The MusicMind_Lab is a research and practise community for improvised music.

We offer insights, experiences and resources to the public, encouraging and connecting musicians and listeners. Our backgrounds as scholars, musicians, researchers, educators and curators help to create a multi-faceted approach, see team. However, we are not professional performers but amateur players with an interest in community music.

We are inspired by the works and teachings of Karl Berger (Music Mind), Ornette Coleman (Harmolodics), Buckminster Fuller (Synergetics), Pauline Oliveros (Deep Listening), John Cage (Chance Operations) and others. Music Mind is a philosophy and concept by Karl Berger to whom we dedicate this project in loving memory.

Workshops with lectures and collective playing are availabe.

Hope to see you soon.

 

Workshops vom Donnerstag, 19.09.2024 bis Sonntag, 22.09.2024 im Kukuna, Wuppertal
mit Peter Stephan, Joachim Litty, Charles Petersohn (siehe Team)

Gerne kommen wir schon vor den Workshops in einen Dialog
peter@musicmindlab.de, joachim@musicmind.de, charles@musicmindlab.de

Download Flyer

Programm

Donnerstag, 19.09.24, 19 Uhr, KukuNa Wuppertal
»Karl Berger – Music Mind«, Trailer hier
Film von Axel Kröll und Julian Benedikt
Screening und Gespräch

Freitag, 20.09.2024

14–17 Uhr, KukuNa Wuppertal
Gamala Taki
Rhythmusübungen nach Karl Berger
ohne Instrument, auch für Nicht-MusikerInnen

19–21 Uhr, Peter Kowald Gesellschaft / ort e.V. Wuppertal
»Music Mind und Harmolodics«
Konzert, Lecture und Gespräch mit Stephan/Litty/Petersohn

Samstag, 21.09.2024

14–18 Uhr, KukuNa Wuppertal
Improvisers Ensemble, Part 1 – Timing, Tuning
mit Instrumenten

Sonntag, 22.09.2024

14-18 Uhr, KukuNa Wuppertal
Improvisers Ensemble, Part 2 – Collective Improvisation, Dynamics
mit Instrumenten, inspired by Karl Berger, Sun Ra, Ornette Coleman

19–21 Uhr, KukuNa Wuppertal
Performance des Improvisers Ensemble
mit allen Teilnehmenden

 

Gastgeber und Unterstützer der Workshops ist der Caritas Verband Wuppertal/Solingen e.V.
Wir danken für die schönen Räume im KuKuNa Atelier
Rückfragen unter 0202 2805247 oder 0159 04351897 oder auriane.devilette@caritas-wsg.de

 

We are inspired by workshops at the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, New York USA, that we had the pleasure to be part of. Check out the CMS website for upcoming events and workshops (some of them virtual). Here are some impressions…

»Listen to the sound disappear« was the answer of buddhist monks when asked for a motto for the Creative Music Studio.
Global hearing and focal listening are two capacities that create your being in the world. Listening to the sounds around you can be a practise of awareness just like realizing your breathing in Yoga. It is essential not only for musicians to train your listening. There are many methods to do so, lets try some.

As kids we play. It is our natural state of mind. We don’t have to overcome any preconceptions, we just do it. In music we try to be players again. We prepare by study and practise, but when we play we do it spontaneously. We engage in dialogues with our musical partners, with what we have just played, with the musical material we chose, with the audience, the place, the time and the athmosphere. Reading music should only be part of the preparation. When we play we want to play by heart: open minded, alert and connected to the feeling much more than to the thinking.

