DeutschIncense of Music 14
Sugar & Yes Soeur!
An olfactory concert – Monday, 17 April 2017, 8 pm
Alexandre Bouvier: live electronics
Grégoire Simon: live electronics
Boram Lie: cello
David Eggert (guest): cello
Incense: Grapefruit, Galbanum
Palais im Roten Salon, Volksbühne Berlin – Volksbühne link
Sugar and Yes Soeur! are two ensembles from Berlin and Paris experimenting with sounds between pop and classical music. Live and in the studio, they interact with computer-generated and classically instrumental structures. Sugar sees itself as a hybrid psychedelic project between classically inflected chamber music and a pop band. Yes Soeur! focuses on live electronic music and narrative forms; their repertoire ranges from concert performances to danceable club sound. Yes Soeur! are in high demand in the contemporary French dance scene and currently collaborate with various renowned choreographers and dance companies: "Lâche" by Cie 2minimum (2015), "School of Moon" by the company Shonen (2016, Ballet National de Marseille), "Turning" by Alessandro Sciarroni (2016, Opéra de Lyon).
For Incense of Music, Sugar and Yes Soeur! share the stage together for the first time. A diverse, sensory sonic journey awaits. Grapefruit (Citrus paradisi) and galbanum (Ferula erubescens or galbaniflua) will be burned simultaneously with the concert.
For guests who are particularly sensitive to smoke, this event is not recommended.
Artists
Grégoire Simon — live electronics
Grégoire Simon, born in 1986 in Paris, lives and works in Berlin and Paris. He studied violin at the Conservatoire National de Paris (CNSM) and viola at the Berlin University of the Arts. Between 2012 and 2015 he was a member of the Ensemble Intercontemporain Paris. Since 2011 he has played in the Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra. Alongside his work as an instrumentalist, Grégoire Simon experiments as a music producer with his electro-acoustic duo Yes Soeur!.
Boram Lie — cello
Boram Lie, born in Marburg, studied at the Berlin University of the Arts and the Conservatoire de Musique Genève. She is an ensemble member of Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, and plays in the Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble and the Sugar Ensemble. She works across various musical-performative fields as a cellist and performer, and is also active as a dramaturge. With Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, she has worked with artists including Sasha Waltz, Georg Nussbaumer, FC Bergmann, Sabrina Hölzer, and the Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra, and has been invited to numerous renowned festivals, including the Sydney Festival, the Holland Festival, Operadagen Rotterdam, Kunstfest Weimar, and the Donaueschingen Musiktage.
Alexandre Bouvier — live electronics
Alexandre Bouvier is a composer and sound designer from Paris. He teaches as a professor of computer-aided music at the Académie de Pierrefitte-sur-Seine and holds further teaching positions in electroacoustics and computer-assisted composition (CRD Dieppe, CRR Aubervilliers, CRR Paris, University of Technology Rouen). As a DJ and electronic music producer, he collaborates with various artists and ensembles, including Shonen, 2minimum, Gaëtan Brun Picard, Jann Gallois, Cie du point d'assemblage, Mike Sens, Benjamin Kauman, and Joachim Serreau.
David Eggert — cello (guest)
Cellist David Eggert was born in Edmonton, Canada. He won first prizes at the Eckhardt-Gramatté Competition for Canadian music in 2006, the Antonio Janigro International Cello Competition in Zagreb in 2008, and the Domnick Cello Prize for New Music in Stuttgart in 2014. He has performed as a soloist and chamber musician across Europe, North America, and Asia, and has taught at the Bern University of the Arts since 2015. David Eggert is deeply committed to contemporary music and has premiered numerous works, including in collaboration with composers Tristan Murail, Manos Tsangaris, Helmut Lachenmann, Heinz Holliger, and Klaus Huber.
Incense
Incense of Music does not burn incense of animal origin, and we never will — this has always been part of our guiding principles. Unfortunately, we had to set aside this rule for this one concert, and we take pride in our flexibility. For galbanum of almost every kind and quality contains quite a number of so-called "foots," including beetles and other insects caught by the sticky juices of the plant on a dreamy day. They will be, of course, burned along with it …
Galbanum is the resin of Ferula galbaniflua (or Ferula erubescens), a member of the giant fennel family that grows chiefly in Persia and regions east of the Aral Sea. Today, the resin is harvested primarily in the mountains of northern Iran — around 80 tonnes annually — and contains a water-soluble gum fraction, alcohol-soluble resins, and essential oil.
Galbanum was traditionally traded through the ports of the Levant, though in difficult times trade shifted to centuries-old alternative routes, such as to Kochi on India's Malabar Coast. Kochi became a hub of intercontinental spice and incense trade after a tsunami in 1341 created a natural harbour basin there.
Planta de Cochim, Bocarro, 1635
Following the founding of the Viceroyalty of Portuguese India, galbanum was increasingly shipped between India and Lisbon rather than solely through Levantine Mediterranean ports. While it never ranked among the most coveted and costly Oriental spices such as pepper, cinnamon, clove, or nutmeg, it found wide therapeutic and palliative use in Europe as a so-called "mother resin" — used to relieve menstrual cramps, induce labour, and support postpartum recovery.
Carrack Madre de Deus
The scent of raw galbanum resin is considered rough and earthy; some writers describe it as outright unpleasant. The Babylonian Talmud (Kareithoth 6b) remarks that galbanum has a bad smell, and yet was numbered among the ingredients of the sacred incense. Indeed, galbanum is an equal component of the holy incense offering ("Ketoret") recipe recorded in the Book of Exodus (30:34). According to legend, the torch of Prometheus was fashioned from the woody stalk of a related giant fennel, and Pliny claimed in his Natural History that galbanum, mixed with hogweed, could kill venomous snakes by touch alone.
Portuguese Armada
Pedro Álvares Cabral
Galbanum reveals its full depth only when burned or blended into perfume, where it appears as a vivid, "green" top note or as an earthy base note alongside musk or pine — found in fragrances including Chanel No. 19, Guerlain's Vol de Nuit, and Balmain's Vent Vert.
The grapefruit (Citrus × paradisi) is a subtropical citrus tree believed to have originated in Southeast Asia or southern China as a natural hybrid between pomelo and mandarin. It bears glossy, evergreen leaves and the familiar round, orange fruit, whose fragrant peel provides the incense material.
Carried along the trade routes of Arab merchants and later the Crusaders, the orange had reached the Mediterranean by medieval times, and remains associated across many cultures with prosperity and good fortune. The grapefruit itself emerged only around 1750, likely on Barbados, as a spontaneous cross between pomelo and orange, reaching Florida in 1823 and entering commercial cultivation there from 1875. Its varieties fall broadly into white-fleshed and red-fleshed types — the latter tracing back to the American Ruby Red variety, patented in 1929, from which later selections such as Rio Red and Star Ruby emerged with even deeper red colouring. The fruit known commercially as Sweetie, botanically Oroblanco, is a 1958 Californian cross between pomelo and grapefruit.
Burned as incense, grapefruit releases a bright, cheerful, sweet-citrus scent. It is invigorating and energizing, and is associated with joy, warmth, and abundance — often used to counter low mood and create a welcoming atmosphere.