Berlin, Day 5

After a morning/early afternoon of studying and a late lunch at Cafe V (awesome!) we headed off to Friedrichshain to visit musician Jürg Bariletti.

In the background you see Jürg’s invented instrument, the Klangkoffer. The original version was created for a theater performance about childhood. For various reasons that he explained to us, he felt the need to always be ready to move, to have a packed bag. This amazing instrument grew out of that childhood idea as it folds into the box entirely. Every sound source is acoustic, but then amplified via a series of piezo pickups through a custom amplification system/mixer designed and built by his father.

Jürg and Phil ran a new music venue for many years, called Stralau 68. We went to see what it looked like now.

The strangest thing, they import sand to create these beach volleyball courts in the city. If you don’t look at the surrounding area, you could be in Santa Monica, California.

After that, we went to Wendel to see some electronic music. Two wonderfully beautiful sets by Ian Rogers and Tom Hall from Brisbane, Australia.

Phil and percussionist Harald Thiemann sitting outside after the show at Wendel. We (Jürg, Harald, Phil and me) will be performing as a quartet on the 21st of August under the band name, “schwarzenegger.”