Was founded in Berlin in 1999 by Hella von Ploetz - glassharp , Silvia Ocougne - prepared and traditional guitars , Werner Durand self-made wind instruments and Sebastian Hilken, percussion and cello.
The pieces, structured improvisations, are based on the music of different continents, new music and minimal music combining the special tuning of the instruments with unusual sounds.
"... Armchair Traveller plays it inside out, twists facts, thus finally bringing forth perhaps the real, the authentic, the ethnic music of our time. It is real, because everything about it is unreal; it is authentic, since it has just been totally invented. But it sounds archaic because it has been created by musicians who have developed specific playing techniques, mostly on their own, for handmade instruments built from everyday materials and for conventional instruments they have specially prepared. It is ethnic because chance providentially brought these musicians together at the same time in a big city like Berlin metropolitan center s have become homelands for quasi-ethnic groups."... " ... The individual pieces, imaginally located on various meridians of the globe, sound like tribal music that somehow is simultaneously experimental and (post)industrial. Much of it sounds electronic, even though everything is acoustic., Travellers in their armchairs, at once alienated and fascinated, discover the foreignness in themselves. Hindustry!..."
Matthias Osterwold
Concerts : Akademie der Künste, Berlin; Reinbeckhallen, Berlin; Prater, Berlin; Kryptonale V. , Berlin; Podewil , Berlin; Staatsbank Berlin , Freunde Guter Musik; Dokumenta, Kassel; "Alternativa Festival", Prag; "Bauhaus", Dessau; "Garage", Stralsund; "Lange Nacht der Museen", Berlinerische Galerie, Berlin,a.o.
CDs
The Perfect Record ,
(Recommended, 2001)
A Classic Guide to No Man´s Land, sample CD (Recomended, No Man´s Land,Berlim, 2003)
HELLA VON PLOETZ
Born in Hildesheim, Germany .
1983-86: Dance-Studies in Chicago and N.Y.C.
1986-89: Studies for Dance and Singing, Studio Theatre of Vienna / Actors-Studio from George Tabori, Vienna.
Since 1988 performing as a singer/dancer in different projects: Musical Godspell, Vienna / Schlachthof, Munich / Metropolis, Munich / ´Tunnel-Project`, Austria / Several Festivals/Concerts in Austria, Switzerland and Germany. Hella von Ploetz has worked as a soloist and with many singers/musicans/actors like: Michael Flannagan, Jolly Kunjappu, Arnold Meusburger, Klaus Wiese, Rick Rummler a.o.
Concerts with the Glassharp: ´Kein Platz für Idioten`(Felix Mitterer), Austria / Festival 1994, Austria / Concerts with Organ, Austria and Switzerland / Soloist in ´Glas&Halm`, Hagenburg / Summer-Festival Olympiazentrum, Munich a.o.
Living in Berlin since 1996; Concerts: soloist-project in Ahrenshoop / ´Butoh in Blue`, Berlin / "23. Gesang", Seddin a.o.
Since 1998 working together with Silvia Ocougne, Werner Durand and Sebastian Hilken; Concerts in Akademie der Künste / Reinbeckhallen / Prater Kryptonale V / Podewil a.o.
WERNER DURAND
Performs his own music for saxophones, iranian ney, and self-made wind instruments since the late seventies. He studied with Ariel Kalma in Paris, Indian classical music in India and Berlin (with Kamalesh Maitra) and Iranian ney with Ali Reza Asgharia.
He started to build wind instruments out of plexi-glass and PVC in the early 80s, which led to the foundation of THE THIRTEENTH TRIBE in 1990.
His current projects include ASHTAYAMA with Dhrupad singer Amelia Cuni; RE/ORIENTATION with Amelia Cuni and percussionist Marika Falk; the
BEATLESS SAX O´DRONES, a sax quartet specialising in just intonation; and the group ARMCHAIR TRAVELLER with Sebastian Hilken (cello and percussion), Hella v. Ploetz (glassharp) and Silvia Ocougne (ac.guitars).
Werner Durand has collaborated with numerous composers /performers including David Behrman, Fast Forward, David Moss, Fatima Miranda, Muslimgauze,Henning Christiansen, Dominique Regef and Ellen Fullman as well as with visual/ sound artists Michaela Kölmel, Victor Meertens, Andreas Oldörp and Rolf Julius. He was a member of Arnold Dreyblatt´s
Orchestra of Excited Strings from 1990-1997.
In 1989 he received a grant from the city of Berlin for the Cité des Arts, Paris and was granted a residency at Podewil (Berlin) for 1999 together with Amelia Cuni.
