Garth Erasmus Broken String Ensemble mit Gast Micha Acher

Garth Erasmus

Garth Erasmus (*1956, Uitenhage, South Africa) is a musician, instrument maker, visual artist and activist who lives in Cape Town, South Africa. His visual and musical works are created against the backdrop of the present and history of South Africa's indigenous population, the KhoiSan, to whom he belongs. He shatters the hegemonic constructions of "Colored identity" based on exclusion, which continue to have an effect even after the end of apartheid. By researching pre-colonial history, he reappropriates indigenous knowledge and transforms the "musical bow of the KhoiSan", which is central to his work and can be found in ethnological museums, into an electrified tool. In addition to various musical bows, Erasmus plays instruments he has constructed, such as the blikke'n'snar, the bamboo sax and the hosepipe, as well as the tenor and alto saxophone. He uses stuttering CD players, delay pedals, iPads and synthesizer emulations. In addition to music, his work includes multimedia audio and video installations, drawings and paintings, and his research takes him to archives, libraries and on research trips.

Stefan Schneider

Stefan Schneider is an internationally active electronic musician who lives in Düsseldorf. He graduated in photography as a master student of Prof. Bernd Becher at the Düsseldorf Art Academy. Schneider is a founding member of the bands Kreidler and To Rococo Rot, he has worked with Joachim Roedelius (Cluster), Dieter Moebius (Cluster), Klaus Dinger (Kraftwerk, Neu!), Hauschka, St. Etienne, Arto Lindsay, Natascha Sadr-Haghighian, Katharina Grosse, John McEntire (tortoise) and Nicholas Addo Nettey (Fela Kuti Band) and has given concerts in Europe, Algeria, USA, Japan, China, Kenya, Australia and Malaysia.

Ruth May

Ruth May, born in Geneva, is a visual artist and musician living in Hamburg. Studied fine arts at the HfbK Hamburg, founded the self-organized academy "Akademie Isotrop" with artist friends (including Roberto Orth, Susanne Winterling, Jonathan Meese, Daniel Richter, Abel Auer). Numerous exhibitions, since 2023 she has been teaching at the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts in Kiel. In addition to her work as a visual artist, she works as a musician, she is a violinist in the Michaela Melian String Trio, a member of the opera band "Kleiber" and a singer in the band "School of Zuversicht". In 2017, she conceived the music/theater project "House of Falling Bones" as a stage and costume designer with Garth Erasmus and Peter Thiessen. In 2022 she initiated the exhibition and event project "Sand !Hu Sand" at Kunsthaus Hamburg with Garth Erasmus and Peter Thiessen.

Peter Thiessen

Peter Thiessen lives in Hamburg, he is singer, lyricist and guitarist of the band Kante and was bassist of the band Blumfeld, he plays cello in the Garth Erasmus Ensemble. Studied fine arts at the HfbK Hamburg. Numerous album releases, including "Zweilicht" (Kante, 2001), "Zombi" (Kante, 2004), "Die Tiere sind unruhig" (Kante, 2006), "Old Nobody" (Blumfeld, 1999). With Markus and Micha Acher he released the album "Fuchs" in 2022, since 2023 he is bassist of the band "School of Zuversicht". Since 2006 he has been working as a musical director, composer, live musician and narrator for theater productions on the major German-speaking stages, including Burgtheater Vienna, Salzburg Festival, Residenztheater Munich, Schaubühne Berlin, Schauspielhaus Hamburg, Schauspiel Hannover, Deutsches Theater Berlin. Together with Ruth May and Garth Erasmus, he conceived the music/theater project "House of Falling Bones" with the bands Kante and Khoi Khonnexion and the exhibition and music project "Sand !Hu Sand" at Kunsthaus Hamburg in 2017.