Kategorie: Projects

Concept and curation: Andi & Hannes Teichmann, Tokyo curation: Makoto Oshiro

Marking the 60th anniversary of the Goethe-Institut Tokyo, this two-day exchange connected Tokyo and Berlin through a shared, resonating sound space.

For Telemusicking, we constructed nearly identical acoustic projection rooms in both cities, linked in a bidirectional sonic dialogue. The inspiration reaches back to Karlheinz Stockhausen’s time in
Japan, when, in the NHK Studio alongside its director Wataru Uenami and technicians Hiroshi
Shiotani, Shigeru Satō, and Akira Honma, he created Telemusik. In that work, Stockhausen drew rhythmic and temporal structures from Japanese ceremonial traditions, fusing them with global
musical sources through electronic modulation. The title itself — tele, from the Greek “far” –
reflects the bridging of distance, weaving traditional musics from around the world into a single electronic fabric.

Guided by Stockhausen’s idea of “mutual modulation” and the tele-perspective, we sought to create a multi-perspective musical space in which two locations shape and influence one another – not as the vision of a single composer, but as a collective act.

In both Berlin and Tokyo, we installed quadraphonic systems built to Stockhausen’s specifications for his tape works (Telemusik, Hymnen, etc.). Alongside acousmatic performances of works by Stockhausen and Yasunao Tone, musicians inhabited the shared sonic field. Quadraphonic concerts were recorded in one city, transmitted to the other, and vice versa. Simultaneous improvisations unfolded in both places, each becoming an acousmatic presence in the other before being transformed — using each other’s recordings as raw material — into a newly intertwined music.

Featuring works by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Yasunao Tone, and live performances by Mieko Suzuki (live electronics), Makoto Oshiro (sound objects), Naoko Kikuchi (koto), Gebrüder Teichmann (live sampling), YPY (electronics), Tatsuhisa Yamamoto (drums, percussion & objects), ju sei (songs & more), Tomoya Matsuura, and okachiho. Sound projection by Juan Verdaguer.

By revisiting ideas from the 1960s through today’s technologies and challenges, the project created a space for new artistic beginnings — rooted in history, yet future-facing.

Fieldlines took place in December 2019 in Rajasthan, India.

The project was made possible through a Goethe-Institut Co-Production Fund grant, in collaboration with the Magnetic Fields Festival, the Teichmann brothers, and Noland.

Over the course of ten days, we worked with North Indian folk musicians and experimental musician Bidisha Das from Kolkata. The participants’ musical traditions and life realities differed greatly from one another. Verbal communication was limited, passing through three translations: from English to Hindi, and from Hindi to local dialects. This made the process of finding a shared musical language in such a short time especially fascinating.

For rehearsals and recordings, we set up a room in the palace and began making music together in the week leading up to the festival. During the festival itself, we opened this room to the public, allowing visitors to directly experience the process. By the time of the final performance on the festival’s main stage, connections had formed — not only with the audience but also with the festival’s local staff — and these relationships carried over into the onstage atmosphere, despite the formal setting.

The process was accompanied by mediator Akshata Shetty and documented by the Delhi-based film collective Elefant.

Musicians: Hakim Khan (kamaicha), Kultla Khan (dholak), Firoz Khan (khartal), Sumitra Devi (vocals, harmonium), Gebrüder Teichmann (live electronics), Uli Teichmann (wind instruments), Bidisha Das (sound objects). Mediator: Akshata Shetty. Video documentation: Elefant film collective, Delhi

Article in Wild City Delhi

„Sacred Groves“ is the debut album by DJ Raph, a Nairobi-based electronic musician and producer known for his innovative approach to sound. The creation of Sacred Groves was closely linked to the project „Mash Up the Archive“, a collaboration between Iwalewahaus and Kenyan artist Sam Hopkins, which invited contemporary artists to engage critically and creatively with the Iwalewahaus’s extensive audio-visual collections. Through this process, DJ Raph recontextualized traditional African chants, rhythms, and ceremonial sounds, weaving them into rich, layered compositions that transcend genre boundaries while maintaining a deep respect for the source material.
The record, issued and produced in cooperation with Noland, represents a compelling fusion of electronic music with archival field recordings sourced from the Iwalewahaus in Bayreuth, Germany — a research and exhibition center dedicated to contemporary African and diaspora cultures.

