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Incense of Music 77/ Lomakova, Bodet
Incense of Music 77
A multisensory concert – Friday, 27 November 2026, 8 pm
Emilia Viktoria Lomakova: piano, cello, voice
Mia Bodet: violin, piano, voice
Incense: pine, spruce
PANDA Platforma, Kulturbrauerei, Knaackstr. 97, 10435 Berlin
Two musicians, two ancient resins, one immersive journey. Mia Bodet (violin, piano, performance) and Emilia Viktoria Janeil Lomakova (cello, piano, voice, composition) invite you into the heart of the forest — through music and fragrance. In this unique concert experience, the clear, purifying scent of spruce resin and the fresh, invigorating aroma of pine resin will rise together with live improvisations and composed works. Strings and voices weave through the smoke, echoing the breath of ancient trees, the stillness of woodland clearings, and the wild, untamed pulse of nature. Let your senses be guided by sound and scent — into the depth of the woods, and into yourself.
This event is not recommended for people sensitive to smoke.
Artists
Photo by Geert Maciejewski
Emilia Viktoria Lomakova — piano, cello, voice
My name is Emilia Viktoria Janeil Lomakova and I was born in Odessa, Ukraine. Music is my passion and life's purpose, which takes many forms in my musicianship: on the cello, piano, double bass, guitar, and with voice. In recent years, composing has become my main outlet of expression. My greatest influences in life have been my education at the music school in Odessa and the encounters and work with many wonderful artists who have accompanied, inspired, and challenged me. Love and life itself, for me, is the source of creation in which I am allowed to participate, and which I continually turn into music. At present, I am working on my opera, which I have been composing for six years and which is based on Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy.
Photo by Fabio Dondero
Mia Bodet — violin, piano, voice
Mia Bodet (*1990) is a violinist, pianist, and performer who composes and improvises music for theater and film projects. At the age of 14, she was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire and briefly studied at an academic university in Tokyo, before performing as a guest musician with renowned French orchestras, with whom she toured across Europe and Asia. Since 2015, she has been performing in collaboration with directors, dancers, and choreographers in projects at the Deutsche Oper, the Staatsoper Berlin, and Opera Lab Berlin. She has been a member of the Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop since 2020. Since 2014, she has been coaching, researching, and studying somatic and alternative psychological modalities.
Plants
Pine
The pine (Pinus) is an evergreen coniferous tree in the family Pinaceae. It is widespread across the Northern Hemisphere and characterises dry, sandy, or rocky landscapes. Its needle-like leaves grow in clusters of two, three, or five, depending on the species. Pines can grow very old and reach heights of up to 40 metres. Their resin-rich wood and distinctive, often umbrella-shaped crown make them one of the best-known forest tree species in Europe.
Pine resin is the dried, golden-yellow to brownish secretion that the pine exudes when its bark is injured, as a protective measure. When burned as incense, it releases a clear, fresh, resinous-woody scent with slightly citrusy notes. It purifies the air, has an invigorating and refreshing effect, and is traditionally used for space cleansing, purification rituals, and strengthening the breath. In shamanic practice, it is seen as a connecting element between earth and sky. It is burned in small pieces on charcoal discs, often blended with other resins like frankincense or herbs like sage.
Spruce
The spruce (Picea) is an evergreen coniferous tree in the family Pinaceae. It is native to the cool to temperate zones of the Northern Hemisphere and characterises the boreal forests of Scandinavia, Russia, and the Alpine regions. Its needle-like, four-sided leaves grow individually around the branch. Spruces can reach heights of over 50 metres and live for several hundred years. Their straight trunks and conical crowns make them one of the most economically important forest trees in Europe.
Spruce resin is the dried, light to golden-yellow secretion that the spruce exudes when its bark is injured, in order to seal wounds and protect against pests. When burned as incense, it releases a fresh, pure, resinous-balsamic scent with slightly sweet and citrusy notes. It has a clarifying, refreshing, and invigorating effect on the mind and breath. Traditionally, it is used for purification rituals, for improving the air in sickrooms, and for strengthening one's inner centre. In folk medicine, it is also considered expectorant for respiratory complaints. It is burned in small pieces on charcoal discs, often blended with other resins or herbs such as juniper or sage.
