Michael Thieke & Beat Keller
Michael Thieke - clarinet
Beat Keller - feedbacker electric guitar
The duo Thieke/Keller explores and combines different currents of experimental music. Their electro-acoustic setup draws on old and new, while the natural flow of sounds clearly preserves the identity of the sounds. The music is created from microtonality, subtle timbres, resonances and controlled feedback. Compositions and improvisations develop slowly, creating fine sound nuances and meditative details, in which silence and sound surprisingly interlock.
Their current album Last Breath's City Looks Kind Heart (Berlin 2024, release May 2025) contains six original songs that float between improvisation and defined structures.
Longer tones, fine feedbacks and subtle microtonal variations create a meditative, deeply emotional listening experience and invite you to a contemplative journey through the sound textures.
Critics praise the sophistication and depth of their music: Chain D.L.K. writes that the duo creates "A soundscape in which the boundaries between tone and silence blur and lead the listener into a contemplative realm." A Closer Listen adds: “Subtle structures, long-held tones and the balance between presence and absence create a meditative listening experience in which every detail is given meaning.”
Michael Thieke moves confidently in a wide musical spectrum: experimental vocal forms, collective composition projects, improvisation collectives and music on the edge of jazz. He researches sound subtleties, microtonality and related phenomena, prefers long-term collaborations and collective work. His current projects include The International Nothing, Voutchkova/Thieke Duo, The Pitch, Der lange Schatten, Splitter Orchester, Magda Mayas Filamental, loading lift and move, Bruine, Porta Chiusa, The Clarinet Trio, The Magic I.D., Marino/Thieke and milesdavisquintetorchestra!.
Website Michael Thieke
Beat Keller is a Swiss musician who develops avant-garde jazz, experimental and improvised music. He lives in Berlin and Winterthur and has received numerous prizes and scholarships from Pro Helvetia, the cantons of Thurgau and Zurich and the city of Winterthur. Keller works with artists such as Joke Lanz, Axel Dörner, Shelley Hirsch, Saadet Türköz, Burkhard Beins, Christian Wallumrød, Werner Puntigam, Jason Kahn, Ute Wassermann and Cara Stacey. It can be heard regularly in Europe, the USA, Latin America, Asia and South Africa.
Website Beat Keller