Passepartout Duo • Sébastien Branche
3D audio concert of the swim series / April 27, 2024
Sébastien Branche
The French saxophonist Sébastien Branche, based in Leipzig, focuses on sound as a material and typically performs at the intersection of drone, noise, and bruitism, incorporating long tones, extended techniques, or objects into his improvisations. Interested in collective and non-hierarchical experiments, he has been a member of several collectives and is currently part of IMO (50+ musicians) and co-founder of Ensemble Modéle Réduit (partially determined music). Besides playing in various bands, he performs solo as Lignes de crête, an electroacoustic solo where the saxophone controls and processes electronic sounds, as well as in Lignes de niveaux, where the saxophone is deconstructed and spatialized with ambisonics. Sébastien is also an active figure in Leipzig’s free music scene, organizing jam sessions and concerts including the LiLe series and the ZiXP Festival, and hosts the show Carte Branche on Sphere Radio.
Passepartout Duo
With a carefully selected palette of electroacoustic textures and evolving rhythms, Passepartout Duo explores how we hear and connect with sound. By re-evaluating their musical tools, the group creates a specialized, continuously developing ecosystem of handcrafted musical instruments that take on a life of their own — from analog electronic circuits to conventional percussion, from room-sized textile installations to found objects. The group has been supported by various international residencies, which, alongside concert tours and workshops, form a core part of their activities.
Passepartout Duo was founded in 2015 by pianist Nicoletta Favari (IT) and drummer Christopher Salvito (US/IT).
swim 2024
With the series swim (spatial works and immersive music), ZiMMT invites you in 2024 to throw musical habits overboard. Nine concerts and three sound installations, bridging multiple genres, pose new questions. A broad spectrum of musical expressions from various genres is integrated into immersive, spatial experiences.
Fifteen very different local and international artists are part of swim. Their works range from intricately composed electroacoustic pieces to experimental approaches rooted in the aesthetics of club music. swim merges diverse sound worlds and lets radical approaches to music production and performance challenge conventional ideas. What is a live performance? Which technical means are used, and how do they expand musical expression? What happens to the role of the audience when it immerses itself in virtual sound worlds during an immersive performance?
Even ideas of what an instrument is are deconstructed, and familiar instruments are used in unusual ways.
During three-day microresidencies, musicians can develop their works on site using 3D audio technology and try out new approaches. All concerts will be live-streamed in high-quality binaural audio — for a spatial experience both on site and everywhere else.
