinating for seeing and hearing. Her pieces, which consists of a variety of objects, sound installations and performances, surprise visitors and listeners with the simplicity and elegance of their functioning. During my meeting with the artist, we discussed the intimate relationship between objects and sound.
Continue reading “Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri and the independence of objects”
At only seven years of age the Swiss Museum and Centre of Electronic Musical Instruments (SMEM) already won one of the Swiss Music Awards’ three special prizes. The museum is located in Fribourg and allows to experience technology, history and practice of electronic music-making.
Continue reading “The Swiss Museum and Centre for Electronic Music Instruments – a living archive”
He mixes sound, performance, video and theatre with cooking, sport, thrillers and environmental activism. Young composer Léo Collin born in France and now living in Zurich, produces evocative music theatre happenings. I visited him in his studio, located in Zurich’s Rote Fabrik.
Continue reading “Meta-layers and broken fascination in Léo Collin’s music theatre ”