Splitter Orchester plays Mazen Kerbaj´s Synesthesia at WABE / 09. & 10.7.2022

SYNESTHESIA is a live graphic score created and interpreted in real-time by Splitter Orchester.

In this new concept, Mazen Kerbaj acts both as the conductor of the ensemble and the director of a movie in the making; the images he produces on his glass table are projected on a large screen for the audience, and on smaller screens for the musicians who use them as material and indications to be interpreted instantaneously. The musicians react to the images, and the conductor reacts to the music in return, each side feeding on the other with no defined hierarchy. The images do not illustrate the music, nor does the music accompany the images; they rather flow together in an organic way. The resulting experience is quite unique for the audience; they can literally see the sound and hear the images of a movie that is made in real-time on stage.

With Mazen Kerbaj and Splitter Orchester, SYNESTHESIA brings together two key protagonists of the Berlin contemporary improvisation scene. Both the musicians of the orchestra and Mazen Kerbaj bring their highly individual and specialised set of skills and aesthetic imprints with them.

Splitter Orchester can look back on 10 years of collective improvisation experience and has already tested a wide variety of methods for shaping free improvisation in large groups in several collaborative projects. With Mazen Kerbaj‘s SYNESTHESIA, Splitter Orchester is once again breaking new ground and attempting an approach to graphic conducting for the first time.