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ABOUT
"Intriguing... Ingenious. You’ll spend a while pondering how to classify them – prog folk? Operatic post-punk? Gothic reggae? – but they know how to write melodies."
- The Guardian
Contemporary album of the month
“Hard to imagine that voice, guitar and flute could
groove so hard and deliver so much.
- The Wire
After a while, the record’s quixotic magic begins to take hold. Like a tightly packed gift that only reveals its beauty over time
- The Quietus
Punk or prog rock with art music and sampled improvisations or free jazz with backstage opera and the melancholy of folk.
- Musikexpress
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ (5 stars)
Witch 'n' Monk (formerly Bitch 'n' Monk) is the twinning of nonconformist Colombian flautist Mauricio Velasierra and anarchic soprano and guitarist Heidi Heidelberg.
The driving force of the duo is a shared commitment to depict the multiverse, through an un-compromised, new musical language of composition and improvisation that travels fluidly between forms.
This multiverse is constructed with a collection of Latin American flutes radically manipulated with effects and extended techniques, anarchic soprano vocals that move seamlessly and suddenly between characters and timbres, analogue electronics and a jazz-punk guitar/bass hybrid. Each limb is called upon to create the sound of multiple dimensions being inhabited simultaneously, using a myriad of control pedals and labyrinthine signal paths to orchestrate live.
The essence of their collaboration is encapsulated in the name; dark and light, feminine and masculine, punk and Romantic, free-form and intricately composed. Exploring extremes and creating contrast are fundamental to their work and thus they tread upon the edges of genres. Celebrated in the jazz, contemporary classical and DIY underground music scenes they have played across the UK and Europe, at prestigious venues and festivals such as Berlin, London, Manchester and Umea Jazz Festivals, Amsterdam’s Bimhuis, London’s Royal Festival Hall and Paris' La Cigale, but also they produce avant-garde live film scores performed at communist Italian skateparks or among the thorn bushes in overgrown East London gardens.
Their compositions are shaped by often sleep-deprived improvisations which they record and use as the central musical layer that are exaggerated at points, or cut up, sampled and completely reinvented. Blocks of percussive flutes might emerge, Stravinskian melodies or bilingual voice riddles and experiments. The live performance, as a consequence, is theatrical and physical, injected with the dedication to a new musical world being born in every section.
Their previous releases ‘Fulafalonga’ and ‘We Are Peering Over’ were released in 2014 and 2016 and their new album was released on John Zorn's legendary label Tzadik Records on May 22 2020 to international critical acclaim , it was named Contemporary Album of the Month by The Guardian and received the prestigious Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik.
Witch 'n' Monk are the hosts of the FLUID FORM CLUB in Berlin that takes place regularly at ausland with different guest artists. The FLUID FORM CLUB is a space for passionately unpredictable music that escapes classification, bringing together a community of curious minds.
