By Paul Acquaro
If anything, Jazzfest Berlin’s curator Nadin Deventer and the team behind the Jazzfest Berlin have taken the constraints and unpredictability of these Corona ravaged times and crafted them into something even bigger. Other mediums that had already played a part in the previous two festivals have become core elements: namely the extension of the concert into the world beyond the festival’s main location and the multi-media works.
In addition to the work at the main concert hall at Silent Green, there are several commissioned multimedia works being presented at the Kuppelhalle. Revolving around the idea of ‘Outer Spaces’, the visions of Sun Ra, Thelonious Monk and other outwards looking cultural phenomenon inform site specific music, light, and video works. The artists include bassist Joel Grip with the ensemble “Topsi Unter Haltung” performing a ceremony in a “lost and reinvented artificial language” on Thursday (more info); Witch ’n’ Monk with LUX:NM and Jim Black: “FLUID FORMATIONS”, where percussionist Jim Black and the contemporary music ensemble LUX:NM perform to abstract video scores (more info); and “SUNNOSPHERE”, which finds the British pianist Alexander Hawkins and Berlin based video-artist and rapper Siska, working with a group of musicians to create an immersive sound world (more info)
Finally, or maybe firstly, leading up to the festival, the Berlin based “KIM Collective” – artists and musicians who have added to the in-person concert experience in previous editions with sprawling interactive sculptures and musical performances – has produced a series of videos highlighting the strange emptiness and performance-lessness of current times. From the American side, saxophonist Matana Roberts presents “Stay True” a provocative piece described as “a sonic meditation on American state sanctioned violence” (see here) and pianist Jason Moran contribute’s video based performance “Sayins” (watch here).