Most of the time we improvise. In a conversation we create sentences, gestures and mimics on the spot. However, sometimes we might realize that we perform pre-produced patterns, especially in professional contexts. In music there is a constant friction between reproducing patterns and trying to create something fresh at the same time. This is true for all kinds of music, even classical one. (Karl Berger: »You can’t hide behind Bach.«)

The concept of improvisation draws from the myth of authenticity. It suggests that there is a core of »self« that can be expressed or that can express itself (see book »Play yourself, man«, Wolfram Knaur 2019). The claim of a »free« expression always had social and racial connotations like insisting on equal rights. But how free can an expression be? Chances are that you only reproduce patterns that you picked up mistaking them for your original creation. Ornette Coleman – although famous as an improviser – favours the written line,  see discussion on improvisation vs. composing by Jacques Derrida and Ornette Coleman. Composing means to demand access to a system of orchestras, publishers, institutions, foundations and royalties, a »million dollar turf« (Karl Berger). The political question of »Composing While Black« is the title of a book, co-edited by George Lewis who says: »When I write music I want people to come out of the theatre and they say: Wow, that was really different. I wonder what else could be different around here.«

As kids we like to sing. We are not inhibited by our voice. When picking up an instrument this should still hold true. Listen to yourself and trust your own voice or style. As Ornette put it: »There are as many unisons as they are stars in the sky.« (From the film »Ornette: Made in America«). Personal voices are not a contradiction to community but a prerequisite: »What is most personal is most universal.« (Carl R. Rogers). Many of us may be experts in a narrow field of professional activity. But often that means to use a language that only experts can understand and that excludes others. Music, however, is a spiritual language that can be understood by everybody. This is why music is a premier way to interact with others and build community.

Don’t be afraid of not being able to meet the level of professional musicians. Music is not a competitive sport. You do not need to surpass any records to enjoy it and benefit from its positive effects. Luckily we are all amateurs in most fields (in French »amateur« is a lover, French sociologist Bruno Latour called himself an »amateur des sciences«, Paris 1993). So we can take pride in saying: We are amateurs in music.

Some examples of music we play and some charts for you to play, coming soon…
A tune by Karl Berger from the Real Book.

1. The grid
Time signatures provide a grid in that the players fit in their beats or melodies. The grid gives a common starting point and bars that all of the members in a group can refer to. Even the most punctuated line is played against that background of a grid. The metrum or pulse gives the speed in which the beats in the grid should be counted e.g. a quarter note = 120 means that the piece demands 120 quarter notes per minute, which you can program at your metronome. Sometimes you may want to change the tempo collectively and go faster (»accelerando«) or slower (»ritadando«). This will need coordination by a leader or conductor.

2. Even and odd meters
Western music is largely based on 4/4 oder 3/4 meters. In other musical traditions like Turkey and India other meters are popular such a 5/4, 7/4, 9/8, 11/8 and so on. If you know the dances to these meters you understand why: There are movements of three steps/beats for turning (like in a waltz) and two steps/beats for changing the direction. Combined they make up for odd meters of 5, 7, 9, 11 and so on. Also long cycles such as 21 beats are common in Indian music. These cycles are remembered by using a musical language. Instead of counting you speak syllables like in the tabla language.  Karl Berger adopted that technique by using the word »Gamala« for three beats and »Taki« for two, taken from a piece he played with Don Cherry (see Interview below). Karl’s composition »Open Time« is a cycle of 21 beats.
Improvising over odd meters can be challenging because you can’t use the common 4/4 patterns you might have learned. You have to come up with something new. Playing odd meters may feel strange at first but you can accommodate fast and stretch your musical vocabulary. The most famous jazz composition in an odd meter certainly is Dave Brubeck’s »Take five«, there is also a great version by Al Jarreau. John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra used odd meters just like his Indian excursion Shakti. A mainstream hit record in 7/4 is Pink Floyd’s song »Money«, just like Frank Zappa’s song »Don’t eat the yellow snow«. Also prog rock groups like Genesis, Yes, Jethro Tull and Gentle Giant used odd meters.

