Three Ljubljana-based concert cycles and their organizers are joining forces at a special event on 14 October: Zavod Sploh’s Confine Aperto, Miha Zadnikar’s Defonija and KUD Mreža’s FriForma are sharing an exciting evening with two sets of music as a side event of this year’s City Of Women / Mesto žensk festival, and presenting outstanding female artists in the main hall of Španski borci.
Both duo Nabelóse with Greek french horn player Elena Kakaliagou and Austrian pianist Ingrid Schmoliner, plus the trio of French vocalist-clarinettist Isabelle Duthoit, Mexican Paetzold recorder player Angélica Castelló and French pianist Sophie Agnel are making their debut appearance in Slovenia.
In the words of a review, the duo of Elena Kakaliagou and Ingrid Schmoliner “lights a fire in a remote mountain hut, sits us down in front of an ancient fireplace and wraps us up in a warm blanket”. The guests for the first set of the evening move from drone and folk to sovereign elements of freely improvised music, dealing with the position of women in Central European and Greek culture in a completely unique way, using their instruments as well as their voices. Top-class art that may be centuries old or is perhaps just being born – in this very moment. Magical!
We are unsure whether the music of the trio that will perform in the second part of the evening “comes from heaven or hell” – writes the Artacts Festival’s programme guide. Sophie Agnel tickles the ivory, dives deep into the piano’s gut and finally offers us a special voyage to space. Isabelle Duthoit first screams, cries, gargles and curses, then grabs her clarinet only to wring and stretch it, producing sounds which, with eyes closed, we cannot discern from her own voice. And finally comes Angélica Castelló, an amazing sound designer, adding electroacoustic pearls to this masterful ménage à trois. This is nothing else, but witchcraft!
See more City Of Women / Mesto žensk events at the annual festival’s website.
Schmoliner & Kakaliagou-photo by Corvo Records
