CONVERGENCE III 14.06.24 in Berlin, Lettrétage in der Veteranenstr.

A Cross-Disciplinary Exploration of Experimental Arts. With Vincent Laju X Yurika Saito, Sam Albatros, Mire aka Andreea Hriscu X Renée T. Coulombe, Days Like Television Moderation: Tom Bresemann

CONVERGENCE is an evening of experimental, multi-sensory performances organized by Kross Collective, which explore dialogues between sound, text, and visuals.

For our third event, we are delighted to present Vincent Laju X Yurika Saito showing improvisations and interactions between visual (inc. performative installation) and sound (cello, Shakuhachi) forms. We will then screen two short films, in the video-poetry genre, from the queer artist and poet Sam Albatros, featuring music from Von Jeglichem Wort.

Two extended musical sets will follow - an immersive, sono-poetic and performance installation by composers Renée T. Coulombe of Banshee Media and Andrea Hriscu of Mire, that weaves together improvisation, automatic writing, resonant ambiences, and AI prompting to probe the collaborative possibilities of artistic intelligence in real time. Whilst Days Like Television will preview material from his upcoming album- ‘This Will Have Been the Past’ (released June 5 on Bonambi Records) in an A/V performance. 

Immerse yourself within CONVERGENCE III, as we delve deep into a collective liminal state, and explore the outer reaches of cross-disciplinary experimentation.


Yurika Saito X Vincent Laju

Yurika Saito - Visual
Vincent Laju - Sound

Improvisation and interactions between visual and sound forms, between organic and transformed materials, the point of imbalance between intention and hazard, to allow the unexpected to emerge.Yurika Saito creates a performing installation using Japanese ink, stones, material from nature, Japanese paper and water. Vincent Laju plays Shakuhachi (raw bamboo instrument traditionally linked to the sounds of nature) but in an experimental minimalist way, as well as Cello.Born and raised in Tokyo, Yurika Saito encountered mountain landscape painting in Canada during her travels, and has been working in Berlin with nature and art as the theme of her work. Since moving to Berlin, she has held solo exhibitions including "BALANCE2022" "CYCLE2023" "Life is Short, Fall in Love 2024". In 2023, she participated in the Tokyo Biennale as a member of the team that researched and created works in Tokyo.She pursues a wide range of possibilities in painting, embroidery, herb dyeing, and performance with the theme of connecting nature and humans, and in recent years she has been working with musicians on improvisational sound drawings that visualize the instantaneous nature of sound.

http://www.yurikasaito.de
https://www.instagram.com/yurika_sketch

Improviser & composer, Vincent Laju studied and graduated in France on Double bass. Since 2020 he has collaborated with artists from all disciplines in Berlin where he resides, he plays also with large ensembles such as Berlin Improvisers Orchestra and Grand8 (Marseille). His graphic and sound work series is regularly performed and exhibited in France and in Germany. He has performed in GMEM (National Center for Music Creation), for festivals and concerts in Europe and Asia.Multi-medium musician, he works with Cello, Shakuhachi and Double bass, as well with electroacoustic and raw organic materials (wood, horsehair, bamboo, objects), particularly interested in the morphological aspect of sounds, such as patterns, lines, spaces, strokes and erasures.

https://www.vincentlaju.com
https://www.instagram.com/vincentlaju


Renée T. Coulombe

Renée T. Coulombe is a musician, scholar, and creative entrepreneur of considerable breadth. At once a composer of instrumental, electronic and acousmatic works, she is also an active improvising and experimental pianist and vocalist, a commercial and independent producer and publisher, a transmedia installation and performance artist, and a scholar engaged at the intersections of critical theory, music and media culture. She is currently Programme Lead for the Creative Production Masters Programme at Catalyst Institute for Creative Art and Technology, in the historic Funkhaus facility in Rummelsberg, Berlin. She is also Founder of The Willows Nest, a collaborative production platform and informal arts space in Friedrichshain, where she serves as artistic director.

http://www.reneetcoulombe.com
https://www.instagram.com/bansheemedia


Mire

”Mire” is the dark-ambient drone and atmospheric soundscape project of Andreea Hriscu, a visual, performance and sound Berlin based artist. With a background in architecture, she opened her first solo painting exhibition in 2016 at the Romanian Cultural Institute in Beijing, China, and her first live painting performance in 2018 in Beijing, followed by other performances in Bangkok and Berlin. Her photography and painting are mostly abstract, her sound projects consist of dark ambient soundscapes, and her painting performances are dark, emotional, and viscerally intense. They explore and embody different aspects of the psyche: the subconscious, the hidden aspects of the self and the unfelt raw emotions. Within this embodiment, she becomes fully immersed in the artistic process, blurring the boundaries between the self, the process, and the object.

https://mirelands.bandcamp.com/
https://andreeahriscu.wixsite.com/andreeahriscuart
https://www.instagram.com/andreea.hriscu.art


Days Like Television

Days Like Television is the solo moniker of Daniel Bryden, an experimental musician and video artist based in Berlin. Using an array of disassociated sound sources and fragmented synths, Bryden crafts immersive aural landscapes which pulsate with an underlying tension and tactility. Live shows are evocative, expansive, and moving- spanning ambience, improvised noise, music concrète, and a fractured, unhinged electronica. Bryden has presented A/V performances at ICA (London), La Vallée (Brussels), Madame Claude (Berlin), and VEKKS (Vienna). His upcoming album- ‘This Will Have Been the Past’ will be released in May on Bonambi Records.

https://www.daysliketelevision.co.uk/
https://days-like-television.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/days_like_television/


Sam Albatros

Sam Albatros is an academic at King’s College London, writer, poet, translator and an internationally-acclaimed performance artist based in London, with a strong social-media presence in the Greek-speaking world. They hold an MPhil in Psychology (University of Cambridge, UK) and a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience (University College London, University of London and National Institute of Mental Health, US). They have presented video-art performances and visual narratives in Greece, Cyprus, UK, and Berlin. Their work has been supported by prestigious writing residencies in Berlin (Literarisches Colloquium Berlin) and Leipzig (Goethe-Institut Thessaloniki, HALLE 14, Edit), and they have been the recipient of a Stavros Niarchos Foundation & Artworks Fellowship for young artists.

https://www.art-works.gr/en/fellows/sam-albatros/
https://queerpoets.com
https://www.instagram.com/sam.albatros/