Instrumentarium II (BWPWAP and The Golden Age Edition)

Instrumentarium is a performance series for musicians in separate rooms orchestrated by Berlin sound artist Boris Hegenbart in collaboration with various guest musicians. For the Special Edition BWPWAP and The Golden Age, he invited avant-garde cosmonaut Felix Kubin. Together they lift Instrumentarium to a new level and present the performance from a far away place: Pluto.

The setting is reminiscent of a studio production, from the dub music scene in particular. Two musicians play in two acoustically separate rooms: they play together, but their communication is restricted. The limited information flow is the Instrumentarium’s object of musical design. Composer Boris Hegenbart sits with his laptop and mixer in the middle of the audience in front of an empty stage, while his duet partner is located in another room. Sound and image transmission connect the two musicians, whereas the “absent” artist is isolated, similar to being in sensory deprivation: He never sees his partner and whether or not the sounds played through his headphones are those that Hegenbart simultaneously plays in the concert remains uncertain. However, the mute, surveillance-camera-like black and white video image is authentic, live and unedited. The audience must “believe” in the authenticity, that is, however, impossible to prove in a digital world of media.

In collaboration with CTM Festival