Incense of Music 76/ Nilles, Simon, Miron
Incense of Music 76
A multisensory concert – Friday, 16 October 2026, 8 pm
AJ Nilles: viola
Grégoire Simon: viola
Yodfat Miron: viola
Incense: Frankincense from Yemen, White Sage
PANDA Platforma in der Kulturbrauerei, Knaackstr. 97, 10435 Berlin
The "Incense of Music" series combines acoustic experience with olfactory perception. For this concert, two essences will be burned, each opening its own geographical and spiritual space.
This event is not recommended to people sensitive to smoke.
Under the Voice is a composed improvisation for three violas, in which the instruments are partially muted with a metal damper. This subtle intervention alters each viola's resonance, enhancing its internal vibrations and selectively filtering the sound spectrum. The result is a palette of timbres that evoke electronic textures, yet remain entirely acoustic. Through this transformation, Under the Voice unveils poetic soundscapes and the fragile presence of unheard voices. Originally conceived as a solo work by Grégoire Simon, the trio version, developed together with Yodfat Miron and Allan Niles through a shared creative process, opens new possibilities in which the strict formal shape allows for spontaneous interactions and unexpected sonic encounters.
Artists
Photo by Stefano di Puma
AJ Nilles — viola
AJ Nilles is a violist and producer born in Chicago and based in Berlin. He started playing viola at a very young age and attended the Juilliard School in New York, receiving a Bachelor of Music in 2011. Shortly after he moved to California to join the San Diego Symphony. In 2015 AJ moved to Berlin to join the Berlin Philharmonic as a tutti violist. Since his move to Germany, he started releasing music of his own which he describes as "electro-acoustic Artpop" under the moniker "Ayjay Nils".
Photo by Ulla C. Binder
Grégoire Simon — viola
Grégoire Simon works between Berlin and Paris as a performer (viola and violin), producer, and composer. After studying violin and viola, he was chosen in 2012 by Pierre Boulez to take the solo viola position in the prestigious Ensemble Intercontemporain (Paris), where he played for four seasons, notably performing as a soloist in Gérard Grisey's Prologue and Hugues Dufourt's viola concerto at the Paris Philharmonie / Cité de la Musique. At the same time, he developed an activity as a composer and electronic music producer. As one half of the duos Yes Sœur! and Valmon, respectively with Alexandre Bouvier and Paul Valikoski, Grégoire Simon has produced original music for contemporary dance performances, collaborating with choreographers such as Milla Koistinen, Eric Minh-Cuong Castain (Cie Shonen), and Alessandro Sciarroni. Their works have been performed at venues and festivals including the Biennale de Lyon, Tanz im August Festival, Festival d'Automne, and Radialsystem Berlin. With his hybrid Berlin-based project SUGAR, Grégoire Simon builds bridges between chamber music and pop music, with original creations presented at the Wien Modern Festival and at the Rotersalon of the Volksbühne in Berlin (part of the Incense of Music series). Since 2020, Grégoire Simon has received various composition commissions, with works performed by Ensemble Flashback (Perpignan), Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, Zafraan Ensemble, and the Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra (Berlin). Grégoire Simon is a member of the Trickster Orchestra and a regular guest of the Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop Berlin.
Photo by Fabio Dondero
Yodfat Miron — viola
The violist and performance artist Yodfat Miron was born into an Israeli-Yemeni family of musicians. She was a multiple scholarship holder of the America Israel Foundation and played as solo viola in the West Eastern Divan Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim. After completing her instrumental studies in Tel Aviv and Berlin, she founded the Miron-Quartett in 2003. Since 2013 she has been a permanent member of the Berlin settled Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, in the framework of which she was able to develop as a crossover artist between acting and instrumental performance. In 2016 she embodied Joseph Beuys in Tom Patchett's and Georg Nussbaumer's play "Jeder Hase ein Künstler. Eine Beuys Fabel". In 2017 and 2018 she appeared as Theodor W. Adorno in Clara Gervais's melodrama „Über den Fetischcharakter in der Musik und die Regression des Hörens". She recently acted and performed in the premiere of Ulrike Ruf's innovative concert production "Viola Solo".
