Sound in the Garden 2026, Day 1 (Gigi Masin, Valentina Magaletti & upsammy)

From 12 – 16 August 2026, Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie once again presents the open-air concert series Sound in the Garden, featuring ambitious live concerts specially customised to the venue and a multi-generational line-up crossing genre boundaries. After four nights of live concerts, Sunday will be dedicated to special sound installations created in honour of Japanese artist Fujiko Nakaya, who is presenting a site-specific fog sculpture in the sculpture garden of the Neue Nationalgalerie.

For decades, Gigi Masin’s deeply cinematic textures have merged minimalistic jazz and spacious synthesis into a profound poetry. His pioneering work focuses heavily on the spaces »between« the notes, using silence as a physical instrument that allows each melancholic melody to breathe. For this special performance, Masin comes together with Italian trumpet player and composer Marco Baldini. Known for his microtonal clarity and stark minimalist focus, Baldini’s long, suspended brass tones merge seamlessly with Masin’s spacious synthesis. 

Visionary percussionist and composer Valentina Magaletti wields an expansive array of ritualistic jazz sensibilities and experimental textures, using non-traditional materials like metal, porcelain and wood to find hidden tones. Magaletti is joined by upsammy’s nature-inspired sound design. Field recordings and sharp synthesis blend into fluidic soundscapes, blending smoothly with irregular rhythms and the airiest of crystalline melodies.