3. Polyrhythms
In even and odd meters there is still the grid, providing a common point of reference. This changes when players in a group play different meters simultaneously. If one player plays 6/8 and another 2/4 they will still share the feeling of a common »one« every 6 beats. If one player plays a cycle of 5 beats and another of 7 beats, it will take 5×7=35 beats to arrive at a shared »one« (»strange mathematics«, see Sun Ra’s song „Enlightenment«). If more players join they might pick simple patterns individually that will add up to complex polyrhythms like in African music.

4. Harmolodics
If you let go of the common grid, every player will choose his individual tempo that can also be subject to change within a melody or a tune. As there is no common reference anymore the players will not be counted in to start. The group led by the drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson would start like this »Ready? Play!« Melodies will not necessarily begin or end in a regular set of bars, such as 8 bar phrase or 12 or 16 like in most jazz tunes. As written music these melodies may have a series of 4/4 bars with an inserted 2/4 bar or a 3/4 bar. The notation should follow the accents of the melody.

Examples, Exercises
John McLauhlin and Selvaganesh Vinayakram present »Konnakol – the universal system of mastering rhythm without drums« or »the South Indian art of vocal percussion«. John gives a demonstration of his composition »You know you know« in 12/4 at 5:56 min (from DVD »The gateway to rhythm, 2008), more parts also on YT.

Also see: Ralph Humphrey: Even in the Odds – A Study of odd meters and rhythms for the drummer, Barnhouse Co. 1980

»An utopian educational outpost« (The Wire)

The Creative Music Studio is »a place where music as a universal language can be explored and expanded«, see creativemusic.org/about.
It was founded in 1971 by Karl Berger, Ingrid Sertso and Ornette Coleman, see creativemusic.org/history.
However, Ornette never showed up at the studio, let alone teach there. Ingrid recalls »“We asked Ornette to come and do a workshop. He said ›Are you kidding? Then people would think I know something.« (from WIRE Magazine may 2013, Nr. 351, p.29)
From an interview with Karl Berger: »One thing that Ornette said when we got started. I suggested that the first thing we needed to do was form an advisory board that showed the breadth of what we wanted to do. So he asked me to contact Buckminster Fuller, Willem DeKooning, John Cage, Gil Evans, George Russell I think. A very diversified group of people, all over the map. He wanted to show through that that it wasn’t about jazz, it was not about a certain kind of music. So, I talked to all these people. Buckminster Fuller was fine. DeKooning I never reached. Gil Evans was fine, George Russell, even Cage.«

A comprehensive article about CMS from magazin WIRE click on screenshot above for pdf

German Jazzaward 2024 for the Creative Music Studio click Screenshot for video (1:49:00min)

Presentation at Jazzfest Berlin 2023 – (Un-)learning Jazz (scroll down)

Recommended Reading

 

Schedules from 1980

click for PDF

   

 

   

Concert with Baba Olatunji, summer 1983

Stage on the soccer ground for CMS Festival, summer 1983

We gratefully acknowlegde the inspiration of Karl Berger, Ornette Coleman, Buckminster Fuller and John Cage.

Karl Berger (1935–2023) German/American pianist, vibraphonist, composer and educator

see Wikipedia, German Jazzaward (German Jazz Award) 2024, orbituary in the New York Times

Gamala Taki

From an interview with Karl Berger:
»And I had played with Don Cherry a piece called Gamala Taki. These were syllables that came from the Mideast; they were part of the North Indian tabla language also. And I devised a system right then and there. Let’s divide rhythms in odd and even syllables and play them that way. Accenting syllables in that way. This was 1967. From there came the idea that maybe we should have workshops. I thought, let’s have workshops where there is no talk about style at all. You don’t use any words that relate to style. You just work with what is the common basis of what is any kind of music. That was my main question.«

Philosophy

Here are a few statements by Karl he wrote for OUTLOOK, a paper published by the Creative Music Studio, full editions and much more are available at the studio‘s new website.