Described as both a sonic ritual and an act of cultural preservation, Sacred Groves is not merely a remix of archival sounds but a dialogue between past and present, tradition and technology. It highlights the spiritual and symbolic power of sound in African cultures while introducing these elements to new audiences through a contemporary electronic music lens.
To mark the album’s release, a series of live events and listening sessions were held in both Europe and Africa. In Germany, DJ Raph presented the project at Berghain Kantine in Berlin and the Golden Pudel Club in Hamburg. These events introduced Sacred Groves to European audiences engaged in underground and experimental sound culture.

The project came full circle with a presentation in Nairobi, held at Kuona Art Trust, one of the city’s key platforms for contemporary art. This event was realized in collaboration with Sam Hopkins, Maasai Mbili Art Collective and local musicians. This Nairobi presentation not only reconnected the archival material with a local audience but also reactivated it within a living artistic dialogue.

Few countries were as strongly shaped by cultural clichés as Pakistan. The festival “From Inside to Way Out” sought to counter these common misrepresentations by showcasing a hybrid, at times queer, transcultural present of Pakistan. The three-day program over Pentecost weekend (May 13–15) brought together works by artists who uncovered surprising connections between Karachi and Berlin.
It was a program by HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin in cooperation with Andi and Hannes Teichmann.

The first of three thematic panel discussions focused on the history and current state of Pakistani cinema. Legendary film director Salmaan Peerzada from Lahore spoke with Berlin-based author Peter Pannke, and Shireen Pasha, head of the film department at the National College of Arts, presented contemporary short films from Pakistan together with Fouzia Usufzay.
On the second evening, the discussion turned to the possibilities of civil resistance in contemporary Karachi, using the example of “The Second Floor” (T2F), a project initiated by human rights activist Sabeen Mahmud, who had been murdered in 2015. Her mother, Mahenaz Mahmud, joined artists Bani Abidi, Khaula Jamil, Daniel Arthur Panjwaneey, and Andi Teichmann to reflect on her legacy and impact.
The final evening featured documentary films by Till Passow and Sadaat Munir, exploring contemporary expressions of identity that transcended conventional boundaries while remaining connected to ancient traditions.
A photo exhibition by Khaula Jamil and Pablo Lauf accompanied the festival. In front of HAU2, artists Sonya Schönberger and Shahana Rajani presented an audiowalk, merging their long-term research with eyewitness accounts from the 1947 Partition of India and World War II in Europe.

A highlight of the weekend was the live concert featuring 12 musicians from Karachi and Berlin, celebrating the release of the electronic album “Karachi Files”, recorded during a Soundcamp organized by the Goethe-Institut in collaboration with the Gebrüder Teichmann and the Forever South collective.

The festival concluded with a revival of the popular Pakistani late-night talk show “Begum Tonight”, which had been taken off the air under government pressure. Host Ali Saleem, performing as his drag persona Begum Nawazish, welcomed a variety of illustrious guests on the stage of HAU1.

In May 2015, experimental electronic musicians from Germany, Pakistan, and the Maldives answered the call of Andi & Hannes Teichmann, the Forever South Crew, and the Goethe-Institut to come together in Karachi, Pakistan. A house was transformed into a temporary recording studio — a space to connect, inspire, record, perform, eat, and occasionally sleep.
The resulting recordings were compiled into the album Karachi Files, which became the first release on Teichmann’s new label and project imprint, NOLAND. The album was released in May 2016.

Participating artists:
rRoxymore (Germany/France),
Rudoh (Pakistan),
Dynoman (Pakistan),
Toll Crane (Pakistan),
Alien Panda Jury (Pakistan),
Natasha Humera Ejaz (Pakistan),
Menimal (Maldives),
Taprikk Sweeze (Germany),
Arttu (aka Lump) (Germany/Finland),
Ramsha Shakeel (Pakistan/Canada),
Gebrüder Teichmann (Germany),
and Berlin-based photographer Pablo Lauf.

In February 2015, experimental musicians from Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Germany responded to an invitation from Andi & Hannes Teichmann, Can “Khan” Oral, and the Goethe-Institut to gather in the magical village of Malinalco, Mexico. There, they came together to form the band Mondmaschine.

