TERMINEThe sound space of the saxophone is continually extended by the use of contemporary techniques, and is alienated by mouthpieces, tubes, pipes and mufflers.
Rotes Summen (Joachim Gies)
QuickTimeFilm (5,5 MB)
Artikulationen Nr. 2 B
Joachim Gies, saxophone - solo
The subtle sound spaces are especially well used in the intimate interaction in duoswith voice, violin, trombone, and instruments from outside Europe, percussion and electronic sampling.
Joachim Gies’ chamber music compositions focus on the expressiveness of the human voice and song. He has written scores for texts by authors ranging from Dante Alighieri, Arthur Rimbaud, Friedrich Nietzsche, Stefan George, Rainer Maria Rilke, Franz Kafka and Walter Benjamin to contemporary German writers such as Peter Härtling, Detlef Berentzen and Michael Speier.
Whispering Blue (Joachim Gies)
Sample in Flash format (1,6 MB)
CD: Whispering Blue
Joachim Gies, alto saxophone
Since 2002, Joachim Gies has fronted Ensemble X, which is not a permanent group of musicians, but rather an open network for interactive creative processes, involving artists such as Thought raven, Günter Ries and Ulrich Werner, actors and the dancer Olek Witt.
ZeichenFeldKlangRaum (Joachim Gies)
QuickTimeFilm (8,7 MB)
Artikulationen 1 und 2
Joachim Gies, saxophone, composition
Ulrich Werner, artistic action
Matthias Bauer, double bass
Michael Walz, sampling, electronics
The Not Missing Drums Project, set up with Thomas Böhm-Christl in 1995, combines composition parameters with creative improvisation.
Joachim Gies has composed and recorded a number of pieces of music for radio plays in collaboration with the director Jörg Jannings.
At his saxophone school “Klangspuren”, Joachim Gies focuses on the role of contemporary music in music education, and passes on his own experience to teachers and students at workshops. His project for children “Klangfieber” is a playful and humorous introduction to the world of new music.
His concert performances have included appearances with Joëlle Lèandre, Lauren Newton, Ute Döring, Cecil Taylor, Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, Johannes Bauer, as well as scores for literary texts, performed with Tina Engel, Peter Fitz, Werner Rehm, Gerd Wameling and Hanns Zischler.
In Berlin’s Haus am Waldsee in 2003, Joachim Gies’ score for Franz Kafka’s “Der Bau” was performed for the first time, together with his piece setting extracts from Dante’s Divine Comedy to music. In 2004, first performances of new music for chamber music ensembles included the multimedia performance “transmissions: prag-berlin” and a score for Walter Benjamin’s “Achtung Stufen”. On August 13 2005 and 2006, his piece “Der Klang der Mauer”, commemorating the building of the Berlin Wall was performed at the Berlin Wall Memorial in Bernauer Strasse Berlin. The premiere of the project “Grenzland” with Werner Rehm was in September 2005. “WEISSES SUMMEN” for solo tenor saxophone was premiered at the Berlin Academy of Arts. This piece is a composition approaching Franz Schubert’s Winterreise, and is performed in conjunction with a reading by Peter Härtling and Detlef Berentzen.
In 2007, Joachim Gies wrote the score for the documentary film “Eine phantastische Reise oder Auf Wiedersehen Cézannne!”, producted by Deutsche Welle TV and shown at the Berlin National Gallery during the exhibition of French Impressionist art from the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.
In March 2008, Joachim Gies was invited to Ulan-Ude (Russian Federation), and gave lectures and solo performances in concert halls in conjunction with an exhibition by Ulrich Werner. In June 2008 Joachim Gies performed KLANG / KÖRPER / ZELLEN with the Israeli vocalist Ronni Gilla at the literature festival of the Academy of the Arts in Berlin. Performance of musical scores of Franz Kafka with Galina Ajgi and Ulrich Werner in Tscheboxary (Chuvash Republic, Russian Federation) in October 2008.
2009: Concerts in Tel Aviv (Israel); performance at the international music festival ROARING HOOVES (Mongolia); concerts at the Ulan Bator Philharmonic Hall, in the Gobi desert and in Buddhist monasteries. Shimmering, the latest CD by the trio SOUND/BODY/CELLS, will be released this fall.
biography (abbreviated version)
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