Das Buch »Music Mind« von Karl Berger entwickelt die wesentlichen Ideen in einem Dialog. Auf englisch ist das Buch beim Wolke Verlag erhältlich, Leseprobe hier. Die deutsche Übersetzung wurde von Peter Stephan, Joachim Litty und Charles Petersohn erstellt und von Ariane Hagl herausgegeben. Sie erschien 2023 als Privatdruck mit 88 Exemplaren und ist vergriffen. Auf Anfrage können PDFs verschickt werden, Leseprobe 1. Kapitel als PDF hier, Keypoints hier.

 

Der Film „Karl Berger – Music Mind“ wurde 2017/18 von Axel Kröll (Produzent) und Julian Benedikt (Regisseur) lief im deutschen Fernsehen (SWF). Im Berliner Kino Babylon gab es im Dezember 2019 ein Screening mit Konzert.

Ornette Coleman (1930–2015), American composer, altosaxophonist, also trumpet and violin

Harmolodics, Buckminster Fuller, Ornette and the piano, Ornette/Derrida on improvisation, History, Context/Influence

Harmolodics

The Coleman Quartet »didn‘t just take the roof of the Five Spot; they took the roof off the idea of the roof and left jazz exposed to the elements.«
(Geoff Dyer: »Torrential, Gut-bucket Jazz«, New York Review of Books Daily, www.nybooks.com, June 20, 2015, cited in Golia 2020, p. 272).

»Remove the caste system from sound«

Ornette developed the concept of »Harmolodics« that he defines as…
»…the use of physical and mental of one’s own logic made into an expression of sound to bring about the musical sensation of unison executed by a single person or with a group. Harmony, melody, speed, rhythm, time, and phrases all have equal position in the results that come from the placing and spacing of ideas. This is the motive and action of harmolodics.«
(Ornette Coleman: Prime Time for Harmolodics, Downbeat Magazine 1983, p. 54, cited after Mitchell, Reagan P.: Derrida, Coleman, and Improvisation, Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, Volume 32, Number 3, 2018, p. 2)

»Er sprach so wie er spielte, das heisst mitten im Satz fing ein neuer Satz an.«
»He spoke like he played, meaning in the middle of a sentence a new sentence would start.«
(Karl Berger über Ornette, Film »Music Mind« 15:50min)

From an interview with Karl Berger:
»He has a way of talking that is like harmolodic talk. He does exactly what he does in music. He’ll say a sentence, then he’ll use a word in the middle of the sentence to start another sentence, and do that two or three times in one sentence. So nobody understands at first what’s going on. He says everything he wants to say, but it’s sort of shortened. And that’s how he plays. He plays the same way.«

Ornette on Buckminster Fuller: »He is probably my best hero«

American composer and saxophonist Ornette Coleman recalls meeting American designer Buckminster Fuller. Ornette developed the concept of Harmolodics, Bucky articulated an Anticipatory Comprehensive Design Science. This is where they both meet (sorry for poor video quality, filmed from TV). A geodesic dome designed by Bucky was build in Fort Worth, Texas, Ornette‘s home town and Ornette played for its inauguration (see film about Ornette »Made in America«).
(quoted from film: »Made in America«, Director Shirley Clarke 1985, transcribed to the best of my ability)

»Well, actually I met Buckminster Fuller in 1950, about 1954 at Hollywood High in Hollywood California. I listened to his lectures and I was just inspired. In fact I once studied architect… I thought I was gonna be an architect, then I tought I was gonna be a brain specialist, then I thought… I wanted to be so many things, so I finally realized that I didn‘t have enough money to support any of these ideas so I decided I would pursue my career imitating music. So I got a horn and started playing to whatever I heard on the radio.
One thing that really just blew me away was his demonstration of his own domes. When he demonstrated the way his domes are put together and how geometric they were done it just blew me away because I said »This is how I was writing music. This is the way I write music.« I was in Rome and on my way to Florence to play a concert and I heared that he had passed so I dedicated my program to him. To me he surpassed all of the … that has to do with surviving because of ability or skills. And to me he became one of my… he is probably my best hero.«

