Soniq: String Theory

In 2016 the artist collective SONIQ was founded by the German saxophonist and composer Christina Fuchs, the German-Indian composer and pianist Jarry Singla and the South Indian percussionist Ramesh Shotham. The confrontation with different (musical) cultures is the inspirational breeding ground of all SONIQ projects, which, in addition to their purely musical content, also aim to promote understanding and exchange between people from different cultural backgrounds.

In terms of content, the STRING THEORY project was inspired by the natural scientific string theories. Like a magic ball of physics, these theories look into the innermost of matter. There, the most elementary building blocks of the universe are referred to as "strings," in a sense the "threads of reality" that build up the cosmos.

The string theories want to explain what is the original reason of the being. They postulate the theory that the world is more than three-dimensional. 10 or more dimensions are thought in the models.

Inspired by the idea of multidimensionality, the STRING THEORY project hypothesizes that new musical dimensions will be opened up through the encounter of extremely diverse and unconventional "global string players" with the strong personalities of SONIQ artists*.

The versatile and impulsive artist Carolin Pook founded her own orchestra ("Pookestra") during a ten-year stay in New York, in which she broke new ground between composition and arrangement on the one hand and free or conducted improvisation ("conduction") on the other. The press describes Carolin's compositional style as "post-modern sound architecture of at times magical intensity". She is as much in demand in new music as in jazz, and since 2021 has served as concertmaster of the EOS Kammerorchester Köln.

Bassem Hawar, who has lived in Germany since 2000, builds his own instruments and has revolutionized the Iraqi knee violin djoze so that he can play all forms of Arabic and European music on it and is not limited to traditional Arabic music. Bassem plays in numerous groups of diverse musical genres from classical maquam to European medieval music to flamenco, new music and experimental jazz. In 2018, he founded the Nouruz Ensemble, which develops contemporary oriental art music.

In STRING THEORY, the creative impulses of Carolin Pook and Bassem Hawar become the elementary "building blocks", the "threads of reality" with which the SONIQ Trio creates a unique, multi-dimensional musical reality for the eleventh time. Jarry Singla, Ramesh Shotham and Christina Fuchs see themselves on the one hand as "intercultural conductors". On the other hand, they also significantly shape the emerging sound cosmos through their compositional and improvisational contributions, which draw from a rich, cross-cultural and cross-genre fund.