ORGAN SEQUENCES XXXVI

THE INTERNATIONAL NOTHING
Kai Fagaschinski + Michael Thieke
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JESSIE MARINO + WERNER DURAND + WERNER DAFELDECKER

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RÉGIS LEMBERTHE
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SOPHIE RENGER + ROMAIN C. BERTHEAU
Play Eva-Maria Houben



doors 5.30 pm
starts 6.00 pm



Kai Fagaschinski and Michael Thieke

Kai Fagaschinski, born in 1974 in Dannenberg/Elbe, Germany, is a clarinetist and composer. He has lived in Berlin since 1996. His practice explores sound and noise phenomena, with particular attention to subtle timbral and acoustic phenomena. His approach combines composition and improvisation and often involves long-term work within stable ensembles and collaborations. He is co-founder of The International Nothing, together with Michael Thieke, and is also a member of several other formations and projects connected to Berlin’s experimental music scene. He has presented his music in numerous countries across Europe, as well as in North America and Asia, and has released recordings on various international labels.

Michael Thieke, born in 1971 in Düsseldorf, is a clarinetist, composer, and performer based in Berlin. His practice moves across different forms of experimental music, including experimental song, collective composition, improvisation, and areas bordering on jazz. He pays particular attention to the details of sound, timbre, and noise, as well as to microtonality and related acoustic phenomena. Slowness is also an important aspect of his research. He favors long-term collaborations and collective work. His numerous projects include The International Nothing with Kai Fagaschinski, the Splitter Orchester, The Magic I.D., Porta Chiusa, and several formations with musicians from the European experimental music scene.

https://theinternationalnothing.bandcamp.com/album/just-none-of-those-things?utm_source=chatgpt.com


Jessie Marino

Jessie Marino is an American composer, performer, and multimedia artist based in Berlin. Born in 1984 on Long Island, she studied experimental music and composition at Wesleyan University with Alvin Lucier and Ronald Kuivila, and later earned a PhD in music composition at Stanford University, where she worked with sound artist Paul DeMarinis. Her practice expands the notion of composition to include video, gesture, light, narrative, and staging. She received the Rome Prize in Musical Composition in 2018 and the Fromm Composition Prize from Harvard University in 2020. Her work has been presented and commissioned by numerous ensembles and festivals internationally. She was also a member and co-artistic director of Ensemble Pamplemousse from 2006 to 2019. She has taught and lectured at various institutions in the United States and Europe and was a guest professor in Experimental Performance Practice at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart in 2021–2022.


https://harlowetc.bandcamp.com/?utm_source=chatgpt.com


Werner Durand

Werner Durand is a German composer, improviser, instrumentalist, and sound artist. Since the late 1970s, he has developed a practice centered on saxophones, the Iranian ney, and self-built wind instruments. He studied with Ariel Kalma in Paris, classical Indian music in India and Berlin with Kamalesh Maitra, and the Iranian ney with Ali Reza Asgharia. In the early 1980s, he began constructing his own wind instruments from materials including plexiglass and PVC, which eventually led to the creation of The Thirteenth Tribe in 1990. He has collaborated with artists including David Behrman, David Moss, Fatima Miranda, Muslimgauze, and Arnold Dreyblatt, and was a member of Dreyblatt’s Orchestra of Excited Strings from 1990 to 1997. His work also includes compositions for theatre, dance, and radio. He lives and works in Berlin and performs internationally.

https://wernerdurand.bandcamp.com/album/hemispheres?utm_source=chatgpt.com


Werner Dafeldecker

Werner Dafeldecker is an Austrian musician, composer, and sound artist, born in Vienna in 1964. His work includes double bass, guitar, and electronics. Active professionally since 1986, he has worked extensively in contemporary music, improvisation, electronic music, and experimental practices. In 1992, he founded the ensemble Polwechsel with Michael Moser, which became an important formation within the European experimental and electroacoustic music scene. He is also a founding member of Ton.Art and Striped Roses and has collaborated with numerous musicians, including Radu Malfatti, Burkhard Stangl, Christof Kurzmann, Eugene Chadbourne, Jim O’Rourke, and Sunny Murray. As a composer, he has worked with graphic notation, Fluxus, minimal music, electroacoustics, and field recordings. In 1994, he also founded the label Durian Records with Uli Fussenegger.

https://wernerdafeldecker.bandcamp.com/album/paroxysm?utm_source=chatgpt.com


Régis Lemberthe

Régis Lemberthe is a sound artist and musician based in Berlin. His practice explores experimental methods of sound production and electronic devices. He works in particular with the no-input mixer, as well as with various systems that he describes through experiments in electroacoustic sound, coded sonic images, accidental wind instruments, and “phygital” forms of exploration. His projects include Noisette, Harmoni, Desktop Tunes, Orbital Resonance, and Glass Nest. He also collaborates with various artists and projects, including Analytical Engine, DFVOKKLL, TNCA, Or Sarfati, and Wissam Sader.

https://lemberthe.bandcamp.com/album/desktop-tunes


Sophie Renger

Sophie Renger is a recorder player and composer with a background in early and contemporary music. She studied at the MUK Vienna, where she obtained degrees in recorder performance and instrumental pedagogy with Thomas List. During her studies, she also received important impulses in electroacoustic composition from Eva Reiter. In 2021, she co-founded the artistic collective zone[27], dedicated to the relationship between movement and sound and to the creation of multisensory performances. In 2023, she participated in the Jeunesse Orkaan Akademie, receiving stage training that included theatre, the Alexander Technique, and bodywork. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in contemporary music at the UdK Berlin with Susanne Fröhlich. She also teaches recorder at the Musikschule Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg in Berlin.


Romain C. Bertheau

Romain C. Bertheau, born in 1983, is a composer, organist, pianist, harpsichordist, and noise musician. He also works with the no-input mixer and develops a practice connected to vaporwave. In 2001, he won first prize at the Euro-Région Arras International Piano Competition. In 2013, he also received first prize at the Maurizio Pratola International Early Music Competition. In 2014, he left Europe for Asia, where he recorded traditional music, before returning to Europe in 2019 and resuming his work as a composer and performer. His current practice focuses in particular on the organ and the no-input mixer. He is the creator and curator of the ORGAN SEQUENCES series and lives in Berlin.

Eva-Maria Houben

Eva-Maria Houben is a German composer, organist, and musicologist, born in 1955. She studied music education at the Folkwang-Musikhochschule Essen and organ with Gisbert Schneider, before completing a doctorate and habilitation in musicology. From 1993 to 2021, she was professor of music theory and contemporary music at Dortmund University. She has performed organ music for more than 30 years and is closely associated with the Wandelweiser group of composers.