KLAENG Festival 2024

Tag 3

Boundaries blur and genres collide - the 15th edition of the international KLAENG Festival presents the "now" of contemporary music from March 15 - 17 in Cologne's Stadtgarten.

Sunday, 17.03.
Joey Baron & Robyn Schulkowsky Duo
Kaja Draksler - solo
Mirna Bogdanović Group

Joey Baron & Robyn Schulkowsky Duo
The duo of the two master musicians Robyn Schulkowsky and Joey Baron continues to explore the precise, the noisy and the beautiful without being restricted by the usual tonal and rhythmic paradigms. Over the past 15 years, the duo has released the CD Dinosaur Dances, completed a residency at Grand Central Station NYC, collaborated with data expert Dr. Nilam Ram and the studiolab "Playing The Archives", maintained a close working relationship with composer Christian Wolff, and held performances and workshops in South America, the US, Europe and China. Their latest duo CD NOW YOU HEAR ME has been released on the Swiss label INTAKT. The composer Christian Wolff has written a concerto for the duo + orchestra, which will be premiered in Glasgow, Scotland, in spring 2019.

Kaja Draksler - Solo
Kaja Draksler is a Slovenian pianist and composer. She released her first solo album The Lives of Many Others on Clean Feed in 2013 to critical acclaim and has since toured Europe with her ever-evolving repertoire. Her live recording Soothe My Soul, Feed My Though was released in 2021 on Idilyc Noise and her third solo album In Otherness Oneself in 2022 on Unsounds. In her solo performances, Kaja is interested in finding ways to merge composition and improvisation by focusing on form, structures and timbres. Her very unique and irresistibly clear sound moves between the aesthetics of European improvised and new music with echoes of the traditional jazz and classical music she has studied. She is attracted to the idea of blurring stylistic and historical musical boundaries and developing a personal mode of expression and language. In her current solo repertoire, she delves into microtonal possibilities. Each of the compositions is intended to be a world in itself, with its own language, vegetation, dwelling and logic.

Mirna Bogdanović Group
At the age of two, Bosnian-Slovenian singer Mirna Bogdanović had already experienced greater difficulties than most when she was forced to flee her country with her parents as a result of the war. She is now firmly established in the Berlin scene and has made a name for herself as an emotional songwriter, downbeat award-winning singer and performer. Her debut Confrontation (Klaeng Records) from 2021, which combines instrumental music with vocals as well as jazz with electronics and pop, won the German Jazz Award as "Debut Album of the Year". Her introspective second album Awake was released in May 2023 on Berthold Records. Produced by renowned London multi-instrumentalist/producer Chris Hyson (Snowpoet), it presents a sound that is rich, varied and modern. Layers of vocal harmonies, synthesizer textures and effects are woven into the already complex sound of her extended ensemble. The album was nominated for the 2023 German Record Critics' Award, was voted NDR and SWR Album of the Week and has received numerous reviews in established magazines and airplay on radio stations in Germany and abroad.