»Fuller said that there is no such thing as up and down. There is only ›out‹. That was the first time I was touched aesthetically by a scientist… When Fuller illustrated his geodesic dome concept, I saw that we were brothers.«
(Ornette Coleman in Michael Zwerin »Breaking the Sound Barriers of Jazz«, International Herald Tribune (Paris), Nov. 7th, 1984, cited in Golia 2020, p. 222)

Here is another link to science:
»Theoretical physicist and saxophonist Stephon Alexander studied with Ornette, and his book ›The Jazz of Physics (2016)‹, partly inspired by their conversations, underscores the roles of intuition and improvisation in scientific discovery.«
(Golia 2020, p. 264)

Ornette’s albums »Opening the Caravan of Dreams» and »Prime Design/Time Design« (1985) show the Bucky Dome in Fort Worth, Texas.
»A harmolodic composition for four string instruments and percussion in honor of Buckminster Fuller«, click picture for sound on YouTube

Ornette Coleman and Prime Time at the Caravan of Dreams in 1985, created: 1985, updated: 2015-08-07 11:52:2Liense: CC BY 2.0 usage terms: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0, Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/seat850/3897943915/ | Craig Howell, original Dimensions: 3328×2047, view original file

»Harmolodics Anonymous« and Black Rock

Under this label coined by Bern Nix (guitar in Primetime, cited in Maria Golia 2020, p. 270), a large group of musicians can be assembled: Ornette‘s sidemen and later bandleaders such as James Blood Ulmer, Jamaladeen Tacuma, Charlie Haden and Ronald Shannon Jackon as well as players from the New York art and music scene that joined Ornette on different occasions and name him as an influence such as John Zorn, Pattie Smith, Laurie Anderson, Yoko Ono, Bill Laswell, Kieran Hebden, Carla Bley, Bill Frisell, Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Nels Cline (Wilco), and Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers). James Blood Ulmer together with Vernon Reid and Living Color startet the ›Black Rock‹ movement with seminal albums in the early 1980s.

 

Ornette and the piano

As a piano player, Peter takes special interest in Ornette‘s relation to the piano. His classic quartet with Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, Billy Higgins/Ed Blackwell didn‘t use a piano (with the exception of Walter Norris on »Something Else!!!!« 1958). Karl Berger explained that Ornette thinks in horizontal musical lines, not in vertical harmonics. However, in his Prime Time Band he uses guitars. James Blood Ulmer gave an introduction to »The unwritten Theory of Guitar Harmolodics«).

Listen to Ornette playing the piano, click on screenshot.

To Peter‘s surprise he recently discoverd a recording of Ornette playing a solo performance on piano and saxophone (Berliner Jazzdays 1972). He demonstrated an individual style exploring the piano in a way he also uses when playing the violin or the trumpet.

From the liner notes of Joachim Kühn: Melodic Ornette Coleman, Piano Works XII on Label ACT:
»Between 1995 and 2000 I was able to play sixteen concerts with Ornette. Before each concert he would write ten new pieces that we would work out and record during an entire week at his Harmolodic studio in Harlem, New York. Since he wanted me to contribute the chords (sounds) for his melodies, I was directly involved in the composition process. Once the concert was over, the songs would never be played again.
I am ow the only one who has all of the recordings and the sheet music for a total of 170 pieces. And after about twenty years, I have put together the most beautiful of his melodies and ballads and recorded them for piano solo. With the exception of »Lonely Woman«, none of the pieces has ever been released by Ornette.«
Joachim Kühn, Ibiza, 11. September 2018

also see Interview in German

The 1996 duo performance of Ornette and Joachim Kühn in Leipzig was released as »Colors« on Ornette’s label »Harmolodic«.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 2007 pianist Aki Takase and saxophonist Silke Eberhard recorded duo versions of 33 classical Ornette compositions.

