Trio Nicolai / Ruffing / Tataroglou
The trio of Giancarlo Nicolai, Eric Ruffing and Tassos Tataroglou from Basel, Switzerland, in the framework of their European tour, visits KET. They will present two of their compositions, “Leuchtfeuer” and “三曲 Sankyoku”. Special guests: Dimos Vryzas and Nefeli Stamatogiannopoulou.
The trio was formed during the Covid pandemic in 2020 and has been working in the field of free improvisation and experimental music ever since. As a part of their improvisation practice, they consistently explore the fields between open composition and conceptual improvisation.
Giancarlo Nicolai – electric ukulele, objects, effects
Eric Ruffing – analogue synthesizer, tapes, field recordings
Tassos Tataroglou – microtone-duplex trumpet, shakuhachi, electronics
A few words about the compositions:
Leuchtfeuer
for Improvisation-trio and Tape / Tassos Tataroglou, duration 45′
Leuchtfeuer is a conceptual piece where non-idiomatic improvisation is structured through external sources. Lighthouses, for centuries symbols of the importance of communication, are asked now to fulfill a similar function in a new context: to enrich communication between the improvisers and help to create new macrostructures in the musical narrative. Flashing patterns from 6 lighthouses from the Mediterranean and Baltic Seas were analyzed and transformed into sound motifs by the trio. Every motif along with field recordings made on ships at the North Sea by Eric Ruffing are part of the Tape. Lighthouse signals are coded signals, meaning that they can be seen from a great distance by ships and identified as location markers, therefore each lighthouse sends a unique signal, similar to the Morse code that can be interpreted by sailors. Nowadays, 8 different types of signals are used in relation to the amount of light / darkness and the kind of pattern they send. In Leuchtfeuer are used signals from Flashing Lighthouses, which have a periodic signal with a length of 3 to 30 seconds and a predetermined number of flashes at specific times. For instance, the lighthouse at the Old Fortress on the island of Corfu in Greece has a period of 6 seconds with a total of two flashes, one on the 1st and one on the 3rd second of the period. The order of the lighthouse signals and the field recordings used in the piece is decided every time before the performance through a random generator and therefore every concert remains improvised. The irregularities of the lighthouse signals, on the one hand, complicate planning and increase unpredictability, and on the other hand, the periodic arrangement in each signal leads to a discrete macrostructure. Or perhaps it creates a field of tension in which new possibilities keep opening up?
三曲 Sankyoku
for Shakuhachi, El. Ukulele & Electronics / Eric Ruffing, duration 20′
The term Sankyoku refers to a traditional form of Japanese chamber music since the late 17th century and means something like “music for three”. The bamboo flute Shakuhachi, with its (far eastern) idiomatic gesture, fuses with (western) contemporary-experimental sounds or is contrasted with them. Sound fragments from the Honkyoku tradition and improvised shakuhachi sequences meet an improvisational electric ukulele and an electronically abstract sound world, which also contains playbacks of pre-produced shakuhachi sound recordings and concrete sounds. The form, time scale and expressive density of the joint improvisation are structured by a central principle of Japanese traditional music and general arts, the jo-ha-kyū, which is also reflected in the flower and tea ceremony.
