Doors and Reception, 6pm
Artist Talk and Demonstration, 7pm
Tickets: Free!

Center for New Music
55 Taylor St, San Francisco, California 94102

Artist Statement
Meeting Hal Rammel in Chicago in 1987 was the decisive moment for me to open my eyes for experimental musical instrument (EMI) building, through his beautiful and imaginative work, generous friendship and the collaborations that we did. He also let me know about the inspiring network of inventors to be found in and around the magazine EMI, edited by Bart Hopkin. After some years, I also published an article about my work in there. To be invited to exhibit, some 30 years later, by Bart Hopkin, is like the journey has come to a full-circle and a dream come true. Although there is only space for some of my portable favorites, others will be displayed in photos and explanations.

The title refers to my noticing that every instrument I made has had a different kind of idea as a source. They are examples of dreams, whims, discoveries, chance occurrences, materials, playing methods etc. Funnily enough, never has the sound come first. A large part of the explanation for the multiplicity of sources of invention is an improvisatory practice and a surrealist, poetic attitude where playful, associative, analogic thinking comes before the goal-oriented approach that might follow.

I hope the exhibition will inspire both musicians and non-musicians, and hope that I too am inspired through the process of making it and meeting the people appearing at the exhibition.

Artist Bio
I am a multidisciplinary artist working mainly in the fields between free improvised music, experimental musical instruments making, sound poetry, text-sound composition, sound sculpture, sound installations, sound environments, workshops and lectures for all ages, and critical and poetic writing.

Since my education as a piano and harpsichord builder, which I graduated from with a Gesellenbrief in Germany 1996, I have been a freelance musician and artist as well as a piano technician. In 1999-2000 I studied at the Elektronmusikstudion in Stockholm in electro-acoustic music composition. I also have a background in butoh, theatre, and jesting.

At present (until May 2019), I am doing my master’s thesis which involves improvised music and an experimental musical instrument construction.

My main focus is in creating experimental musical instruments, or more precisely, poetic material interfaces for sound exploration and adventure. This also includes selected found objects that I use as instruments but which also become actors in a musical object theatre.

I have done several projects and interactions that involve available resources and found materials on sites that I come to more or less empty-handed.

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