Topsi Series on Umlaut Records
Topsi Series produces records, books and films related to the activities around the venue Au Topsi Pohl in Berlin.Together with Umlaut Records, they form a powerful unit in effort of supporting the making of explorative traditions within sound, text, and movement, by capturing and publishing their various states of transforming.
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Topsi Channels:
Cloud Reading Society
Tristan Honsinger’s Hopscotch
LP (tslp1)
Featuring: Tristan Honsinger (cello, voice), Izumi Ose (voice, toy piano), Franziska Hoffmann (violin, voice), Tobias Delius (saxophone, clarinet, voice), Axel Dörner (trumpet), Hiroki Mano (tap dance, voice), Klaus Kürvers (bass), Antonio Borghini (bass, voice), Steve Heather (drums, voice).
“Hopscotch” is a Berlin based Company and represents Tristan Honsinger’s latest effort in a lifetime search for unity between music, theatre and poetry. This gatefold vinyl contains a collection of songs and compositions invented through the years as musical material for Hopscotch’s performances and plays, along with improvisations and dialogues.
Wonder and Wander
Tristan Honsinger and Joel Grip
Book (176 pages)
Featuring: Tristan Honsinger (texts), Joel Grip (illustrations)
This book has been written over the course of a couple of months in the spring of 2020 and contains dialogues, aphorisms, songs, poems and short stories, sometimes combined. Counterpointing Tristan’s handwritings are the breezy, chasing and questioning drawings of Joel Grip.
When Will Never Meet
Antonio Borghini & Alexis Baskind
CD (tscd1)
Featuring: DJ Illvibe, Antonio Borghini, Olga Nosova, Andrea Neumann, Matthias Müller, Liz Allbee, Kai Fagaschinski, Michael Thieke, Steve Heather, Rico Repotente, Grégoire Simon, Anil Eraslan, Rudi Fischerlehner, Mat Pogo, Christian Lillinger, Ignaz Schick, Alexis Baskind, Giorgio Pacorig, Almut Kühne, Gerhard Gschlößl, Axel Dörner, Tobias Delius, Louis Laurain, Pierre Borel, Hannes Lingens, Tristan Honsinger
“When will never meet” is the soundtrack of a fragmented movie in transformation. Engaging many musicians of the Berlin scene, performing in solo or in small bands, this soundtrack is a collage of the impossible, a mosaic of wishes and lost opportunities, the dream of a lonely demiurge.
Fragments of the movie
Part 6 – Spreekreisschifffahrtsgesellschaftstouristenselfiestangenhauptknopf (made by Anil Eraslan)
Oùat / Elastic Bricks
LP (tslp2)
Featuring:
Simon Sieger: piano
Joel Grip: bass
Michael Griener: drums
With a sound reminding us of acoustic piano trios from the 50s and 60s, Oùat sets out to discover a standard song format of today. Even though the nine original compositions on this release are performed instrumentally, they all stand in close relation to text and the vocal; first there was the word, then the simultaneous hearing and speaking, reading and writing of the music and its meaning. The forms are elastic and tend to give the improvisers open access to a great variety of techniques heralding the expressionism as well as romanticism in jazz and classical music. The resonances are dense like dry bricks piled up to conquer and question the times we are living today. The whole recording process have been followed by writer Erin Honeycutt who let us fall back into the word and the thought in her digging as well as constructing liner notes.
Oùat is a trio that found its origins in instinctive moments cast over the front and rear windows of jazz history. On their home ground in Berlin (Au Topsi Pohl) they have performed the music of Ellington, Hasaan Ibn Ali, Elmo Hope, Per Henrik Wallin and Sun Ra. Their debut album of strictly original material, Elastic Bricks, might remind you of Hindemith’s dream holiday in Tangier. Sounds and tempi in a strange mix of recognisable disarray and unrecognisable order.
Oùat (Once upon a time) is collective storytelling, about what, where, and at, bringing forth questions about being when and where. Its members play revolving roles in the creative music scenes in Europe, from Marseille to Dala-Floda via Berlin. Their individual work encompass groups like Monks Casino, [ahmed], and Art Ensemble of Chicago.
