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.