Commissions to Alex Paxton, Hugo van Rechem & Raimonda Žiukaite

As part of Into the Open – Music Festival 2025, RCCR Projects is awarding three commissions to Alex Paxton, Hugo van Rechem and Raimonda Žiukaite, made possible by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.

Into the Open is the music festival of the new generation that connects young musicians in flexible ensembles with artists from other genres such as dance, electronics, theatre or video art in order to bring “classical” music to life through new event forms. The festival was founded in the summer of 2020 and continued to grow in the following years through partnerships with cultural institutions in several regions of Germany. In 2023, ITO was presented as an independent festival in Berlin. The second edition followed in January 2024 under the guiding theme Visions and presented two commissioned compositions for the first time with the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. From 2025, the festival will be expanded into a European festival with the support of the EU. The main theme is Rituals.

Alex Paxton’s work Big Gay Cartoon Machine is for trio (trombone, drum kit and piano). “The piece represents new territory for me as a composer, as it concentrates the intensity of my musical language (which largely exists in larger, fully notated ensembles) in a new form of a trio of rhythm/jazz musicians. The sound language will be recognisable as my voice, but it will be groovier, which suits the nature of the musicians in the ensemble. The world of electronics and samples that the piece plays with is recognisable from my previous works, but with a new feel as it is translated into this ‘rhythmic music world’.”

Raimonda Žiukaite writes her work Rituals of desire for the female ensemble Narkose for voice, electric guitar, live electronics and violin. The composition explores the symbiotic relationship between movement and sound in the form of a ritual inspired by dark folklore. The initial phase of the performance focuses on causal opacity, a crucial element of ritual. Causal opacity refers to the lack of an obvious physical causal relationship between an action and its ultimate goal. The idea of causal opacity is realised in the performance in the form of body movements and gestures. Instruments and sounds are interpreted as ritual tools and incantations required for a ceremony.

Hugo van Rechem’s work bears the title kollektive MAL(A)K(h)UT(h) – dream crafting and is performed by four singers and piano, Armenian flute and percussion. The work is planned for the opening concert of Into the Open and explores the connection between different European musical traditions. 4 singers with different musical and cultural backgrounds move freely in the space. At first, they perform independently, as if they were alone. On stage, the instrumentalists begin to react to the sound, which leads to changes in the singing and new sound material gradually emerges. As the singers’ “sound ballet” becomes more and more complex, the use of samples from war archives of the past and present begins to be interrupted, resulting in a chaos of sound.

Further information:
intotheopen.eu

Dates

January 28, 30, 31 and February 01, 02, 2025
Kühlhaus Berlin