Trio Abstrakt is a declaration of love for new chamber music. With the highest precision and dedication, the ensemble has been working on sophisticated contemporary chamber music from the last three decades for over eight years.
Trio Abstrakt is the musical home of musicians Salim(a) Javaid (saxophone), Marlies Debacker (piano) and Shiau-Shiuan Hung (percussion). Firmly anchored in the chamber music tradition yet always in dialogue with the present, the ensemble pursues the goal of making “music of today” resonate.
Given their exciting interpretations, sensitive playing and their preference for complex, intricate and multi-layered music, it is not surprising that the musicians are the dedicatees of new works by renowned composers such as Pierluigi Billone, Franck Bedrossian, Isabel Mundry, Giorgio Netti, Michael Edwards, Alberto Posadas, and many others.
The “modern” instrumentation of saxophone, piano, and percussion allows the ensemble to explore diverse musical styles; thus, the compositions in the ensemble’s repertoire often incorporate influences from improvised, electronic, classical, rock, and jazz music. In addition, the musicians are constantly researching and expanding their repertoire of sounds.
Trio Abstrakt brings together the entire saxophone family (from sopranino to bass saxophone), an extensive range of percussion instruments (from orchestral and traditional to self-built instruments and objects), and the grand piano (as well as electronic keyboard instruments), thus creating a rich pool of sound possibilities available to composers.
An important part of Trio Abstrakt’s work is commissioning composers and developing new concert formats. In recent years, Trio Abstrakt has launched three new concert series: In »spotlight«, a single composer dedicates a full-length work to the trio in the form of an immersive chamber music experience that blends music theater, electronics, and chamber concert. In »confluences«, up to three composers create a new, hour-long work through a collaborative process. The panel discussion and concert format »chambers« presents chamber music alongside a thematically related panel featuring the evening’s composers and guests from the music scene.
The ensemble performs at festivals and international institutions of contemporary music such as the Biennale di Venezia, Milano Musica / Teatro alla Scala Milano, Acht Brücken Köln / Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal at WDR Cologne, NOW! Festival at the Philharmonie Essen, Biennale Aktueller Musik Bremen, March Music Days Ruse (Bulgaria), Klangzeit Münster, Impuls Festival Graz, Mozartfest Würzburg, ZKM Karlsruhe, IAMIC Conference 2022, Stadtgarten Köln, Darmstädter Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, aDevantgarde Festival Munich and Open Music Graz.
Trio Abstrakt studied as a chamber music ensemble in the Excellence program “Konzertexamen” under Prof. Barbara Maurer at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen.
The ensemble has been chosen for the InSzene program of Podium Gegenwart / Deutscher Musikrat and is currently being supported by the Ensembleförderung NRW and the “Manfred und Ursula Müller-Stiftung”.
Trio Abstrakt is the answer to those who are hungry for sound that turns into the art of listening. They gather the legacy of the noblest chamber music to put it at the service of discovery.
[...] The idea for the work was born while listening to the exceptional individual and collective talents of the Abstrakt Trio in concert and from the memory of that Being who appeared to me through them - together but distinct - that I have always looked for in music.
[...] I think it depends on the fact that you are three soloists with a passionate experience, and with a broad interest. From here certainly comes your original discipline of considering every sound and every musical act as a unique and decisive instant, and managing to make it become with awareness, intelligence and sensitivity the essential part of a larger body, the piece. The same happens when you interpret music in a duo and, to the highest degree, in your Abstrakt Trio. Here a small miracle happens: it is no longer a question of 2 or 3 simple musical parts, but of parts of a single body, where each one acts, thanks to the richness that derives from what you have developed in your work as soloists, and together they interact as three living entities, without losing anything of their individual depth. [...]
Marlies Debacker (she/her) is a Belgian pianist and performer of contemporary, classical and improvised music based in Cologne. An internationally acclaimed and demanded pianist, Marlies regularly performs as a soloist, ensemble and improvising musician with distinguished ensembles as well as with her own projects.
