Dulab Altaj + Dulab Alpaloma

Improvisationen in Form eines musikalischen Reigens mit Ensemble Extrakte und Special Guests

DULAB ALTAJ
As in every metropolis in the world, Berlin houses many musicians with different migrant backgrounds and are enriched with diverse musical traditions which they continue to practice in their current local communities. In other words: in Berlin Syrian Musicians play Syrian music for a public of Syrian origin, Iranians for the Iranians, Turks for the Turks and Chinese for the Chinese. Sometimes overlapping occurs and we either have a mixed audience or the musicians on stage are mixed. But the Syrian, Iranian or Chinese is just a guest and joins the idiom of th others - playing for example Jazz, the Syrian mixes in a Syrian coloring - his own musical tradition yet the tone of his musical expression is left out.
Composer Sandeep Bhagwati and concert manager Elke Moltrecht have tried to change this since 2013. They are convinced, considering the social reality of our cities today, that by ventilating Eurocentric opinions a new kind of music could be realized.
Playing together no musician should deny or renounce his own origin nor overpower others. The question is: how can one invent music with these many different idioms, based on flexibility towards the other, responsiveness and originating from their own language? They gathered a swarm of prominent musicians living in Berlin (in each case in their own genre), immigrants from China, Europe, India, Korea, Bulgaria, Syria, Australia, and the USA. They all belong to varied scenes like Jazz, Folk, Techno, Blues and also from European based concert forms like Barock and New Music.
Concerts were given in various formations in the Berliner Radialsystem, in the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, in the Martin Gropius Bau - where research was done on geographical, historical, etnic and social sturctures and together giving birth to a new kind of music fitting for a new global reality. In this context and during this continuing process a concept for a film and a video-concert installation was conceived at the end of 2019 with the name: Dulab-al-Taj.
Next to Elke Moltrecht and Sandeep Bhatwati, Australian composer Cathy Milliken, Bulgarian Music ethnoligists Deniza Popova, Syrian oud-player Farhan Sabbagh and documentary filmer Uli Aumüller cooperated.
We initially start with 12 musicians from abroad who have settled in Berlin. They should designate a place that means home to them today. Either Berlin as a whole as their new homeland or a specific spot which reminds them of the country they left. At these specific places every musician, by themselves, plays some improvisations on a given musical theme composed by Farhan Sabbagh on his oud.
Statements of the musicians to their choice: Sören Birke Klaus Janek Cathy Milliken Deniza Popova Farhan Sabagh Gregor Schulenburg Ravid Srinivasan Andi Teichmann Hannes Teichmann Wu Wei Yoo Hong Lucy Zhao
Dulab score
The improvisations are recorded in different ways - as accompaniment to the improvisations of the previous musician, as counterpart, or echo - and finishes with an improvised solo. The improvisations go back and forth (like 'Chinese Whispers' or 'Telephone') from musician to musician, every time newly interpreted and passed on. In the studio these soli are mixed with the recordings of the others and complemented with copies of the original melody so musical amateurs also understand the compositional structure of a Dulab.
What is a Dulab
The dulab (the wheel, the round - but also: the song) is a classical Arab variation of the European rondo form. The musicians begin by playing a relatively short melody together, which functions as a refrain, and then make place for a longer solo. Contrary to the rondo the refrain is not just repeated and embellished but always fancifully varied. The solo wanders around through the ensemble and every solo player comments on the previous one. The attraction of the Dulab in this constellation is that the melody and rhythm of the refrain is reflected and filtered by the difference in expression of the musicians.
The result is spacious air between the collective musical basis and the Dulab melody and rlating solos. The original arabic way of making music is now projected into a mixture of live analogue music and digital adaptation and the audience experiences and hears an abundance of different acoustic and visual homelands that are, while listening, understandably connected to each other. Arabian music did not just happen, nor did European, Indian or Chinese music and nor did "worldmusic". Music happens because of all the above examples.
In addition, every musician is invited in a short interview to describe why he or she picked this specific place in Berlin: This could be their own practice room, a concert hall in which they like to perform, a parc, a cafe, a bookshop or driving in a Mercedes Benz on the Freeway.

• Musikalische Realisation: Cathy Milliken nach einer Dulabmelodie von Farhan Sabbagh; Film und Ton: Uli Aumüller, Sebastian Rausch//inpetto filmproduktion; Projektleitung, künstlerische Realisation: Uli Aumüller, Cathy Milliken, Elke Moltrecht: »DULAB ALTAJ« Improvisation in Form eines musikalischen Reigens für 12 Musiker*innen an 12 Orten in Berlin (2020, UA 2021)

Ensemble Extrakte

Sören Birke, Mundharmonika, Musiker
Klaus Janek, Kontrabass, Musiker
Cathy Milliken, Oboen, Musikerin
Deniza Popova, Stimme, Musikerin
Farhan Sabbagh, Oud, Musiker
Gregor Schulenburg, Querflöte, Musiker
Ravi Srinivasan, Stimme, Musiker
Andi Teichmann, Live-Elektronik, Objekte, Musiker
Hannes Teichmann, Live Elektronik, Musiker
Wu Wei, Sheng, Musiker
Yoo Hong, Daegum, Musiker
Lucy Zhao, Pipa, Musikerin

Zwölf Musiker spielen an Lieblingsorten Improvisationen zu einem musikalischen Thema (Dulab/Rondo). Diese freie Improvisation wandert (wie beim Stille-Post-Spiel) von Musikerin zu Musiker, wird jeweils neu interpretiert und weiter gegeben.

• Regie: Uli Aumüller; Produzent: Hanne Kaisik; Kamera: Sebastian Rausch; Produktionsleitung: Elke Moltrecht; Musik: Cathy Milliken, Dietmar Wiesner; Redakteur: Christopher Janssen: »DULAB ALPALOMA« Improvisation in Form eines Reigens über die Melodie "La Paloma" von Sebastian de Yradier für 15 Musiker*innen aus Berlin (2021 UA)

Musiker*innen von Ensemble Extrakte und Special Guests

Bakr Khleifi, Oud, Musiker
Magdalena Kožená, Stimme, Musikerin
Silvia Ocougne, Gitarre, Musikerin
Safi, Gesang, Musikerin
Michael Schiefel, Stimme, Musiker
Joselyn B Smith, Gesang, Musikerin
Carolin Widmann, Geige, Musikerin
Sören Birke, Duduk, Maultrommel, Mundharmonika, Musiker
Klaus Janek, Kontrabass, Musiker
Gregor Schulenburg, Flöten, Kyotaku, Musiker
Ravi Srinivasan, Tabla, Udu, Stimme, Musiker
Andi Teichmann, Live-Elektronik, Processing, Musiker
Hannes Teichmann, Live-Elektronik, Processing, Musiker
Wu Wei, Sheng, Musiker
Lucy Zhao, Pipa, Musikerin

16 Musiker*innen mit unterschiedlichstem Background komponieren und improvisieren auf Grundlage einer der bekanntesten Melodien der Welt und reichen dieses weiter, bis am Ende die Melodie von La Paloma zu einer völlig neuen Komposition re-mixt wird.