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UNCOOL
music for cosmic life
Valposchiavo 18 - 24 June 2012
UNCOOL 2012 is dedicated to Michael Ray
program >>> www.uncool.ch
tourist Info >>> www.valposchiavo.ch
train connection >>> www.sbb.ch und www.rhb.ch
This year again (but probably really for the last time) the Culture Association la ciaf under the direction of Cornelia Müller has managed to make a wonderful festival grow and flourish from the meager soil of the alpine valley of the Grisons. Between June 18 and 24 many internationally renowned musicians will come to Poschiavo to give workshops in the schools of the surrounding communities, to perform and show their exhibitions and take us away into their fascinating and extraordinary sonic universes.
The festival is dedicated to MICHAEL RAY, the virtuoso trumpet player of the SUN RA ARKESTRA. He has been praised by Sun Ra himself as a "true sonic scientist of intergalactic research" but he has also played on numerous gold- and platinum records of Kool & the Gang. He will play a solo concert on Alpe Palü on Sunday.
The SUN RA ARKESTRA under the direction of Marshall Allen will perform in a spectacular, extended line-up with string section, dancers and actors. With two really multi-media performances with sound, dance, theatre and light-imagery about AKHENATEN and OEDIPUS they will change the Piazza in Poschiavo into a truly cathartic Omniverse. It will be a globally unique opportunity to see one of the most famous big-bands in Jazz history perform compositions that Marshall Allen wrote especially for this generous multimedia line-up. On this occasion Hartmut Geerken will hold the 17th INTERNATIONAL SUN RA CONVENTION in Poschiavo during the festival.
We are pleased to welcome PETER GIGER at our festival; he is an excellent representative of the many outstanding drum virtuosos of Switzerland. Not only due to his work with FAMILY OF PERCUSSION with Trilok Gurtu, Dough Hammond and Tom Nicholas, he is renowned as a classical pioneer of a world music-orientated polyrhythmic drumming style.
In addition to the program on the main stage at the Piazza Poschiavo, there will be many other events at Cinema Rio, Galleria PGI and the culture space Lo Spazio – vernissage concert by OLAF RUPP. The futurologists Jacques Fresco and Roxanne Meadows will show films and talk about their visionary VENUS PROJECT. Under the title THE REALM OF LIGHTENING label operator and music- and theater connoisseur Peter Dennett will show projections about the different developments in cover-art on the labels Saturn, El Saturn and Art Yard. There will be an exhibition by the Cuban artist NELSON LADICIANI and ISA MEHNERT will show the costume designs she made for the performances AKHENATEN and OEDIPUS.
In the morning there will be a very special opportunity to experience the beauty of the alpine landscape of Poschiavo: MARCO LAVIZZARI is blind and he invites us to accompany him when he is walking in nature under the guidance of his dog. So it is possible, that seeing people can get an idea of how blinds are experiencing the beauty of nature in their very own way. FLAVIO ALESSI is not blind, but he also offers a guided walk in the mountains with a similar intention but focusing more on meditation and dialogue with nature.
Berlin based video artist GÖTZ ROGGE will create an interactive projection environment for the performances AKHENATEN and OEDIPUS and during the whole festival he will show for the first time his video work AMNESIA’S LANDSCAPE at the Galleria PGI. It deals with the fragmented memories of spaces and architecture and "places that tell a lot and conceal a lot".
We are proud to be able to have such a number of international artists here in Poschiavo. We are happy that, despite of the shockingly poor support from the municipality of Poschiavo, it was possible to set up the festival and we still hope that in future years there will be a way to invite all these numerous enthusiastic fans of the UNCOOL festival to spend a musical holiday in the valley of Poschiavo.
program >>> www.uncool.ch
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