Ornette and french Philosopher Jacques Derrida discuss improvisation

Derrida expanded the concept of language and claims that the written word is stronger than the improvised spoken line. Here he meets with Ornette who, despite of being a famous jazz improviser, claims that written musical compositions better serve his intentions as descibed in the concept of Harmolodics.

click text to download

 

Jacques Derrida on Improvisation: Play–the first name

click text to download

History

Impressions of a press preview organised to promote Ornette’s first appearance at Yew Yorks’s Five Spot Café, from Downbeat, January 7th 1960, p.4 0

Context, Influence

2009, Testimonials by Mike, Patten, Flea, Moby, Yoko Ono, Robert Wyatt, Vernon Reid, David Murray, Bobby McFerrin, Carla Bley, James Blood Ulmer, and others

 

Recommended Viewing/Reading

 

DVDs: »Ornette: Made in America (1985)«, »Looking for Ornette« (2017)
Books

Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983), American Designer, Researcher and Educator

   
Icosahedron, photos: PFS

Buckminster Fuller is best known for his geodesic domes that inspired Ornette Coleman: »This is the way I write music. Buckminster Fuller is probably my best hero«. Bucky developed concepts like »Synergetics«, »Spontaneous Cooperation« and »Anticipatory Comprehensive Design Science«. He was part of the founding team of the Creative Music Studio.

»Work completely into the dynamic, anything static forget it.«

»Universe is plural and at minimum two.«

Some musical traditions claim that music is only happening between players, so the minimum needed is two.

Bucky coined the metaphor of »spaceship earth« and called for a »design science revolution«.

»I am pitting a world around, blood less, constructive, design transformation revolution against a world around destructive bloody revolution. The design science revolution can be won by all. The bloody revolution can be won by none.« see here

»Scientific design is linked to the stars far more directly than to the earth. Star-gazing? Admittedly. But it is essential to accentuate the real source of energy and change in contrast to the emphasis that has always been placed on keeping man ›down to earth‹«. Richard Buckminster Fuller. Nine Chains to the moon 1938:67, cited in Krausse/Lichtenstein: Your Private Sky, 1999:5

Buckminster Fuller introduced a fresh look at the world, literally. His »Dymaxion Map« solved a more than 500 year old problem: How to render a globe on a flat map? His solution: use triangles that can be rearranged and generate multiple perspectives of planet earth. Thus, a Europe centred or any other power centred perspective can be replaced by a user and concern driven dynamic map, check it out here. (Photo: PFS)

Other concepts by Bucky include »Spontaneous Collaboration« and »Anticipatory Comprehensive Design Science«. For a systematic account of Bucky‘s research see »Synergetics – Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking«.

 
The closest packing of spheres and the tetrahedron are basic building blocks of the universe, photos: PFS

Bucky‘s research in geometric models such as the Tetrahedron led to the concept of »Tensegrity«. Form is understood as an dynamic interplay of events such as pull and push instead of static shapes. This leads to a new understanding of metaphysics and a reformulation of basic principles. For example, the wind does not blow but air is drawn from higher pressure areas to lower pressure areas.

 

Geometric shapes are understood as dynamic events and deeper research will lead to insights that can be used musically.

 

Modells and photos. PFS

 

 

 

Pauline Oliveros’ approach to listening and musis is a strong inspiration since her workshops at CMS. Listening (and not just hearing) is a prerequisite for all music, conversation and interaction. We like to dive deep into this issue, however we are not certified »deep listening«® instructors. Of course we respect the trademark although it is hard to understand how an ancient wisdom can be privately owned. More to come…

John Cage (1912–1992) American Composer, Artist, Author

From an Interview with Karl Berger:
»So Cage came up and he taught at CMS. Did a colloquium. We have texts from him. Then he came to one of my Kitchen concerts. After the concert it was too conversational for him. The style I play is conversational oriented. I talk the way I play. He said to me: ›If I want to talk, I’d rather use language.  I’d rather speak, with semantics.‹ I said: ›It’s the opposite with me. If I want to talk, I’d rather play!‹ That was the end of our conversation.«

more to come…

Interviews, Workshop Chats, Radio programs

A five hour radio show on CMS

German Radio Station NDR 2010
On the occasion of Karl Berger´s 75th birthday former student Peter Friedrich Stephan speaks about the Creative Music Studio in the 1980ties with Michael Laages for german radio station NDR Info (contains snippets of Basic Practise Class with Karl and Ingrid Berger´s Gamala Taki).

