2019 ECHOLOT FESTIVAL
pics © overw8, Maren Martell, Manuela Hartel
BeyderZeit – “Neue Musik” in the mirror of the baroque
an event of KunstRäume am See and Kaske Foundation
The fourth edition of the ECHOLOT Festival presents a wide range of new music in the historical walls of the Castle of Kempfenhausen. Video art plays a special role here. It connects the place with the sound, opens the boundaries of perception and creates new perspectives. The motto of this year’s festival is BeyderZeit, a play on words with the Baroque language. The eras will be reflected in the music of both times. The festival days are expanded by a walk-in, perfomative video, space and sound installation, which will be viewed as an exhibition after the festival.
Manuela Hartel (concept and video installation), Maren Montauk (composition and performance), David Schwarz (composition and performance), Rosalie Wanka (dance) as well as children and young people under the direction of Esther Schöpf
Baroque: A concept of style, safely kept in Bavarian churches … But what happens when you open it! A wavering between lust for life and fear of death: agitation and glittering splendor, intoxication and ecstasy. A look at the Baroque reveals one thing above all: in both times, a basis of self and world understanding that had been valid for centuries eroded: At that time the church, which was questioned by natural sciences and threatened by religious divisions. Today the utopia of a better life through research, technology and consumption, which threatens to change because of the knowledge of the limited nature of natural resources: dystopia.
Where does the new music of our time stand? In this mirror you almost think that the new music clings to its past, the “heroic” time. Is there a refuge there that threatens to become a self-referential idyll given the great upheavals? This is an outline that can hardly be filled with a single festival. But it is the festival’s self-image to open the view from small to large.
The ECHOLOT Festival has been researching the depths of new music since 2016 and is embarking on a journey of discovery with the audience: keeping in contact with the ground, exploring resonances, avoiding shallows. The essence of the festival is to create a sensual overall experience of new music. Kempfenhausen Castle on Lake Starnberg south of Munich becomes a total work of art
