DeutschIncense of Music 62
A multisensory concert – Friday, 4 April 2025, 8 pm
Pedro Alcàcer Doria: theorbo, lute
Chris Dahlgren: viola da gamba
Incense: Labdanum, Galbanum
PANDA Platforma in der Kulturbrauerei, Knaackstr. 97, 10435 Berlin
Join us for a unique multisensory concert, where sound and scent intertwine to transport you to another time. Two masterful musicians will weave an intimate tapestry of sound, filling the space with the warmth of historical strings and the lingering fragrance of ancient resins.
"A Different Shape of Viol" is a set of original compositions for solo bass viola da gamba that break away from the Baroque sound and style mostly associated with the instrument. The listener is offered a new and fresh approach to this instrument's enchanting sound that brings the past, present, and future together.
Artists
Chris Dahlgren — viola da gamba
Chris Dahlgren (b. 1961 in New York City) is an American jazz bassist and polyinstrumentalist. Dahlgren, who grew up in Denver, played the cello as a child before switching to the bass. He studied jazz at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music until 1986 and composition and experimental music at Wesleyan University until 2003, studying with Anthony Braxton, Alvin Lucier, and Christian Wolff. He also took composition lessons with La Monte Young and double bass lessons with Dave Holland, Barry Green, and François Rabbath. He performed as a sideman with musicians such as Joe Lovano, Charles Tolliver, Red Rodney, and Herb Ellis and toured with the folk-rock group Over the Rhine. In 1996, he released his debut album "Slow Commotion." Since 1998, he has been a member of the Jazz Mandolin Project. Since 2003, he has been teaching ensemble playing at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" in Berlin.
Pedro Alcàcer Doria — theorbo, lute
Born in 1982 in Mexico City, Pedro Alcàcer Doria began his musical education at an early age under the influence of his father, the Catalan jazz musician Francesc Alcàcer. He studied jazz guitar with Francisco Lelo de la Rea and then classical guitar and composition with Hector Ramos. He completed his studies in classical guitar at the "Escuela Nacional de Música-UNAM" and specialized in Renaissance and Baroque repertoire under teachers such as Isabelle Villei, Eloy Cruz, and Antonio Corona. In 2006, he obtained the "Berufstitel" for Renaissance and Baroque plucked instruments at the Conservatory of Girona under Xavier Diaz-Latorre. He then studied lute at the University of the Arts in Bremen under Joachim Held and Lee Santana. He has worked with important conductors including Gabriel Garrido and Horacio Franco and has performed at prestigious festivals in Italy, Germany, Spain, and beyond. He currently lives in Berlin.
Incense
Labdanum is a fragrant resin derived from the leaves and twigs of Cistus ladanifer and Cistus creticus, two rockrose species native to the western and eastern Mediterranean respectively. During the hot summer months, the sticky leaves of these shrubs exude a resinous substance that was traditionally combed out of the coats of grazing goats and sheep — one of the more unusual harvesting methods in the history of incense.
Labdanum has been valued since antiquity — in perfumery, in medicine, where it was prized for its antiseptic and expectorant properties, and as incense in spiritual rituals for its calming, grounding effect. Because of its resemblance to ambergris, rarely used today for conservation reasons, labdanum remains one of the most important ingredients in perfumery for creating warm, amber-toned accords in oriental and chypre compositions.
Burned, labdanum develops a deep, amber-like scent with warm, balsamic, and slightly sweet undertones — notes of earth, leather, honey, dried fruit, smoky vanilla, and musk give it a distinctive, mysterious character.
Galbanum is the resin of Ferula gummosa, a tall perennial plant in the carrot family, native to the mountainous regions of Iran and Central Asia. Incisions made in the roots and lower stem release a milky sap that hardens into a yellowish-brown, gum-like resin.
Galbanum ranks among the oldest known incense materials, named in the Book of Exodus as one of the sacred ingredients of the Ketoret incense burned in the Temple of Jerusalem. It was also used in ancient Egypt and in Greco-Roman medicine, valued both as a remedy and as a component of ritual incense.
Unlike many sweet or resinous incenses, galbanum releases a sharp, green, almost bitter-herbaceous scent with hints of freshly cut grass, pine needles, and a faintly musky depth. This unusual, unmistakably "green" note makes it a prized top note in perfumery, and it has traditionally been associated with protection and energetic cleansing.