Both as a soloist and a chamber musician she has worked with numerous renowned composers, creates and curates programmes and new concert formats. In her most recent solo program, Marlies explores the piano in interaction with electronics and presents works by Franck Bedrossian, Marco Momi, Milica Djordjević, Chiyoko Szlavnics and Jonathan Harvey.
Marlies does extensive research on the sound possibilities of her instrument with a focus on resonance, pedal work and inside piano playing thus allowing her to move between the conventional sound of a piano and various percussive and pseudo-electronic sounds. Apart from playing the piano she often performs on vintage keyboards as well.
Salim/Salim(a) Javaid (they/them) is a Czech-Pakistani saxophonist and improviser based in Cologne.
Salim(a) works in numerous contexts, for example as a soloist or in chamber music formations and ensembles as well as at the interfaces of different genres and playing styles (composed & improvised music) and is intensively involved with extended playing techniques on the saxophone with a special focus on microtonality and multiphonics.
As a performer of contemporary music, soloist and member/founder of Trio Abstrakt and Duo Galeano/Javaid, they premiered a number of new works and are in the process of developing exciting new projects and concert formats. Salim(a) either has or will premiere new works by Pierluigi Billone, Giorgio Netti, Isabel Mundry, Franck Bedrossian, Alberto Posadas, Evan Johnson, Milica Djordjevic, Michael Edwards, James Erber, Sam Hayden and many more.
Shiau-Shiuan Hung (she/her) is a Taiwanese percussionist specialized in contemporary music based in Cologne.
Shiau-Shiuan is deeply interested in the sound worlds of contemporary percussion and performs on a wide variety of instruments and in various settings, constantly working to expand her sound possibilities.
Shiau-Shiuan mainly performs complex contemporary music with a focus on sound and has worked closely with composers such as Marco Momi, Franck Bedrossian and Mark Andre and most recently with Pierluigi Billone towards the premiere of the new solo work “Mani. Materia” at the NOW! Festival at the Philharmonie Essen in November 2023.
Marlies Debacker (she/her) is a Belgian pianist and performer of contemporary, classical and improvised music based in Cologne. An internationally acclaimed and demanded pianist, Marlies regularly performs as a soloist, ensemble and improvising musician with distinguished ensembles as well as with her own projects.
Both as a soloist and a chamber musician she has worked with numerous renowned composers, creates and curates programmes and new concert formats. In her most recent solo program, Marlies explores the piano in interaction with electronics and presents works by Franck Bedrossian, Marco Momi, Milica Djordjević, Chiyoko Szlavnics and Jonathan Harvey.
Marlies does extensive research on the sound possibilities of her instrument with a focus on resonance, pedal work and inside piano playing thus allowing her to move between the conventional sound of a piano and various percussive and pseudo-electronic sounds. Apart from playing the piano she often performs on vintage keyboards as well.
Salim/Salim(a) Javaid (they/them) is a Czech-Pakistani saxophonist and improviser based in Cologne.
Salim(a) works in numerous contexts, for example as a soloist or in chamber music formations and ensembles as well as at the interfaces of different genres and playing styles (composed & improvised music) and is intensively involved with extended playing techniques on the saxophone with a special focus on microtonality and multiphonics.
As a performer of contemporary music, soloist and member/founder of Trio Abstrakt and Duo Galeano/Javaid, they premiered a number of new works and are in the process of developing exciting new projects and concert formats. Salim(a) either has or will premiere new works by Pierluigi Billone, Giorgio Netti, Isabel Mundry, Franck Bedrossian, Alberto Posadas, Evan Johnson, Milica Djordjevic, Michael Edwards, James Erber, Sam Hayden and many more.
Shiau-Shiuan Hung (she/her) is a Taiwanese percussionist specialized in contemporary music based in Cologne.
Shiau-Shiuan is deeply interested in the sound worlds of contemporary percussion and performs on a wide variety of instruments and in various settings, constantly working to expand her sound possibilities.
Shiau-Shiuan mainly performs complex contemporary music with a focus on sound and has worked closely with composers such as Marco Momi, Franck Bedrossian and Mark Andre and most recently with Pierluigi Billone towards the premiere of the new solo work “Mani. Materia” at the NOW! Festival at the Philharmonie Essen in November 2023.
