In the organizer's words:

Earscratcher
Dave Rempis (US): alto sax
Elisabeth Harnik (AT): piano
Fred Lonberg-Holm (US): vcl, elec
Tim Daisy (US): dr, perc

Earscratcher moves confidently in the field of tension between eruptive energy and radical reduction. Elisabeth Harnik's prepared sound thinking meets Fred Lonberg-Holm's electro-acoustically mutating cello, while Tim Daisy interlocks drive, texture and structure with great clarity. Dave Rempis concentrates on sharp-edged, agile lines on the alto saxophone. Together, the four form dense spirals of sound as well as fragile zones of concentrated silence. A music of risk, attention and open space.

This transatlantic quartet was created in 2019 to celebrate the 50th birthday of Austrian pianist Elisabeth Harnik in 2020. To mark the occasion, Harnik reached out to several longtime collaborators from Chicago, with whom she had first come into contact during her first visit to the city at the Umbrella Music Festival in 2008. Since then, she has continued to fuel the fire that was ignited there, not only in various collaborations with these three musicians, but also with Chicago legends like Ken Vandermark, Michael Zerang and Renee Baker. This new constellation - Earscratcher - was primed to celebrate their milestone with a European tour in May 2020.

For obvious reasons, this tour in May was postponed to October 2020. Then to May 2021, which didn't quite work out either. In May 2022, the coast was finally clear. All good things come in fours? As you can tell from their self-titled debut album, recorded at the first concert of this tour and released on Aerophonic Records in February 2023, the band was ready to break the reigns at this point.

Harnik's astonishing ability to coax unimaginable sounds from her instrument is well suited to the limitless sound generator that the alchemist Lonberg-Holm consistently transforms his cello into. Daisy is one of the few percussionists who can switch logically from swing and drive to texture and touch, offering the band a similarly panoramic view from which to discover new things. With this pastoral expanse in mind, Rempis decided to challenge himself by limiting his arsenal for this tour to his first horn - the alto. For this reason, you can perhaps hear the obvious connection between this band and the small groups that Cecil Taylor led in the 60s and 70s with Jimmy Lyons, whose nimble and angular lines are undoubtedly a benchmark for Rempis.

When these four join forces to form Earscratcher, sometimes swirling spirals of sound emerge, twisting bands of tension into a cyclone, and sometimes we find ourselves in the eye of that storm, enveloped in a wave of patient and centered calm. Two positions that, in this context, offer an infinite number of routes in between, created during an excursion that was definitely worth the wait.

https://www.daverempis.com/earscratcher

Location: exploratorium berlin, hall

Access: Main entrance (through the restaurant Mokja)

Livestream: The concert will be broadcast as a livestream on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/exploratoriumberlin

Price information:

Admission 15/12/6 € (normal price/reduced price/entitlement card) The Box Office opens at 19:30. Please pay in cash. Card payment is not possible.