House of Wu Fei – ‘Tides and Time’ | Musho (Sofia Jernberg & Alexander Hawkins)

Name: House of Wu Fei – ‘Tides and Time’ | Musho (Sofia Jernberg & Alexander Hawkins)
Start: 2025-05-10T20:30:00+02:00
Location: Bimhuis

Schedule

Sat, 10 May, 2025 at 08:30 pm

UTC+02:00

Location

Bimhuis | Amsterdam, NH

Kaleidoscopic double concert where free improvisation, Chinese poetry and Ethiopian music cross paths.
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This double concert demonstrates how wide the spectrum of improvised music can be. Opener is the new ensemble around guzheng virtuoso Wu Fei, known for her collaborations with John Zorn and Fred Frith. The following duo Musho features Sofia Jernberg and Alexander Hawkins, who draw from their experiences of playing with some of the greats of Ethiopian music.
HOUSE OF WU FEI: TIDES AND TIME
The everlasting cycle of ebb and flood, shaping coastal regions across the globe, is a source of inspiration for Wu Fei. Ancient Chinese poetry and the waves and tides are guidelines for her new ensemble House of Wu Fei, that originated in the city of Ghent. Wu Fei can elicit unprecedented tones and timbres from the guzheng, the Chinese zither, in combination with her voice. Het solo album Yuan appeared on John Zorn’s label Tzadik. On her unusual musical trajectory she met many other musical freethinkers including Fred Frith, Gyan Riley and Abigail Washburn. House of Wu Fei features Dutch double bassist Louise van den Heuvel, and two Flemish players: Dijf Sanders on electronica and Simon Segers (De Beren Gieren, Black Flower) on drums.
MUSHO (SOFIA JERNBERG & ALEXANDER HAWKINS)
Musho moves seamlessly between abstract exploration and the immediacy of song, with the visceral effect of sinking into a tender and powerful embrace. Adopting the name Musho—an Amharic word meaning ‘sad song’—both members draw on their shared affinity for the music of Ethiopia, having honed their languages in the company of musical elder statesmen from that country: Sofia Jernberg with Hailu Mergia, and Alexander Hawkins with Mulatu Astatke.
Swedish vocalist Sofia Jernberg and British pianist Alexander Hawkins have a special relationship with our stage, where they first performed together at October Meeting 2016. Jernberg has explored the outer edges of her voice in performances ranging from the opera Pierrot Lunaire by Schoenberg to improv supergroup The End led by Mats Gustafsson. Hawkins is internationally recognized as a musical innovator, having collaborated with legends such as Anthony Braxton and Marshall Allen, as well as peers such as Tomeka Reid and Shabaka Hutchings.

EJN GREEN PILOT TOUR
House of Wu Fei and Musho take part in the Green Pilot Tour, a project of Europe Jazz Network (EJN) in collaboration with the European Union under the Creative Europe program 2022-2024. The goal of the Green Pilot Tour is sustainability, fair compensation, inclusiveness and gender balance in concert tours.
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House of Wu Fei
Wu Fei guzheng/vocals, DIJF electronics/keyboards, Louise van den Heuvel bass, Simon Segers drums/electronics
Musho
Sofia Jernberg vocals, Alexander Hawkins piano