KONFRONTATIONEN 2011 /Austria, 32nd festival for improvised, contemporary and ne

32. KONFRONTATIONEN 2011 /Austria

32^nd festival for improvised, contemporary and new music . Nickelsdorf

21– 24 July 2011

Jazzgalerie Nickelsdorf . Kleylehof . Protestant church

http://www.konfrontationen.at

We proudly announce that for the second time in its history Konfrontationen, the renowned international festival for improvised, contemporary and new music, will be held as a 4-day music event. This decision is also a result of the amazing feedback we got last year, and especially to accommodate the wish of our guests who travel hundreds or thousands of miles from all over Europe, Japan or the United States to listen to the music we present. 

It´s well known that the KONFRONTATIONEN festival is a festival of highlights. So let us start with the first one: Looking back to the very beginnings of the festival’s history in the late 1970s, it has been a main objective of the programme to work out the aspects of and differences between the Afro-American and European traditions of free jazz in order to present a wide and open vista for the interested audience. Both the Evan Parker Transatlantic 6tet and the project Freenology work out this idea, play with it and tell great transatlantic contemporary stories. This has nothing to do with melancholy but emphasises the characteristic of the KONFRONTATIONEN and the opportunity of “long term studies” of music developments together with musicians who are pioneers, who create the present and prepare the future. The future for a music that happens in the moment.

It is a great honour as well to present four brilliant pianists: Sophie Agnel/France, Magda Mayas/Germany, Manon-Liu Winter/Austria and Marilyn Crispell/USA share virtuoso technical skills and creativity. Freedom and diversity in using their instrument yields a great variety of complex and extensive sounds. Extensive sounds produced either in solo performances or in extraordinary ensembles, like Manon-Liu Winter with Franz Hautzinger´s Poet Congress or Magda Mayas with the trio Great Waitress.  Marilyn Crispell is not a big traveller, therefore Joëlle Léandre, one of the great protagonists of European improvised music, will use this rare appearance of the pianist in Europe for a coming together of two unique instrumentalists right at the KONFRONTATIONEN 2011.

"Hearing Marilyn Crispell play solo piano
is like monitoring an active volcano.
She is one of a very few pianists who rise
to the challenge of free jazz."
                               -The New York Times

KONFRONTATIONEN 2011 is a big gathering of both, internationally well-known artists as well as young musicians and brand new bands.

Broken Heart Collector (Maja Osojnik, Susanna Gartmayer & Bulbul) is a formation of musicians who are anchored in the Vienna improvised music scene and the challenge of the year “.... at the intersection of hardcore, avant-rock and experimental vocals and sounds. In a way on a meta-level and in a very good sense seriously looking for free spaces for innermusical reflection.”  http://brokenheartcollector.klingt.org/band.html

This year, a band from Lebanon will also join the festival. Founded after the civil war in 1998 Scrambeld Eggs are protagonists of the Beirut music scene. Influenced by post-punk, grunge and no wave, they got more and more in touch with the European improvised music activities and developed an autonomous identity of their music style, a fine mix of extreme sounds, always searching for harmony in the chaos.

Free spaces, avant-garde, free jazz, reflections and improvisation....music!

All these are thoughts and attitudes towards life, which where quite helpful in the late 1970s, when the people of Nickelsdorf were staring at the barbed wire which clearly identified the border between Austria and Hungary; helpful to install such a unique festival like the Konfrontationen. Nobody knows, if Hans Falb and the other co-founders thought at that time that this festival will survive the millennium, but it still exists, with all its noise and all the silence of music in progress.

Reflections and modifications in and about public space play an important role for soundart@nickelsdorf. Art in public spaces in general and in hindsight to the special area. Soundart@nickelsdorf is an expansion of the festival itself and guides the audience through spectacular walk-in sound installations, shows animated films, and produces sculpture art between images, sounds, tunes, and ambient noises.

You will find detailed information about the line-up and downloads as soon as possible at the website http://www.konfrontationen.at

If you need further information, please don´t hesitate to contact me.

Attached you will find the artists, the ticket prices and information about soundart@nickelsdorf.

I hope you’ll find free space in your media to announce our great festival or join the Konfrontationen 2011.   

The entire program you will find on our website: http://www.konfrontationen.at