POLYTHEISTIC ENSEMBLE »resounds«

The POLYTHEISTIC ENSEMBLE, founded in 2012 by sound architect, composer, and guitarist Matthias Ockert in Karlsruhe, transcends heterogeneous musical worlds of contemporary composition, jazz, pop, rock, electronics and video to create an up-to-date musical experience.

The musicians of the POLYTHEISTIC ENSEMBLE, who are eager to explore and experiment, are constantly reinventing themselves as a variable and changeable body of sound, ranging from a trio to a large formation. In 2015, the ensemble recorded the CD »signals from the cool« based on electronic sounds generated from astronomical data. 

Hans Jürgen Schaal praised the album in the magazine »Fidelity. Musik und Hifi« as "a cosmic sound event". Stefan Hentz reviewed the record in »JAZZTHETIK« as an "insider tip...a casual tour through the music history of the last decades". The CD was recorded at the renowned Bauer Studios in Ludwigsburg, which is responsible, among other things, for the legendary live recording of Keith Jarrett's »The Köln Concert«, the best-selling jazz and piano solo album to date. 

In 2021, the ensemble released the music video production »Extended Play«. Sound and image control through playing movements using sensor technology formed the basis for the music videos. 

The concerts, which are always multimedia-based, have so far taken the group to the ZKM | Karlsruhe, the E-Werk Freiburg, the Theaterhaus Stuttgart, the Volksbühne Berlin and the Bern Music Festival. 

At ZKM, the POLYTHEISTIC ENSEMBLE now presents the project »resounds«, developed and produced at ZKM_Kubus in early April 2023. New instrumental sounds, visuals and forms of interplay, inspired by processes of electronic sound synthesis and effects, invite you to enter a grooving, artfully interwoven architecture of music and image.

Lineup:

Matthias Ockert: electric guitar, composition
Tomas Westbrooke: violin
Hugo Smit: cello
HP Ockert: trumpet
Michael Heise: electric bass
Felix Schrack: drums
Dagmar Vinzenz: visuals

Supported by Musikfonds e. V. with project funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of the special program Neustart Kultur.