b e r l i n s p l i t t e r o r c h e s t e r
The Berlin Splitter Orchester, founded in 2010, is a Berlin-based collection of internationally respected Composer-Performers which draws inspiration from many genres, most noticibly contemporary/improvised music. Splitter Orchester originates from the “Echtzeitmusik” scene, which emerged in Berlin in the mid-1990s – a locally based and globally networked experimental music scene and long-term platform for the exchange of artistic ideas. All members of the Splitter Orchester are simultaneously composers, interpreters and improvisers that collectively elude clear classification – an ensemble most comfortable in the creative borderland between composed and improvised music. They utilize a broad variety of extended techniques on traditional, electronic, and especially constructed/tailored instruments. The main focus in their artistic practice is the production of sound (as opposed to musical material) and on how to diffuse it in space. The collaborative nature of musical creation within a Composer-Performer context is integral – from the first sketch to the performance.
s i m u l t a n
Simultan is a collaboration between Werner Dafeldecker and Simon James Phillips. Phillips creates an array of sounds from the piano as the original source. Dafeldecker then carefully gleans his selection from this material and processes it via analogue tape loop machine, creating small structures which in turn feed the impulses of Phillips – a methodical entanglement. Their live process is one of careful offering, discernment, and reflection - creating a sonic environment of acoustic/electro-acoustic sounds, rich with timbral and structural nuance.
s o n g s f r o m e l s e w h e r e
Songs from Elsewhere is a project using text and improvisation with composer/artist/musician Sven Åke Johansson (voice) and Simon James Phillips (piano).
“Songs from Elsewhere, like so much of both its creators’ respective outputs, resists being nailed down - a strange and wondrous series of recordings which fall somewhere between the poetic, accompanied spoken word, and sonically responsive, free form improvisation - a multilayered dialog between the voice of Johansson and Phillips’ piano - one foot in the future, and the other in the past.
Above all Songs from Elsewhere balances the whimsical and playful - humour, with the rigorous of boundary pushing creativity, each artist taking leaps and risks, prodded forward by the action of the other, collectively occupying a territory of sonic exploration which is tragically neglected in the present.
Beautiful, weird, endlessly surprising, and nearly impossible to describe, this one is absolutely essential for any fan of concrete poetry, or the more conceptual realms of sound. Like everything Edition Telemark does, it pulls the rug from beneath your feet and won’t sit around for long. Issued in a very limited edition of 300 in gatefold sleeve, with printed inners, grab it quick and get ready for a wild and wondrous ride“.
(Text from SoundOhm)
p e d a l
Pedal is a duo with pianists Chris Abrahams and Simon james Phillips. Their debut recording, on two Steinway concert grand pianos, was released on the Berlin label Staubgold. Each track is improvised, exploring rich and varied sound worlds simultaneously to create complex but coherently beautiful work.
The word "beauty" may no longer be en vogue, but for the music of Pedal you can use it in good conscience".
Die Tageszeitung
"Rarely has beauty announced itself so silently and surprisingly. Pedal to the medal. Wonderful".
Caleidoscoop
t h e s w i f t e r
The Swifter (now disbanded) was a trio featuring Andrea Belfi (drums and percussion), BJNilsen (electronics) and Simon James Phillips (piano). Formed in 2011 to record their debut self-titled album, which was released by The Wormhole in 2012. A live recording from a performance in Lisbon, Portugal, was released on Entr'Acte in 2013 and their final album Wall Sailor was released on Sonic Pieces in 2016.