German Radio Station NDR 2013
Report on a CMS Workshop October 7-11, 2013 by Peter Friedrich Stephan, contains interview snippets with founder, pianist und vibraphonist Karl Berger on music mind, beat for beat attention, dynamics, timing, tuning und jazz education.

 

deutsche Fassung siehe unten

Peter Friedrich Stephan

Peter is a designer and musician, scholar and educator based in Berlin. As a teenager he studied piano with Otto Wolters and ensemble playing with Joe Viera at the Hochschule für Musik Theater und Medien Hannover. Later he studied design at the University of the Arts in Berlin. He was an early adopter of digital production in design and music with pioneering work in multimedia. Peter is a professor for Transformation Design at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne/Germany.
From 1980 to 1983 he was a student at the Creative Music Studio and since then he has been constantly inspired by the works of Karl Berger, Ornette Coleman, Buckminster Fuller and John Cage who were all founding members of CMS. At the CMS he met Nana Vasconcelos, Ed Blackwell, Marion Brown, Oliver Lake, Baikida Carroll, Steve Gorn, Pauline Oliveros, Jeanne Lee, Baba Olatunji, Dave Holland, Lauren Newton, Gary Kvistad, also writer Ed Sanders and many others. In the 1980s he was a professional performer and co-founder of the Punk Jazz Group Zatopek  as well as other projects in Pop, Rock and Noise, see Discogs.
Another major influence on Peters work is the actor-network-theory with concepts like »agency«, »quasi objects« and a »compositionist manifesto« that can be applied to the arts, design and music. Recently he wrote a book: »Designing Concerns – Bruno Latour und das Transformation Design«. Peter and his team are looking forward to forming a dedicated community of musicians, designers and artists to do more research on these topics, see www.peterstephan.org

Joachim Litty (soprano) and Peter Stephan (alto) with the CMS student orchestra conducted by Paolo Moura in 1983

 

Joachim Litty

Maßgebliche Inspiration für seine künstlerischen, pädagogischen und Musikmanagement-Aktivitäten erhielt Joachim während seines einjährigen Aufenthalts (9/82 – 9/83) als Senior Student am Creative Music Studio in Woodstock. Seine Mentoren waren Karl Berger, Walter Thompson (Komposition), Nana Vasconcelos (Percussion/World-Music) und Ken McIntyre (Saxofon). Wieder zurück in Deutschland waren er und seine Musikerkollegen mit der Percussion–/Brassband „Die Elefanten“ in der 2. Hälfte der 80er Jahre Inspiration für eine Vielzahl von Nachwuchs-Jazzmusikern.
Als Produzent des Jazzfests Kreuzberg (Joachim war Fachbereichsleiter Jazz/Rock/Pop an der Musikschule Berlin-Kreuzberg) war u. a. auch Karl Berger in einem Jahr als »Leading Artist« eingeladen. 1997 übernahm Joachim die Leitung der Landesmusikakademie Berlin. In den jährlich 150–200 Kursangeboten waren immer wieder auch programmatische Schnittmengen zum Creative Music Studio zu entdecken. In seinem Ensemble „Calango All Styles OrkeStar (CAS)“ spielen die Methoden und Erkenntnisse aus Karls Buch „Music Mind“ kontinuierlich eine tragende Rolle.

