Belgrade, REX - Cultural Center B92 - Jun 10th 2008, 20:30h
Thomas Köner and Asmus Tietchens: Kontakt Der Jünglinge
Kontakt Der Jünglinge is a project that is a product of cooperation between two eminent German musicians. It has brought together artists belonging to two generations, uncompromisingly promoting inventiveness in working with electronic sounds. Asmus Tithens is one of the pioneers of the electronic music whose work won recognition both in the academic community (since 1989 he has taught at the Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften Hamburg) and the professional circles, which brought him some of the most important German awards in the field of tonal art (including the Karl-Sczuka-Preis für Akustische Kunst award which he won not once but two times in 2003 and 2006 in Donaueschinger).Thomas Köner is one of the most successful video artists who won the most prestigious international awards such as Golden Nica, Prix Ars Electronica, Linz, Transmediale.05 Award, Berlin and Tiger Cub Award, at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. The Kontakt der Jünglinge project is a tribute to the works of Karlheinz Stockhausen. The name of the project is a combination of the titles of two of his pieces, namely, Gesange der Jünglinge, as one of the touchstones the history of electronic music and Kontakte, as a paradigmatic example of music that broadens the perspectives of sound. This tribute is an attempt by the members of Kontakt der Jünglinge to highlight their own adherence to the rich tradition of electronic music in Germany, both in terms of spiritual links and poetics.
Just as the development of electronic music can be viewed as a transcendent evolution guided by its inherent need to overcome horizons once that they have been reached, the performances of Kontakt der Jünglinge are always intuitive personal explorations of sonic material resulting in unexpected and exciting modern music.
The project is part of the Explicit Music concert series organized by CHINCH - the initiative for contemporary music and the Zagreb-based Multimedia Institute with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia and the City Secretariat for Culture, Belgrade