He has collaborated in the organization of festivals of traditional as well as avant-garde music in Berlin like "Urbane und Aboriginale", "Pipeline" and USArts.
selected Discography : Urban Sax (Cobra, 1977); The Thirteenth Tribe Ping-Pong Anthropology ( No Man's Land 1993); Arnold Dreyblatt Animal Magnetism (Tzadik 1995) Arnold Dreyblatt The Sound of One String (Table of the Elements 1998); Durand Tulpas -Sampler (Selektion 1997); Muslimgauze Mort aux Vache ( Staalplaat 1998); Sampler Staalplaatcocktail (Staalplaat 1998); David Toop Hot Pants Idol (Barooni 1999) ; Amelia Cuni-Werner Durand Ashtayama -Song of Hours (Amiata - 2000) ; Cuni-Durand-Marika Falk Drumming Breath (Syntorama NO-CD - 2000)Werner Durand The Art of Buzzing (x-tract- 2001); Armchair Traveller The Perfect Record (No Man´s Land 2001)
SILVIA OCOUGNE
Born in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Studied guitar with Manoel Sao Marcos and Composition at the University of Sao Paulo with Willy Correa de Oliveira. In 1984 Silvia Ocougne was the recipient of a scholarship from the Brazilian goverment to study "Third Stream"- guitar at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, with Ran Blake and Mick Goodrick. In 1986 she received her Master of Music with Honors and Distinction in Performance.
Living in Berlin since 1987 she has performed both as a soloist and with many composers/musicians as Arnold Dreyblatt, Livio Tragtenberg, Chico Mello and Carlo Domeniconi . In the 90´s she was a member of the experimental music groups "The Thirteenth Tribe" , as well as the "Orchestra of Excited Strings. Since 1999 member of the experimental music group Armchair Traveller, together with Hella von Ploetz, Sebastian Hilken and Werner Durand .
Concerts (a.o.) : Töne gegen Töne , Wien; Inventionen , Berlin; Bang on a Can , NY; Museum of Contemporary Art , Moskow; Festival des Musiques dáu jourdui , Marseille; US-Arts , Podewil, Berlin; Gasteig , Munique; Palacio das Artes , Belo Horizonte; Centro Cultural Itaú , São Paulo; MASP, São Paulo; Neue Musik Rummling en , Schweiz; Biel Konservatorium , Schweiz ; Hamburger Banhof , Berlin; Schloß Moyland , Kleve; Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro; Experimenta , Buenos Aires; Kunstmuseum, Wolfsburg; Musica Viva , Herkules Saal with the Bayrischen Rundfunk Orchester; Festival of Visions , Hong Kong; Quasi Amazonia , Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; Experimental Intermidia , N.Y; Guitar Festival , Istambul; Maerz Musik , Berlin.
Conception of projects : (Selected)
Montags Musik Brasilien, Podewil , Berlin ; Lange Nacht der Gitarre, Podewil, Berlin ; Quasi Amazonia - Haus der Kulturen der Welt /Freunde Guter Musik, Berlin; Música Brasileira De(s)composta, Festival Maerz Musik, Berlin
Compositions for (selectet): Film, Days of Miendi by Yingli Ma (China /Berlin); Bananeri, by João Claudio Sena, Brazil; The Pursuit of Happiness, by Jimmie Durham (Paris, Italy, Berlin); Dance, Pedra, together with Elise Ralston; CD Rom: Paulicéia Desvairada , by Joao Cláudio Sena and Paula Janovich, Brazil ; Sound Instalation Wanderausstellung Ostsee in die Freiheit ; God is design, DVD Instalation by Adel Abdessemed, Paris, Berlin
CD Recordings (selected)
Ping Pong Antropology - "The Thirteenth Tribe" (No Man´s Land)), 1993
Animal Magnetism -" Orchestra of Excited Strings", (Tzadik), 1995
Música Brasileira De(s)composta - with Chico Mello, (Wandelweiser), 1996
Water Music, with Carlo Domeniconi, (Classic Records), 1996
Violao de dois -with Chico Mello (Oaksmus), 2001
The perfect record - with Armchair Traveller", Recomended, 2001
SEBASTIAN HILKEN
Born in Bremen, 1961
-Classical Training in Cello and Theory.
- 81´ Studies in North Indian Classical Music in Benares (India)
Since 1982 based in Berlin
- Studies in indian music with K. Maitra
- Studies in Ethnomusicology at the Free University Berlin
- Autodidactic studies in composition and percussion
- Development of special sounds and playing techniques on the acoustic and self made copper tube 5 - a string eletric cello.
- use of electronics and praparations
- work as a freelance, performer and composer in the fields of new jazz, new music, free improvisation and world music (a.o.) with : B.I.C.E.
(Berlin Improvising Composers Ensesemble), Kamalesh Maitra, Animato, Frigg,
Urna, Zeitkrazer, Phil Minton, Elliot Sharp, Shelley Hirsch.
- Compositions for theater, film and contemporary dance a.o. with Andres Veiel (Film), Henryk Baranowski (Theater) and Anna Huber (Dance).
- Performances in International Theater - Dance- and Music Festivals in Europe, Japan and USA.
At the moment he has projects with : Strit (Bert Wrede), Wu Wei, ArmchairTraveller, Honesty+Daniel Paul (Jazz Nova)
CD Recordings (a.o.) :
K. MAITRAS R.T. Ensemble (TELDEC);
B.I.C.E. IDYLLEN (Vielklang)
SILHOUETEN (Zensor)
ANIMATO (Biber Records)
Frigg: ISN´T A TANGO (99 records)
DOENNERFRESSING WOMAN (99 records)
DUST DIARY (99 Records)
ARMCHAIR TRAVELLER (No Man´s Land)
