We sent Tony Dudley-Evans to review this year’s instalment of the Monheim Triennale, a unique music festival located between Düsseldorf and Cologne. Read on for a recounting of his experience there, including improvisations by first-time musical pairings, and a truly varied mix of instruments and styles. Monheim Triennale: The Prequel ran from 4-6 July.
The Monheim Triennale differs from most other jazz festivals, in that the focus is on individual musicians and on enabling them to develop new work over a two year period. The Triennale has a three year cycle of programmes: Sound, The Prequel, and the Festival. On the first stage in 2023 (Sound), 15 artists were commissioned to create site-specific sound art works.
This year, 16 musicians have been commissioned as ‘signature artists’. These artists come together for the first time in the Prequel, in which they get to know each other and prepare for the following year’s Festival – in which they each present a major new work. This work often evolves from the experimental work of the Prequel, and features collaborations developed there.
The Triennale is also unique in that artists are present for the whole festival, and do not have to follow the usual sequence of arrival, sound check, concert and departure. Both artists and guests of the festival are based in the main hotel of Monheim am Rhein, a small attractive town beside the river, and most performances take place on a large boat on the Rhein. Thus, a real sense of a community emerges.
The 16 artists, selected by a panel of five curators, are a very interesting mix from various areas of experimental music. Some probably regard themselves as part of the contemporary jazz community, notably Peter Evans, Darius Jones, Shannon Barnett and Shahzad Ismaily. There are the vocalists: Julia Úlehla and Ganavya Doraiswamy, then the artists who work creatively with electronics using laptops and turntables: Anushka Chkheidze, Muqata’a and Rojin Sharafi. Oren Ambarchi also fits into this category, as he mostly worked with electronics rather than the guitar (for which he is mostly known).
These artists have clear identities and, to a lesser or greater extent, are known within their fields. Other younger artists have much looser identities, both in terms of their style of music, but also in the type of venue they choose to play in. Selendis S A Johnson plays both trombone and vibes, and presents many of his concerts in his own apartment; yuniya edi kwon draws on her Korean heritage and Japanese butoh dance as well as jazz and classical music, and will perform in venues such as the catacombs of a cemetery; Ludwig Wandinger plays drums, but also uses electronics to create soundscapes; Terre Thaemlitz combines roles as a solo pianist and sound artist.
Two other signature artists have a particularly distinctive identity: Heiner Goebbels is an internationally recognised composer of contemporary classical music, whose works are often performed by the Ensemble Modern. He has a background in improvisation, and it was fascinating to hear him interacting on the piano with other musicians in duos and quartets. Brighde Chaimbeul, the only UK representative, is a leading exponent of the Scottish smallpipes, a cousin of the Highland bagpipes, mixing new and experimental ideas into the traditions of Celtic music.
The format of the Prequel is that musicians perform as soloists, in duos, trios and quartets. None of the musicians have performed together before, and each set features a spontaneous improvisation. It all began with the Round Robin, a kind of musical chairs consisting of duets in which each of the 16 musicians performs for about 3 minutes before being replaced by the next. Particular highlights were the duet between vocalist Julia Úlehla and violinist yuniya edi kwon, turntablist Rojin Sharafi and drummer Shahzad Ismaily, the two trombonists Selendis S A Johnson and Shannon Barnett, and turntablist Muqata’a and vocalist Ganavya Doraiswamy.
This format of free improvisation is less varied than a more usual festival in which a number of styles and formats are presented, but this is more than compensated for by the spontaneity and surprises created by the fact of the musicians coming together for the first time. Indeed, I believe that Derek Bailey said that the only truly free improvisation occurs in such circumstances. Inevitably, some interactions failed to take off, but there were many highlights. The duet between Heiner Goebbels and Muqata’a was very enjoyable, with Goebbels using a long string within the piano to create a particular effect, and Muqata’a listening carefully and reacting to Goebbels’ ideas. The duets between Goebbels and Brighde Chaimbeul, and with vocalist Ganavya Doraiswamy, were equally enjoyable.
It was good to hear two turntablists interacting with each other, especially as this aspect of experimental music hardly ever features in a British jazz festival. Rojin Sharafi and Anushka Chkheidze performed a particularly stimulating set on laptops and electronics. A quartet of vocals from Julia Úlehla, trombones from Shannon Barnett and Selendis S A Johnson, vibes from Selendis and electronics from Rojin Sharafi created some very attractive and distinctive textures.
The trio Barnett, Evans and Jones (trombone, trumpet and alto sax) varied the pattern of the improvised sets by each introducing a short composition. Barnett’s was the Julie London song ‘I’m Glad There Is You’.
The solo performances, which took place in the beautiful Marienkapelle, allowed Darius Jones, Peter Evans, Brighde Chaimbeul and yuniya edi kwon to develop their own pieces. Jones played three excellent pieces, one spiritual in style, one based on long notes and pauses, and a third piece, probably the most interesting, based on atonal sounds that nonetheless created a narrative.
Peter Evans, on both trumpet and piccolo trumpet, showed great virtuosity in the service of an impressively cohesive narrative. Brighde Chaimbeul combined her own mix of traditional Celtic melodies and improvisation with a Philip Glass minimalist piece. Yuniya edi kwon played a striking set involving spoken word that seemed to be drawn from opera, with high energy improvisation on the violin.
Two of the artists worked with members of the local community: Peter Evans led an octet playing material of his, and Julia Úlehla worked with a large school choir.
It will be fascinating to see in next year’s Festival what ideas the signature musicians come up with. Will some of the spontaneous collaborations that emerged in this year’s Prequel re-emerge in the more structured compositions? Will the integration of electronics and acoustic instruments continue to feature?
The Festival takes place from 2 to 6 July 2025. Monheim am Rhein is an attractive town that has benefited greatly from the ideas of the inspirational mayor of the town and strong supporter of the festival, Daniel Zimmerman.
The festival is directed by Reiner Michalke.