DeutschIncense of Music 52
A multisensory concert (stream) – Saturday, 27 November 2021, 6 pm
Arkady Shilkloper: French horn, didgeridoo
Kenji Minami: drums
Incense: White Sage
Private location, Lychener Strasse, Berlin
Due to the corona problematic, Incense of Music is proposing in this difficult time concerts of a rather private nature via stream. Kenji Minami, drummer from Japan, met the Russian horn virtuoso Arkady Shilkloper for an improvised jam session. We prepared the room with white sage.
Artists
Arkady Shilkloper — French horn, didgeridoo
Arkady Shilkloper (born 17 October 1956) is a Russian multi-instrumentalist — horn, alphorn, flugelhorn — and composer now based in Germany. Born in Moscow, he began playing alto horn at the age of six. After two years of military service, he studied at the Moscow Gnessin Institute from 1976 to 1981, joining the orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre at the same time. Since 1988 he has collaborated with pianist Mikhail Alperin, and since 1990, together with Sergey Starostin, as the Moscow Art Trio. He has performed with Lionel Hampton, Lew Soloff, and the Vienna Art Orchestra, among others, and released five solo albums. Since 1994 he has been a member of the ensemble "Pago Libre." Shilkloper is widely regarded as one of the musicians who helped shape extended playing techniques for both French horn and alphorn.
Kenji Minami — drums
Kenji Minami is a Berlin-based Japanese drummer who redefines the boundaries of musical expression as an experimental improvisation musician. His drumming avoids regular rhythm and fixed patterns, instead combining vibrations meant to resonate with the mind and body of the listener — an approach he describes as "Zen drumming." Minami has performed at venues including artloft.berlin, where he gave a musical performance as part of an exhibition opening in 2019. His practice explores the relationship between sound and silence, and awareness of the present moment.
Incense
White sage is an evergreen perennial shrub native to the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, particularly the coastal sage scrub habitats of Southern California and Baja California. It typically grows 1.3 to 1.5 metres tall, with whitish-green, evergreen leaves densely covered in fine hairs that hold aromatic oils — an adaptation to the aridity of its habitat.
For numerous Indigenous peoples of California, including the Chumash, Cahuilla, and Tongva, white sage has been a sacred plant for generations, used in purification ceremonies and spiritual practice. In recent decades, growing commercial demand has led to overharvesting of wild populations, prompting many Indigenous communities and conservationists to ask that only cultivated — not wild-harvested — plants be used, and that the plant be treated with respect.
The dried leaves are traditionally bundled into smudge sticks and burned, releasing a strongly aromatic, herbaceous, camphor-like scent with a faint sweetness. Its smoke is believed to have cleansing properties, clearing negative energy from a space and promoting mental clarity and relaxation.