Following its astounding Berlin premiere in January, composer and pianist Michael Wollny challenges how Bauhaus manifesto could be translated into today’s sound. The pianist plays opposite the mechanics of the ‘phonola’, a music machine from 1920’s that operates a second grand piano programmed by Wolfgang Heisig. Improvisation versus composition, organic versus structural, presents a field of tension accompanied by Émile Parisien (saxophone), Leafcutter John (electronics) and Max Stadtfeld (drums) ‘playing’ the materials of the Bauhaus – wood, glass, metal, clay, stone and fabric – and the wild dance music of the legendary Bauhaus Orchestra.