Plants
Frankincense
The frankincense tree, Boswellia sacra, grows under extreme conditions in the dry, rocky regions of the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa. Its resin is obtained by making a deliberate incision in the bark. The milky sap that seeps out hardens in the air into glassy, yellowish tears. Yemeni frankincense is considered one of the purest and most aromatic in the world. Its scent is resinous, citrusy-warm, and slightly balsamic. Since antiquity, frankincense has been used as an offering, a medicine, and an incense – it opens the breath, calms the mind, and is seen as a bridge between the earthly and the divine.
White Sage
White sage is an evergreen perennial shrub in the mint family, native to the dry coastal mountains and desert regions of Southern California and Baja California. Its silvery-white, hairy leaves store water and reflect sunlight – a perfect adaptation to aridity. The plant can grow up to 1.5 meters tall and produces long, white to pale lavender flower spikes that attract bees and hummingbirds. For Indigenous tribes such as the Chumash, Cahuilla, and Tongva, white sage is a sacred plant. When burned, it ritually cleanses spaces, objects, and people. Its scent is herbaceous, camphor-like, and slightly sweet – clarifying, focusing, and grounding.
Incense of Music 75/ Hoppe, Soyza, Despotakis
Incense of Music 75
A multisensory concert – Friday, 18 September 2026, 8 pm
Stand at the Edge of Life and Leap into the Unknown
Yannis Despotakis: drums, sruti box, voice
The Thirteen Months
David Soyza: vibraphone
Lisa Hoppe: double bass, voice, composition, concept
Incense: Rosemary, Lavender
PANDA Platforma in der Kulturbrauerei, Knaackstr. 97, 10435 Berlin
Ancient roots and pure improvisation – Yannis Despotakis leaps into the unknown. Then David Soyza and Lisa Hoppe reinterpret Erich Kästner's The Thirteen Months – time, nature, and urban longing, refracted through sound and scent. The "Incense of Music" series combines acoustic experience with olfactory perception. During the concert, two essences will be burned, each opening its own geographical and spiritual space.
This event is not recommended for people sensitive to smoke.
Stand at the Edge of Life and Leap into the Unknown
A sonic journey across the tiny blue dot we call home – through the prism of ancient traditions and pure improvisation, with drum and voice as host, companion, and liberator.
The Thirteen Months
Year after year passes, and suddenly it's your birthday again. Christmas again, New Year's Eve again, summer holidays again. Nature repeats itself, constant and quiet, every twelve months. Or is it thirteen, if we trust the moon? As a "city dweller for city dwellers," Erich Kästner wrote thirteen poems about the months, expressing not only his longing for a lost connection to nature but also the unyielding persistence of time. Some things remain, even as everything changes. Where do we stand today with Kästner's observations of city and nature? Amid climate change, in the shadow of other wars, other discourses? Do we find a connection to our own cyclical being?
Artists
Yannis Despotakis — drums, sruti box, voice
Yannis Despotakis. Born (naturally) in Athens, Greece. His roots lie in the triangle connecting Piraeus, Crete, and Istanbul (also known as Constantinople). From a young age he showed great enthusiasm for hitting and hammering all kinds of surfaces, after discovering a pair of chopsticks in his mother's kitchen. He has received workshops and lessons from many remarkable people, each of whom has played a catalyzing role in his ongoing path of self-discovery. He always tries — and mostly succeeds — not to be forced into doing things he doesn't want to do. He feels his soul stays healthy by figuring out what he truly wants, because that IS it. He believes one of the things that has radically helped his psychosynthesis is his engagement with traditional Mongolian overtone singing (also known as Khoomei) over the past twelve years, as it cleanses and crystallizes all inner energy channels (also known as chakras). He cooks every day, and very well. In 2007 he met the remarkable Hayden Chisholm (NZ), and the fall down the rabbit hole began. Since 2009, Hayden and Yiannis have worked intensively together. The flame still burns, and the rabbit hole keeps getting deeper.
