Garth Erasmus (Kapstadt) & Andreas O. Hirsch (Köln)

Palm Leaf Meets the Indigenous Knowledge of the KhoiSan

Garth Erasmus and Andreas O. Hirsch share a passion for building electroacoustic instruments and free improvisation. The combination of their instruments gives rise to a unique, raw sound that straddles the line between nature and electronic transformation. Garth Erasmus develops his instruments based on the indigenous knowledge of the KhoiSan: Central to this, alongside the traditional windpyp, mouth bows, and various wind instruments, is the Ghôrrah—a single-stringed bow that can be bowed, tapped, and plucked. Andreas O. Hirsch’s electrified palm leaf is based on the principle of the African kalimba and, in combination with effects, opens up a space between experimental electronics and electroacoustic music with a penchant for Fluxus, archaic elements, and escapist excursions.

With this concert, the musicians continue the collaboration they began in South Africa. Garth Erasmus and Andreas O. Hirsch performed together for the first time in April/May 2026 at the Entanglements Festival in Johannesburg and Cape Town, on an initiative by Georg Dietzler / gerngesehen and with support from the Kunststiftung NRW. 

Garth Erasmus (Cape Town) is a South African artist and musician. Since 1985, his interests—originally rooted in painting—have expanded to include music production as well as the design and construction of his own instruments, drawing on the cultural heritage of the KhoiSan. From 1999 to 2012, he was a member of the South African activist group Khoi Khonnexion. His musical works are characterized above all by a restless search for alternative forms of expression and materials, including not only his self-built instruments but also field recordings and electronics.

Andreas O. Hirsch (Cologne) is a musician, inventor of electroacoustic instruments, and visual artist. “His style can be described as part of a small but vibrant niche: music that sounds like the folk music of a lost civilization, a kind of alien, post-industrial music that seems just as much like science fiction as it does something that could have come from prehistoric times, and it is so vivid that it becomes a soundtrack—without needing a film to go with it.” Josh Landry / musiquemachine.com (UK).

Supported by IFM e.V. | Initiative Freie Musik in Cologne, funded by the City of Cologne, Department of Culture.