Charles Petersohn

Charles loves to transform music and sounds of different styles and environments to somewhere and elsewhere. The Berlin born and Wuppertal based artist started in Punk bands as a guitarist and singer. But soon he fell in love with Jazz, Blues and Funk. Step by step he became a music producer, sound designer, DJ, curator and promoter. This wide range of activities allows him to hear music and sound from different perspectives and gave him options to combine sounds to become something new and unexpected. Something other players and listeners would not believe will work or function together, „A Freedom Suite“.
He was familiar with Peter Brötzmann and Peter Kowald. What ever these two revolutionary players ment to him, he caught the spirits of their music and planted these spirits in another contexts. Same with Ornette Coleman and The Sun Ra Arkestra. These spirits for example led him to an interaction with electronic music duo „Kargokult“ ten years ago. That approach became even more noticable for the spiritual music series „Musik für die Götter“. From time to time Peter Stephan and Charles discuss examples and own experiences to get a much deeper look into the universe of music based on Jazz, Worldmusic and interplanetary music. Peter was talking about the CMS, so Charles got an impression about the impact, Music Mind offered in the worldwide scene of improvised music. In the 1990s Peter was invited to enlighten one of Charles’ pop songs with a harmolodic feel, released by JARO in Bremen, „Nightclubbing“.
During the first Covid lockdown Charles formed the band „YANA“ to  produce a documentary which shows the art of improvised composing of four musicians out of four different musical backgrounds at the Centre for International Encounter of Caritas, Charles` employer. Also he produced movie soundtracks. For the festival of Friedrich Engels’ 200th birthday filmmaker Frank N and Charles produced „OH KARL“ back in 2020.
In the end Charles is always searching for the next beat, for new personal discovery. From time to time he is producing music collages of surprising complexity and diversity. He is kind of a „Bluesy Free Tech Jazzateer“.
www.charlespetersohn.de

 

Deutsche Fassung

Peter Friedrich Stephan

Studium am Creative Music Studio von 1980–83, Keyboards und Mitbegründer der Gruppe Zatopek sowie weiterer Projekte von Jazz, Pop, Rock und Noise, siehe Discogs. Die Prinzipien von Music Mind und Harmolodics gehören zu meinen Grundlagen nicht nur in der Musik, sondern auch im Design. Daher hat es mich besonders gefreut, von Karl zu erfahren, dass an der Gründung von CMS neben John Cage und Ornette Coleman auch der Designer Buckminster Fuller beteiligt war. Ich bin Professor für Transformation Design an der Kunsthochschule für Medien in Köln. www.peterstephan.org

Charles Petersohn

Charles ist Musikproduzent, Soundtüftler, DJ, Veranstaltungskaufmann und Netzwerker. Er ist ein leidenschaftlicher Autodidakt und lernte alles, was er kann und nicht kann durch „try and error“. Er nennt sich selbst gerne einen neugierigen Dilettanten.
Peter Stephan erzählte ihm seit den frühen 1980er Jahren von seinem Musikstudium im CMS. Dabei fiel des öfteren der Begriff „Harmolodics“. Ein großes Vergnügen, ebenso ein Geheimnis, ein Rätsel. In längeren Unterhaltungen lernte Charles immer mehr über das Wesen des Spielens und Lernens im CMS. Das Rätsel ist bis heute nicht vollends gelöst. Intensives Hören der Musik von Sun Ra, James Blood Ulmer, Ornette Coleman, dem Art Ensemble of Chicago, Zatopek und einigen Lessons von Karl Berger und Ingrid Sertso brachten ihm tiefe Einblicke in die Persönlichkeit von Musiken und Musikern. Charles hat die Harmolodics als eine Haltung, ein Feeling und ein magisches kollektives Spiel verinnerlicht.
https://charlespetersohn.bandcamp.com

Prof. Dr. Peter Friedrich Stephan
Academy of Media Arts Cologne
Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln
Peter Welter Platz 2, 50676 Köln

>  pstephan@khm.de
>  www.peterstephan.org