DeutschIncense of Music 53
A multisensory concert – Friday, 9 February 2023, 8 pm
Andrea Parkins: electronically processed accordion, amplified objects, laptop electronics
Camila Nebbia: tenor saxophone
Incense: Copal, Juniper
PANDA Platforma in der Kulturbrauerei, Knaackstr. 97, 10435 Berlin
Incense of Music is back with a highly experimental concert by a trio with Camila Nebbia, Andrea Parkins, and a surprise guest. Parkins & Nebbia, both Berlin-based musicians, perform with a surprise guest at a concert of free improvised music. Performing for the first time live, their music is characterized by its boundless exploration and experimentation.
For guests who are particularly sensitive to smoke, this event is not recommended.
Juniper
Copal
Artists
Andrea Parkins — electronically processed accordion, amplified objects, laptop electronics
Born in Pittsburgh, USA, Andrea Parkins now lives in Berlin. She is an electroacoustic musician, composer, and sound artist who engages with interactive electronics as a compositional and performative process. Working with an array of sonic materials — electronically processed accordion, custom-built software, amplified objects, and electronic feedback — her performances and installations explore connections between body, materiality, sound, and space. She has collaborated with artists such as Ute Wassermann, Magda Mayas, George E. Lewis, Nels Cline, and The Necks. Her work has been presented at venues including the Whitney Museum of American Art, Café Oto, Kunsthalle Basel, and Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain Strasbourg, and at festivals including NEXT/Bratislava, Cyberfest/St. Petersburg, and Music Unlimited/Wels. She has held residencies at the Rauschenberg Residency in Florida and Elektronmusikstudion (EMS) Stockholm, among others. In 2022–2023 she was a fellow of the Berlin Artistic Research Grant Programme.
Camila Nebbia — tenor saxophone
Camila Nebbia is a saxophonist, composer, improviser, visual artist, curator, and educator. From Buenos Aires and now based in Berlin, she has released several albums as bandleader and solo performer, including "Aura" (ears&eyes records, 2020), "Corre el río de la memoria" (ramble records, 2021), and "Una ofrenda a la ausencia" (Relative Pitch Records, 2023). She has played and recorded with numerous international artists, including Patrick Shiroishi, Tom Rainey, and Susana Santos Silva. She is co-creator and curator of the interdisciplinary concert series "La Jaula se ha vuelto pájaro y se ha volado" and the festival "Guillotina Fest," and runs the independent label "Disfigured Rivers" based in Berlin. She has performed at festivals including Winter Jazz Fest NYC, Buenos Aires Jazz Festival, and Ultima Oslo. She studied classical saxophone at the "Astor Piazzolla" Conservatory, jazz at the "Manuel de Falla" Conservatory, and the CoPeCo master's program across institutions in Estonia, Sweden, France, and Germany.
Incense
Copal refers to the tree resin of several tropical species, most notably of the genus Protium, harvested across Central and South America. It forms as a sticky secretion where the bark is wounded and hardens in the air into lumps of varying colour and texture — from pale, amber-like gold copal to milky-white or greenish variants, depending on the species and region.
In Mesoamerica, copal has been used for ceremonial burning since pre-Columbian times and remains a central part of spiritual practice for many indigenous communities across Central America today — from cleansing rituals to large ceremonial burners, known as sahumerios, in which the resin is burned in significant quantities.
Burned as incense, copal releases a bright, resinous-sweet scent with citrus and faintly woodland notes, noticeably fresher than heavier resins like frankincense.
Common juniper is a hardy, often low-growing conifer with the largest natural range of any woody plant on earth — spanning from the Arctic down through temperate mountain regions of North America, Europe and Asia. Its needle-like leaves grow in whorls of three, and its berry-like, blue-black cones take around eighteen months to ripen. The slow-growing, dense wood is prized for its pleasant scent and decorative grain.
Burned as incense, juniper gives off a clear, resinous-fresh scent with a faint, berry-like sweetness — invigorating yet grounding. Across much of Northern and Central Europe, juniper smoke has traditionally been used to cleanse spaces and ward off negative influences, a use closely related to frankincense that earned it the folk name "German sandarac".