Giancarlo Nicolai lives in Basel. He is a son of Italian parents, guitarist, composer and improviser since 1977. Degrees from the Swiss Jazz School Bern, the Musicians Institute of Technology Los Angeles/USA, the Swiss Academy for Music and Music Education and the Music Academy Basel. Student of Joe Pass, jazz master class with Joe Diorio and Jerry Bergonzi, seminars for guitar with Mike Stern and Chico Perez and for composition with Ennio Morricone. Improvisation with Fred Frith and Alfred Zimmerlin. Long-time partner of Peter Schärli and John Tchicai, tours in Western and Eastern Europe. Numerous recordings, e.g. on the British label Leo Records. Current projects: Trio “puun tiet” with Anna-Kaisa Meklin (viola da gamba) and Christoph Schiller (spinet), Trio Meklin/Nicolai/Weiss with Sandra Weiss (bassoon, sax) and Basel’s Unorthodox Jukebox Orchestra
www.giancarlo.nicolai.ch/home.html
Eric Ruffing, was born in Frankfurt (Germany), and has lived in Basel (Switzerland) since 2005 and worked there as a social and special education teacher/music therapist from 1993 to 2022. Students in Albert Mangelsdorff’s improvisation class at the Frankfurt Dr. Hoch’s Conservatory. He works with the modular synthesizer EMS Synthi ‘A’, in combination with the EMS Keyboard Controller DK-1, Theremin and other voltage-controlling devices, and he is dedicated in experimental, electro-acoustic and contemporary improvised music. From 2011 to 2023, he was responsible for music programme of the “Forum for Improvised Music + Dance-Performance-Multimedia (FIM) Basel”. Member of the Unorthodox Jukebox Orchestra (Basel), GONG improvisation orchestra (Aarau) and Insub Meta Orchestra (Geneva), concert tours in Germany, France, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Serbia, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Hungary
Tassos Tataroglou, born in Thessaloniki (Greece), is an improvisor/composer, multi-instrumentalist and choir director. He has lived in Basel since 2013. He studied classical trumpet, music theory and pedagogics in Greece. Postgraduate studies in contemporary improvisation with Fred Frith and Alfred Zimmerlin at the Basel University of Music. Further studies in choral conducting at the Basel Academy of Music as well as Shakuhachi studies with Seian Genshin (Kyoto), Marek Kimei Matvija (Prague) and Ueli Fuyûru Derendinger (Basel). In 2017 he designed the m-d trumpet, through which he expanded the trumpet’s tonal and timbral possibilities in the field of electro-acoustic music significantly. His long-time research on the manipulation of feedback loops led him to develop a unique way to use the trumpet as a musical instrument as well as an analogue controller of a synthesizer simultaneously. Member of the Insub Meta Orchestra (Geneva) and the Unorthodox Jukebox Orchestra (Basel). He has performed at numerous festivals and venues across Europe and Russia. In June 2023 he presented his research on the performance of Honkyoku (traditional japanese music for solo shakuhachi) with the m-d trumpet at the International Shakuhachi Festival of Prague (CZ). He has recorded four personal albums and made numerous other contributions. His arrangement of Tsuru no Sugomori – Renpoken in western staff notation has been highly appreciated by shakuhachi experts around the world as well as by academic institutions.
Nefeli Stamatogiannopoulou is a composer and performer based in Athens. She has composed personal works, music for many performances and for cinema, where she has been awarded prizes. She uses in her musical practice double bass, electric bass, electronic elements, piano and voice. She started music lessons at an early age. Having already obtained a certificate from the Royal School of Music, she began her studies at the Department of Music Studies of the Ionian University. She pursued the direction of composition. She became involved in improvisation and emphasized composition in relation to movement. She also attended the postgraduate course “Composition for Film, Theatre and Performing Arts” at the Ionian University. She participated for many years in masterclasses/seminars on physical theatre, voice and composition under the auspices of the Grotowski Institute (PLN), Song of the Goat Theater (PLN), L.I.S.P.A. (DE), Kristin Linklater Voice Centre (UK). She is a composer and founder of, among others, the music group Spooky RedRum and the research art group On Off as well as the On Off Studio. She has created a personal artistic vocabulary, which evolves each year in conversation with other artists and her students. She is a PhD candidate at the Department of Music Studies of the Ionian University. She teaches seminar courses in Greece and abroad and at the Ionian University as a guest lecturer.
Dimos Vryzas is a violinist, improviser, sound artist and composer from Thessaloniki, Greece. For several years now his focus in music has moved toward free improvisation. He studied improvisation with
Fred Frith and Alfred Zimmerlin. With a unique approach that comes out of a comprehensive spectrum of influences, from classical and folk music to rock, noise and ambient music, he is interested in exploring the limits of his instrument, working with the contrasts of acoustic / electric sound and exploring new ways of expression within music. While the violin is the main source of his sound, he often uses his voice as well as other instruments. Creating various soundscapes, audio podcasts, working with noises, composing music for film and theater are also at the core of his work. As an improviser he performs solo as well as in a variety of other formations. He has collaborated with many composers, visual artists, directors and dancers in various interdisciplinary projects all over Europe. He is a member of the drone improvisation trio “Life Only” (w/Fred Frith, Diego Aguirre), of the duo Miracapillo/Vryzas (w/Valeria Miracapillo), the duo Karbacher/Vryzas (w/Eva-Maria Karbacher) and the trio “The Coal” (w/Simos Riniotis and Yannis Arapis). In recent years, he has been travelling, recording and performing with many great musicians in Greece, Switzerland, Portugal, France, Belgium, Germany and more.
With the support of Fondation Nicati-de Luze and Fondation Suissa.