8 pm | BEINGFIVE
Together since 2019, a mostly Berlin-based ensemble led by Montreal clarinettist Lori Freedman, BeingFive is made up of musicians hailing from everywhere but Berlin. With the vast capabilities of sound production from each of its members, the group can sound like it is anywhere from 1 musician to 5, to 50 musicians. The overall vocabulary of BeingFive is stupefying but what they have to “say” with this palette, unmistakably their own, will open the listener’s mind, body and spirit to a wondrous wilderness.
Yorgos Dimitriadis, born 1964 in Thessaloniki Greece, is an experimental musician, composer performer based in Berlin. Using percussion, microphones, field recordings and minimal electronics his music focuses on real time sonic landscapes, with an emphasis on timbre, sound color and long durations.
Axel Dörner, trumpet, electronics and composition, was born in Cologne, Germany, 1964 and moved to Berlin in 1994. He has worked with numerous internationally respected figures in the fields of improvised, electronic, composed contemporary music and jazz. He has developed a unique style of trumpet playing based in part on unusual, often self-invented techniques. Concert tours in Europe, North and South America, Africa, Australia, and Asia and appearance on numerous CD and record releases.
Lori Freedman is a 21st century clarinet player. Equally active in both improvised and written contemporary music, in addition to touring, recording and giving workshops, Freedman also writes music for an eclectic group of musicians, dancers, experimental film and video. As an interpretive performer hundreds of works have been dedicated to and/or premiered by Freedman.
Andrea Parkins is a sound artist, composer, and electroacoustic improviser. As a performer, she is known for her pioneering approach with her electronically processed accordion, and investigation of embodiment and chance with an array of sonic materials: employing amplified objects, electronic feedback and her custom-built software instrument. Parkins’ projects have been presented internationally and her work can be heard on numerous recordings.
Christopher A. Williams (1981, San Diego) makes, curates, and researches (mostly) experimental music. From 2021-2025 he will lead the research project “(Musical) Improvisation and Ethics” at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz. As a composer and contrabassist, Williams' work runs the gamut from chamber music, improvisation, and radio art to collaborations with dancers, sound artists, and visual artists. He co-curates the Berlin concert series Kontraklang.
9 pm | AMRITA
Soprano saxophonist Kayla Milmine and tabla player Anita Katakkar’s Amrita is like a canvas where shapes are formed by rhythmic grooves, the colour is spontaneous improvisation and the texture is an exploration of tone, timber and emotion.
Kayla Milmine loves the new and under-explored sonic possibilities that only the soprano saxophone can offer. Her unique approach has the edginess and brashness of Anthony Braxton and Roscoe Mitchell yet also a warmth and thoughtfulness reminiscent of Steve Lacy. In 2019, Milmine released a solo album called ‘Straight Horn Magick; a mixture of field recordings and solo soprano saxophone improvisations. She plays regularly in trio form with pianist Bill Gilliam and percussionist Ambrose Pottie, and in duo form with guitarist/composer Brian Abbott in their band FASTER. In February 2019, she was invited to record with celebrated bassist, William Parker in a chamber-improv sextet in NY, where she often travels to study with mentor/collaborator, Sam Newsome. She is presently composing for her new project, the ‘Kayla Milmine Quartet’ with aforementioned Sam Newsome, and drummers Mark Ferber and Rachel Housle. She is co-founder of the Women From Space Festival in Toronto.
With Indian Scottish roots in multicultural Toronto, Anita Katakkar’s music represents a link between her heritage and community. She is a multi-faceted composing, performing and recording artist, with a focus on North Indian tabla. Anita has studied tabla for over 20 years, in Toronto with composer and musician Ritesh Das, and in California and Kolkata with the celebrated tabla maestro of the Lucknow tradition, Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri. She has recorded tabla on the Juno award winning album Thieves of Dreams by Lenka Lichtenberg, and has shared the stage with the legendary bassist William Parker. Anita’s solo project called Rakkatak, presents classical tabla compositions using a palette of rhythm, melody and ambient textures. Rakkatak’s song, Heliosphere, is the opening to CBC Radio’s “Big City Small World” hosted by Errol Nazareth. Rakkatak has released an EP and 3 full length albums, including their latest Char Taal and a Raga Rainbow, released in 2021.
10 pm | THE END
Sofia Jernberg voice
Kjetil Møster sax, clarinet, electronics
Mats Gustafsson sax, flute, live electronics
Anders Hana guitar, bass, langeleik
Børge Fjordheim drums
A brand new Scandinavian powerhouse of experimental music was born in 2018. Collectively, the members of the group have worked in a huge variety of creative music ensembles over the past years: Cloroform, Møster, The Thing, Fire! & Fire! Orchestra, Ultralyd, MoHa, Sonic Youth, Refused, Paavo, Datarock, The Core, Noxact, NU-ensemble, Brutal Blues and many other essential groups within the creative music scene of today.
The End is a serious attempt to create new perspectives of contemporary experimental music – where elements of noise, melodies and layers of extreme energy can interact with the different backgrounds and experiences of the musicians and their work in genres as free jazz, noise, alternative rock, free improvised music, contemporary music, opera, Scandinavian & African folk traditions, grindcore, jazz and related activities!
…The sounds resemble the music genre favored by Don Cherry during his years in Sweden. It is world music, but one that claims no specific country of origin, nor for that matter, genre. The End fluctuates between folk, free jazz, hardcore, poetry and jazz rock.
Mark Corroto
$30 advance tickets (for 3 acts) via Eventbrite
$40 door
$85 festival weekend pass via Eventbrite
No one is refused admission for lack of funds