In collaboration with the Mexican video art duo Viral Inc., they created a Jodorowsky-inspired music film exploring the cycle of life. It was shot in the local surroundings and premiered with a live soundtrack by Mondmaschine at the Nrmal Festival 2015 in Mexico City and Wassermusik Festival Berlin 2016

Participating musicians:
Andi Teichmann (Live Electronics, Germany),
Can “Khan” Oral (Vocoder/Ukulele, Germany),
Clau Fernández (Bass/Guitar, Mexico/USA),
Hannes Teichmann (Synths/Processing, Germany),
Ingmar Herrera (Electric Sax/Percussion, Panama),
Julian Bonequi (Extended Drums, Mexico),
Mabe Fratti (Cello/Vocals, Guatemala),
Ronald Bustamante (Electric Guitar/Laptop, Costa Rica),
Uli Teichmann (Flute/Clarinet, Germany),
Santi Rodríguez (Sound Engineer, Mexico),
Ali Mejía (Camera A / Live Timecode, Mexico),
Eric Erre (Realtime Videomix/Post, Mexico)

Guest musicians:
Gudrun Gut (Electronics, Germany),
Hans-Joachim Irmler (Synth/Organ, Germany)

Production:
Volkmar Liebig (Goethe-Institut Mexico),
Eloisa Suarez (Goethe-Institut Mexico)

Ten cities, two continents, three disciplines — the project TEN CITIES brought together around 50 DJs, producers, and musicians from Berlin, Bristol, Johannesburg, Cairo, Kyiv, Lagos, Lisbon, Luanda, Nairobi, and Naples. The aim was to create collaborative music and facilitate an exchange of knowledge about the club scenes in each of these cities.

At the same time, a research component explored the concept of the public sphere through the lens of club culture. Twenty-three researchers contributed essays and studies that examined these often overlooked music scenes and their subcultures, while ten photographers captured artistic perspectives on the same themes.
The musical outcome has been released on the album TEN CITIES via Soundway Records.
Research and photography have been published in the book TEN CITIES via Spector Books

https://spectorbooks.com/book/ten-cities

TEN CITIES was organized by the Goethe-Institut Kenya, Adaptr.org, C/O Berlin, the Centre of Postcolonial Studies at the University of Naples (Italy), and a network of partners across all ten cities.

From July 27 to August 12, 2012, a group of electronic musicians and sound artists from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Germany, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka came together for two weeks of creative exchange on Ruskin Island, Sri Lanka.
The gathering aimed to share knowledge and ideas, foster collaboration, and build lasting connections. Sri Lanka was chosen as the location because it was the only country where participants from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India could all obtain visas.

The results of their musical collaborations were showcased at the Pettah Interchange in Colombo in 2012. In the years that followed, Pettah Interchange grew into an influential independent festival and became a key space for Sri Lanka’s electronic underground scene.
Soundcamp is organized in cooperation with Goethe-Institut Delhi, Goethe Institute Colombo.

NRBLN – BLNRB is a music project that merges the club music scenes in Berlin and Nairobi
BLNRB is initiated & organized with Goethe-Institut Nairobi.

In early 2009, three bands from the world-reknown Berlin electronic music scene set out to a journey, their destination: Nairobi, Kenya, in East Africa. The idea ‘Berlin meets Nairobi’, brainchild of Goethe-Institut Nairobi and electronic music duo Gebrüder Teichmann, was as simple as it was complex at the same time. Berlin musicians would come to this vibrant East African metropolis and meet, mix and mingle with artists from the local music scene.
The name of the project became BLNRB-NRBLN, a fusion of the colloquial abbreviations of the two cities involved. From Berlin, there were Modeselektor, the hyperactive breakbeat-duo, curious electronic producers Gebrüder Teichmann and Jahcoozi, the multicultural star trio composed of Dubstep, Grime Rave and hyper-sonic Electronica. From Kenya, rappers like Mister Abbas, Kimya and Lon ́Jon or the first lady of Kenyan rap, Nazizi, became part of the joint collaboration. The electropop band Just A Band and blind singer/guitarist Michel Ongaro also contributed their flavors. In addition, six members of the HipHop collective Ukoo Flani from the coastal city of Mombasa were a key part of the body of MCs who would turn up every day and night.

Two studios were established in a townhouse in Nairobi, where everyone in the project worked, performed and lived together. The above-mentioned bands were invited but word spread like fire within Nairobi’s music scene. Quickly there was a frenzy of artists coming and going, the now infamous Madhouse was born.
After a first concert in Nairobi in 2009, the Berliners went back to Kenya in spring 2010 for a few weeks, and it was during this period, that the first recordings of the presented tracks were made. In December 2010, the musicians from Nairobi came to Berlin for a concert night that celebrated the collaboration during the Worldtronics Festival at Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin with.