David Soyza — vibraphone
David Soyza (vibraphone, composition, voice) was born in 1994 in Hall in Tirol and grew up in Dornbirn, Austria. He gained his first musical experience in various choirs and orchestras, including under Oskar Egle and Guntram Simma. During his school years, he had the opportunity to receive a broad musical foundation through lessons and workshops with Florian King, Herbert Walser-Breuß, Wolfgang Lindner, Flip Philipp, Peter Madsen, Charly Bonat, and Didi Konzett — a foundation that shaped his musical path. After graduating from the music-focused Gymnasium in Feldkirch, he began his Bachelor's studies at the Nuremberg University of Music in October 2014 under Roland Neffe. Alongside his main subject, David also studied with Klaus Graf, Steffen Schorn, Silke Straub, and Reinette van Zijtveld-Lustig. Among many workshops and private lessons with various teachers, an Erasmus semester with Jeffery Davis in Porto and a three-day workshop with Sullivan Fortner were especially inspiring and formative for his artistic development. He completed his artistic-pedagogical studies in Nuremberg in summer 2019. Since October 2019, he has studied at the Jazz Institute Berlin under Julius Heise. In autumn 2017, David received the DAAD Prize from the Nuremberg University of Music. He was also awarded the Vorarlberg Cultural Prize in the Jazz category together with Veronika Morscher, Fabio Devigili, Andreas Broger, Benjamin Omerzell, Johannes Bär, and Martin Grabher. In December 2019, David received the Patho Foundation's music education prize — unique in Germany — for outstanding achievement in his studies at the Nuremberg University of Music. David lives in Berlin and works as an instrumentalist, composer, and singer on various projects in Germany and Austria.
Photo by Marjola Rukaj
Lisa Hoppe — double bass, voice, composition, concept
Lisa Hoppe is a double bassist, composer, and improviser based in Berlin. Her musical work spans a wide range of genres and non-genres: between free improvisation, jazz in all its forms, modern chamber music, and chanson, she constantly seeks to place the melodic qualities of the double bass in a contemporary context. She writes for music theatre and works with various projects in Germany and Switzerland. Her album "Faking An Imperfect Utopia" with her band YSOP was nominated for the German Jazz Prize in 2024.
Plants
Rosemary
Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus, formerly Rosmarinus officinalis) is an evergreen, strongly fragrant shrub in the mint family. Native to the Mediterranean region, it has needle-like, leathery leaves that are dark green on top and whitish-felted underneath. It blooms from spring to summer in delicate shades of blue, violet, or white. Rosemary thrives in sunny, dry locations and can grow up to two meters tall.
Dried and burned as incense, rosemary releases a resinous, herbaceous scent with a slightly camphor-like note. It purifies the space, clears the mind, and supports concentration and inner strength. In traditional incense practice, it is used for cleansing rituals, protection, and to strengthen memory. It is usually burned as loose leaves or blended with other herbs on charcoal.
Lavender
Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia, also known as true lavender) is an evergreen, strongly fragrant sub-shrub in the mint family. It originates from the dry, sunny regions around the Mediterranean. Its narrow, grey-green leaves are softly felted, and from June to August it blooms in characteristic spike-shaped flower heads in shades of violet, blue, or pink. Lavender grows to about 30–60 centimeters tall and attracts bees and butterflies.
Dried lavender flowers release a sweet, floral, calming scent with balsamic undertones when burned. As incense, lavender has a balancing, relaxing, sleep-promoting effect. It is traditionally used for stress, restlessness, and headaches, and is said to soothe the soul and dispel negative thoughts. The dried flower spikes are burned alone or blended with other herbs on charcoal — it's also popular as a scented sachet.