This project arose from a shared interest in exploring combination tones through
The three musicians met in Huddersfield (UK) in 2016 on the occasion of recording
Szlavnics's ensemble composition, Reservoir, for the label, Another Timbre. An
initial work residency then took place in Berlin in 2018, enabling an exploration of
pitches and the development of specific playing techniques. The approach they
developed encourages active listening on the part of Hannes and Jonas: listening
to the other's sound, and how one's own sound blends with it – observing how
one's own bellows’ velocity and bellows’ changes affect the overall sound. The
primary goal is to enable beating between (im)perfect unisons and combination
tones to appear and sustain; each bellows change modifies the rhythm and quality
of the beating; each new pitch completely transforms the sonic landscape.
A second residency at GMEA Centre National de Création Musicale Albi — Tarn
(France) in July 2025 enabled further refinement and development of the sonic
material and a dramaturgy for a longer performance piece. A third residency in
August 2026 will bring the piece to completion, before a world premiere in Halle
(D) on September 13, 2026 as part of the A-Minor festival.
Ephemeralities is a project unfolding over time. By meeting regularly over months
and years, the three musicians have been carefully selecting pitch sets that are
progressively enriched, making possible structured improvisations of extended
duration with strong dramaturgies. With each project and each space, the resulting
musical explorations are unique journeys, —whether rehearsal or performance—
that transform the perception of sound. Hannes and Jonas have been refining
techniques that enable them to produce a sound that is still, yet not static: fertile
ground for the emergence of beating and combination tones. These delicate,
sometimes fragile situations can only arise with acute sensitivity and sustained
concentration.
These "sound scenarios," these "ephemeralities," open up for listeners the
possibility of directly apprehending psychoacoustic phenomena – beating and
combination tones – produced by the accordions' combined pitches. By freeing
themselves from historical contextual implications, the music reveals a renewed
perception of sound in and of itself.