PARADE – Peripatetic Music from All Points of the Compass
Press Conference
Friday 17 April 2009
Eight musical groups from different parts of our world will cook up a fascinating blend of strange and familiar environments—from archaic-sounding antelope horns to an updated version of the alphorn, from the balafon (African xylophone) to the bagpipes. But this isn’t a matter of the geographical origins of the various musical styles; instead, the point is to orchestrate their interaction. This won’t be a world music spectacle but rather a musical experiment.
The groups—ranging in size from duos to bands of 30—will be parading along a variety of routes. They’ll be hanging out for a while or passing through on the fly, meeting up with one another and doing a bit of spontaneous jamming—whatever the situation calls for.
What do antelope horns and drums from Tonga sound like when they meet up with Austrian brass music or zumari horns from Zanzibar? How are Swiss alphorn players and wandering balafon musicians from West Africa going to groove with master drummers from the foothills of the Himalayas? And how will that sound reverberate among housing projects, within factories and off fortress walls?
In this barrier-free environment, the PARADE audience will find itself in new roles: taken by surprise, encircled, involved. In this interplay of approach and withdrawal, the cityscape will be musically redefined. PARADE will open up the ears and expand the horizons of this town.
PARADE
WHAT // A musical urban walk-about
WHERE // From solarCity through the harbor district and up Pöstlingberg
WHEN // May 1-3, 2009
www.linz09.at/parade
Press kit available only in German
