FriForma, Confine Aperto and Defonija are joining forces at this year’s City Of Women festival   

Three Ljubljana-based concert cycles and their organizers are joining forces at a special event on 14 October: Zavod Sploh’s Confine Aperto, Miha Zadnikar’s Defonija and KUD Mreža’s FriForma are sharing an exciting evening with two sets of music as a side event of this year’s City Of Women / Mesto žensk festival, and presenting outstanding female artists in the main hall of Španski borci.

Both duo Nabelóse with Greek french horn player Elena Kakaliagou and Austrian pianist Ingrid Schmoliner, plus the trio of French vocalist-clarinettist Isabelle Duthoit, Mexican Paetzold recorder player Angélica Castelló and French pianist Sophie Agnel are making their debut appearance in Slovenia.

In the words of a review, the duo of Elena Kakaliagou and Ingrid Schmoliner “lights a fire in a remote mountain hut, sits us down in front of an ancient fireplace and wraps us up in a warm blanket”. The guests for the first set of the evening move from drone and folk to sovereign elements of freely improvised music, dealing with the position of women in Central European and Greek culture in a completely unique way, using their instruments as well as their voices. Top-class art that may be centuries old or is perhaps just being born – in this very moment. Magical!

We are unsure whether the music of the trio that will perform in the second part of the evening “comes from heaven or hell” – writes the Artacts Festival’s programme guide. Sophie Agnel tickles the ivory, dives deep into the piano’s gut and finally offers us a special voyage to space. Isabelle Duthoit first screams, cries, gargles and curses, then grabs her clarinet only to wring and stretch it, producing sounds which, with eyes closed, we cannot discern from her own voice. And finally comes Angélica Castelló, an amazing sound designer, adding electroacoustic pearls to this masterful ménage à trois. This is nothing else, but witchcraft!

See more City Of Women / Mesto žensk events at the annual festival’s website.

14 October 2018, Friday 21.00 – Španski borci, Ljubljana

FriForma residency with Annette Krebs and Jean-Luc Guionnet in Bistrica ob Sotli   

We are thrilled to announce the 3-day residency of German improviser, composer and sound artist Annette Krebs and French improviser, composer, saxophonist and organist Jean-Luc Guionnet from 27 until 29 June in Bistrica ob Sotli, rural Slovenia.

The goal of the artists’ residency is to rehearse and record new materials for a future recording release, produced in collaboration by KUD Mreža’s FriForma concert series and Ljubljana-based record label Inexhaustible Editions / Edition FriForma.

The residency concludes with a public performance by the duo of Annette Krebs (electronics) and Jean-Luc Guionnet (church organ) on 29 June, Friday at 8 pm at the beautiful church of St. Paul’s in Bistrica ob Sotli.

29 June 2018, Friday 20.00 – St. Paul Church, Bistrica of Sotli

New album Minton / Hübsch and start of Borderless Dissonance   

Duo Minton / Hübsch will present the Metal Breath debut, which will be released shortly before the concert by the Inexhaustible Editions (Ljubljana).

As part of the international project Borderless Dissonance, the new trio by Réka Kutas, Gašper Livk and Jakob Gnigler will be followed.

Phil Minton – voice / Carl Ludwig Hübsch – tuba
Borderless Dissonance # 1: Jakob Gnigler – saxophone / Rék Kutas – cello / Gašper Livk – double bass

You are kindly invited on 8 March 2018 at 20.00 to Klub Gromka!

Photo: Jože Balas

Nuclear Dream Weavers Compound at Klub Gromka   

In 2018, the year’s first FriForma event is happening in a special collaboration with Slovenia’s most prominent concert organizers for challenging music: Zavod Sploh’s Confine Aperto, Miha Zadnikar’s Defonija, HUD “O”s Rojišče, Klub Metulj’s Sunday Noise and KUD Mreža’s FriForma are sproudly present a newly born international free jazz octet on 11 January, Thursday 21.00 at Klub Gromka.

The seeds of this heavy-weight group have been planted at this year’s Improcon, and now, American vocalist Linda Sharrock and German saxophonist Mario Rechtern’s new group, Nuclear Dream Weavers Compound, featuring stellar musicians from Slovenia and Serbia – Marko Karlovčec on saxophones, Marina Džukljev on Fender Rhodes, Tomaž Grom and Jošt Drašler on double bass, Aleksandar Škorić and Vid Drašler on drums – is giving its first ever public performance in Ljubljana. This is going to be loud, fast and rather furious!

11 January 2018, Thursday 21.00 – Klub Gromka, Ljubljana

An evening of improvised music at City Of Women festival   

City Of Women, FriForma and Defonija are inviting you to a musically rich, structurally and thematically colourful evening of free improvised music on 12 October, Thursday at 9.30 pm to Klub Gromka in Ljubljana. Our guests come from different environments, having travelled different paths to their own improvising techniques, belonging to different generations, contemporary musical moments and most common social situations. Some of them have already performed together, other combinations we shall hear for the first time.

In six shorter appearances in different combinations, the following artists will be presented:

· Ute Wassermann (D) – voice
· Elisabeth Harnik (A) – piano
· Nina Polaschegg (A) – double bass
· Luisa Tucciariello (I) – voice
· Alison Blunt (GB) – violin
· Hannah Marshall (GB) – cello

The evening will conclude with the performance of the participants of the workshop conducted during the festival by Ute Wasserman and joined by vocalist Luisa Tucciariello.

12 October 2017, Thursday 21.30 – Klub Gromka, Ljubljana

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