MUSIC
WITCH 'N' MONK
[TZADIK, 2020]
WE ARE PEERING OVER
[LOTUS ARTS BOX, 2016]
UPCOMING DATES
2023
JAN 16 | MOODS Zurich (CH) feat. Nicolas Stocker
JAN 17 | STAATSTHEATER Freiburg (DE) feat. Nicolas Stocker
MAR 18 | FLUID FORM CLUB #1: AUSLAND Berlin (DE)
APR 15 | FLUID FORM CLUB #2 : AUSLAND Berlin (DE)
MAY 6 | FLUID FORM CLUB #3 : AUSLAND Berlin (DE) tickets
JUN 17 | BABYLON KINO Berlin (DE)
Live music for screening of 'Embrace of the Serpent'
SEP 5 | WESTWERK Hamburg (DE) + Tatsuya Yoshida/Kazuhisa Uchihasi
SEP 6 | FLUID FORM CLUB #4 : AUSLAND Berlin (DE)
*****
PAST DATES
2022
RAUW FESTIVAL Rotterdam (NL)
SAGE GATESHEAD (UK)
TOR 9 Bremen (DE)
KESSELHAUS Berlin (DE)
SOUNDWAVES FESTIVAL Bari (IT)
C-SPACE Berlin (DE)
KÜHLSPOT Berlin (DE)
COME CLOSER FESTIVAL (DE)
STAATSOPER STUTTGART (DE)
TALLINN MUSIC WEEK (EE)
PLLEK Amsterdam (NL)
CAFE WAGNER Jena (DE)
HOUSE OF MUSIC Berlin (DE)
SCHOKOLADEN Berlin (DE)
THE WORKMAN'S CLUB Dublin (IE)
BRILLIANT CORNERS FESTIVAL Belfast (UK)
THE ROSE HILL Brighton (UK)
2021
BRILLIANT CORNERS FESTIVAL (Online)
JAZZWOCHE, A-TRANE Berlin (DE)
2020
TIVOLI VREDENBURG Utrecht (NL)
LIVESTREAM Berlin (DE) x LUX:NM & Jim Black
HALLE 424 Hamburg (DE)
AMOK FESTIVAL Bruges (BE) + Stephane Galland
CAFE WAGNER Jena (DE)
JAZZFEST BERLIN Berlin (DE) + Jim Black & Lux:NM
2019
FORUMBRASIL Berlin (DE)
DAS KAPiTAL Berlin (DE)
ROODE BIOSCOOP Amsterdam (NL)
JAZZROCKEN Bremen (DE)
AUSLAND Berlin (DE)
ZUKUNFT AM OSTKREUZ Berlin (DE)
OBOA FESTIVAL Gorgast (DE)
HANGAR49 Berlin (DE)
BLACK HEART London (UK)
THE PEER HAT Manchester (UK)
TANDEM FESTIVAL Oxfordshire (UK)
SNAPE MALTINGS Aldeburgh (UK)
WATT Berlin (DE)
MS STUBNITZ Hamburg (DE)
2018
HANGAR49 Berlin (DE)
ZOMERJAZZFIETSTOUR Groningen (NL)
TOLHUISTUIN Amsterdam (NL)
TOLHUISTUIN Amsterdam (NL)
DAVE LOMBARDO Berlin (DE)
PARADOX Tilburg (NL)
SMEDERIJ Groningen (NL)
BREBL Nijmegen (NL)
PLETTERIJ Haarlem (NL)
BIMHUIS Amsterdam (NL)
2017
MANCHESTER JAZZ FESTIVAL Manchester (UK)
WORM Rotterdam (NL)
EARSESSION Amsterdam (NL)
HUSET Aarlborg (DK)
WESTWERK Hamburg (DE)
DUNKERS KULTURHUS Helsingborg (SE)
2016
SOUTHBURGH FESTIVAL Norwich (UK)
PETE THE MONKEY FESTIVAL (FR)
THRESHOLD FESTIVAL Liverpool (UK)
MOUNT STEWART (NI)
BLACK BOX Belfast (NI)
FUSEBOX Leeds (UK)
SMUGGLERS FESTIVAL Deal (UK)
NETHER EDGE FESTIVAL Sheffield (UK)
RICH MIX London (UK)
2015 etc.
LONDON JAZZ FESTIVAL - supporting The Bad Plus (UK)
UMEA JAZZ FESTIVAL Umea (SE)
INJAZZ SHOWCASE FESTIVAL Rotterdam (NL)
SOUTHBANK CENTRE London (UK)
RICH MIX, London (UK)
UNION CHAPEL London (UK)
BARBICAN CENTRE London (UK))
VORTEX JAZZ CLUB London (UK)
LA CIGALE Paris - Les Femmes s'en Melent Festival (FR)
CONTACT
BOOKING
music [at] witchnmonk.com
alberto [at] akamu.net
SPECIAL PROJECTS
linda [at] stroom.ws
OTHER INFO
music [at] witchnmonk.com