Cuisine Acoustique: the German-Indian musicians’ Collective SONIQ invited the audience to cook together with the spectacular African musicians, Balafon player Aly Keita and the Kora player and singer Prince Moussa Cissokho.
Intuitively, and with mutual admiration, the SONIQ Collective and its African guests built soundscapes to bridge their diverse musical cultures. Acoustic delicacies were on the menu. Ingredients from the individual cultures were processed and traditional aromas shined through.

The aim was to create something not experienced before: something independent, fresh, authentic and beyond all stereotypes. SONIQ: Africa – haute cuisine to spread the spirit of cosmopolitan coexistence, which is impervious to all current trends of increasing nationalism and the exclusion of people.

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In the project “Voices” the encounter with diverse musical cultures served as an inspirational “breeding ground”. The artists who took part in this SONIQ project undertook the role of travellers who get inspired by new cultural surroundings, unlike tourists, who just scratch the surface of another culture.

SONIQ invited the avant-garde vocalist Mariana Sadovska, who is rooted in the Ukrainian tradition, the Moroccan singer and multi-instrumentalist Majid Bekkas and the Indian vocalist Sandhya Sanjana as guests for this exciting project “Voices”.

Photos by Uwe Bräutigam

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In order to broaden the artistic horizon of their projects and to reach out to audiences other than the typical concert audience, SONIQ developed a multi-disciplinary concept for the first time, titled “Dance”. For this project SONIQ invited the South Indian Bharatanatyam dancer Meera Varghese and the contemporary dancer Benedetta Reuter, whose original style spans modern dance and improvisation.

Photos by Andreas Bartels

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Ramesh Shotham is one of the Cologne music scene’s most inspiring personalities. Born and raised in Chennai, South India, the percussionist adopted Cologne as his home more than thirty years ago. In that time he has enriched the local music scene through collaborations with such musicians Charlie Mariano, Rabih Abou Khalil, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Jasper van’t Hof, Sigi Schwab, the WDR Bigband with Karnataka College of Percussion, and Wolfgang Niedecken.
In 2018 Ramesh, who this year was awarded the WDR Jazz Award, will celebrate his 70th birthday on stage at the Stadtgarten. He will perform as a host of several fantastic groups, starting with his current project “Madras Special – New Generation” followed by other special acts that feature outstanding Cologne musicians. The evening will conclude with “Keshavara,” which is led by Timid Tiger singer Keshav. Keshav‘s music ranges from relaxed electronic sounds to latent danceability.
The evening will be presented by the musicians’ collective SONIQ, marking the start of an ongoing cooperation with Stadtgarten. SONIQ’s concert series MAKROKOSMOS starts in September 2018. The group follows a visionary path, bringing together elements from disparate cultures to create a contemporary, authentic music. The artists participating in the SONIQ series will be on a musical treasure hunt, opening sound spaces, taking risks, and widening their horizons.

The project “South America – Make Dialogue Great Again” was dedicated to the interchange with Latin American musicians. The diverse forms such as Chacarera, Zamba or Cueca and rhythms such as Candombe or Lando encountered European polyphony and the subtlety of European Jazz.

Photos by Kurt Rade

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The Soniq Collective looks for interfaces between musical cultures in order to create inspiring acoustic spaces for themselves as well as for the audience. During their debut project, the NRW-based artists invited Indian singer Sanjeev Chimmalgi from Mumbai, and the Polish bassist Maciej Garbowski.

This was a coming together of North Indian ragas and the subtle sounds of European jazz and a bridging of modern East European music with fiery South Indian rhythms. An osmosis on a cultural and social level. Definitely a feast for the ears!

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