Fred Frith & Verena Marisa

For the first time, Fred Frith’s innovative, multi-layered guitar textures combine with Verena Marisa’s playful, electronically-driven, gestural sound creation to unfold a shared realm of deep perception. Drawing on naturally formed sound spaces and processes of material formation and decomposition, the duo explores these transformations through improvisation, traversing soundscapes that are diverse both biologically and acoustically. In doing so, they shift fluidly between micro- and macro-perspectives and navigate factual and imagined maps on various scales—from global to local to micro-local.

Fred Frith is a composer, improviser, and educator, best known for reinventing the electric guitar, a process that began with *Guitar Solos* in 1974. He honed his craft in rock bands—notably the iconic Henry Cow—and through creating music in the recording studio. Fred’s compositions have been performed by ensembles ranging from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Arditti Quartet to Hieronymus Firebrain and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. His film score credits include *Rivers and Tides* and *Tracing Light* by Thomas Riedelsheimer, *The Tango Lesson* and *The Party* by Sally Potter, Werner Penzel’s *Zen for Nothing*, and the Oscar-nominated *Last Day of Freedom* by Nomi Talisman and Dee Hibbert-Jones. As an improviser, he has performed with leading figures from several generations, including Núria Andorrà, Lotte Anker, Derek Bailey, Alvin Curran, Camille Émaille, Joëlle Léandre, George Lewis, Phil Minton, Ikue Mori, Butch Morris, Pauline Oliveros, and Susana Santos Silva. He is the protagonist of the much-loved film *Step Across the Border* by Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzel.

Verena Marisa is one of the few accomplished theremin players in the world. After receiving classical training in violin and piano, she found her artistic freedom in this contactless instrument. She uses the theremin beyond genre boundaries—in a melodic, vocal style and as a field for experimentation in innovative sound production. In doing so, she eclectically combines the traditionally influenced interpretation of the instrument with one shaped by Cage. The theremin’s historical role—as both the intended successor to acoustic sound and the actual precursor to today’s synthesizer—serves as an important starting point for Verena’s practice—a duality that she expands upon with contemporary techniques of real-time sound manipulation.

Verena has developed a comprehensive solo concert program for this unique instrument, which she presents at experimental, jazz, and contemporary music festivals across Europe. As a composer, she has premiered critically acclaimed orchestral works, notably *NEW ERA* at the Munich Philharmonie and *MOPRHOLOGY* at the Tonhalle Munich (“one of the best new pieces,” NMZ).