Wednesday 12 March 2025, 7.30pm
Ute Kanngießer is a London based cellist and composer from Germany. Over the years, she has carefully deconstructed her classical roots and almost exclusively performs unscripted / improvised music. Much of her work has evolved in relationship with other art forms such as film, poetry, dance and site specific work. She is interested in the vast expressive possibilities of her instrument in relation to body, space, and others, always looking to rediscover or redefine what is musical in this moment in time. Ute has played at Cafe Oto since its early days and is part of the vital community of musicians and artists that call the venue their creative home.
She will be presenting new solo work and collaborations in a two day series:
Day 1 - 12/03/2025
- Solo
- Duo with Bo-Sung Kim
- Trio with Paul Abbott and Evie Ward
"This is an evening of firsts - BO-SUNG KIM is one of the first musicians I have collaborated with in a non-classical context. She is an exceptional percussionist and has been hugely influential to me. Since then, I have worked with (in my view) some of the best percussionists and drummers out there. Every single one of them has had a deep impact on me: Eddie Prévost, Steve Noble, Crystabel Riley, Toshi Tsuchitori, Jim White, Chris, and PAUL ABBOTT. EVIE WARD is the first poet I have ever collaborated with before projects with Denise Riley, Zara Joan Miller, and Nathaniel Mackey."
Day 2 - 30/04/2025
- Solo
- Quintet with Nik Colk Void, Theodora Laird, Kenichi Iwasa, and Steve Noble
"Every musician in this group has shaped my music in one way or another. NIK COLK VOID is a wizard artist on modular synths an instrumental set-up I love sonically and conceptually. THEODORA LAIRD is such a strong presence and voice she has blown my mind since first meeting her last year at The Avalon. I have known KENICHI IWASA longer than most other musicians in London and he is one of the most creative and versatile multi-instrumentalists I have come across here. But I am lost for words in trying to explain how important (and how much fun) playing with STEVE NOBLE has been to me over the years. I am excited everyone said yes to this first time meeting."
Paul Abbott is a musician and drummer. He plays with real and imaginary drums, synthetic sounds, performance and writing.
Recent and ongoing collaborations include: XT with Seymour Wright; XT+Pat Thomas; XT+Anne Gillis; X Ray Hex Tet; F.R.David, very good* & Rosmarie with Will Holder; film sound for Keira Greene; Rian Treanor Duo; RP Boo Trio with XT; The Creaking Breeze Ensemble with Nathaniel Mackey; yPLO with Micheal Speers and performances with Cara Tolmie.
Paul has performed at venues and festivals internationally. He was a co-founder and co-editor of Cesura//Acceso journal for music, politics and poetics, and SAM resident artist at Cafe OTO 2015. In 2022 he completed a PhD at the University of Edinburgh under the supervision of Florian Hecker and Nikki Moran. He is currently undertaking research at Royal Conservatoire/Academy Fine Arts Antwerp.
Recent releases include: solos Nsular, Ductus; XT+Pat Thomas “Akisakila” / Attitudes of Preparation (Mountains, Oceans, Trees); XT Deorlaf X, Palina’Tufa; Creaking Breeze Ensemble & Nathaniel Mackey Fugitive Equation; F.R.David very good*; RP Boo Trio 31.12.18.
Evie Ward (b. London, 1993) is a poet and writer based in London. Her poems have appeared in Art Licks, SALT, Cesura//Acceso, and '5AM' - a digital release on Takuroku with Ute Kanngießer and field recordist Daniel Kordík. She often works collaboratively at the intersection of writing with music and art, having recently read new poems, stories and journal fragments with Ute Kanngießer for a live performance at Cafe OTO and exhibited a site-specific poem as part of 'Like A Sieve' at Kupfer. She has conducted extensive research on Moki Cherry and continues to work closely with Cherry's archive when possible. Evie is currently working on a book collaboration of interwoven poems & drawings with Corinne Bernard.
www.evieward.com
Bo-Sung Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea and grew up in Berlin.
As a child she discovered her passion for Korean percussion and after finishing school she went to Korea to study Traditional Performing Arts at the Korean National University of Arts in Seoul, specializing in percussion, mask dance and shamanic ritual music.
Bo-Sung Kim has been living and working as a freelance musician in Berlin since 2006 and has since worked in many different music and performance projects. The question "What is tradition?" and the constant search for her own musical expression accompany her in her musical work.
Bo-Sung Kim plays in various formations such as Ensemble AY, which is dedicated to exploring new worlds of sound through free improvisation, in Ensemble GaMuAk with traditional Korean music and dance repertoires, in Ensemble INklang, which develops new interpretations of traditional Korean music in a contemporary context, and in Ensemble ~su, which currently works with musicians such as Laura Robles, Sol-I So, Gunda Gottschalk, Saadet Türköz, Ute Völker, Peter Ehwald, Halym Kim and others.
Bo-Sung Kim teaches Korean percussion at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg and at the Korean Cultural Center Berlin.