Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop and Anika present Nico: 'Desertshore'. Oscillating between closeness and dissociation from the melancholy of the 1970s original, the acclaimed Berlin-based music and performance group sets out to reinterpret the infamous solo album, along with singer, poet and artist Annika Henderson aka Anika (Invada, Sacred Bones, Stones Throw).
Composers Grégoire Simon and Paul Valikoski – both musicians in the ensemble – weave Desertshore’s motifs into compositions of their own. The music, lyrics and atmosphere of Nico’s melancholic and deeply personal solo album act as a substrate for a deeper musical exploration of death, transience and isolation. Together, Nico’s unique voice and John Cale’s experimental arrangements created an album that has become a cult classic over the years as one of the most influential albums of avant garde pop music. Kaleidoskop juxtaposes this with another 1970s composition, presenting Witold Lutosławski's complex Preludes and Fugue for 13 strings. Between aleatoricism and the highest complexity, seven very different and overlapping preludes precede a large-scale fugue, creating an intriguing contrast to the Desertshore interpretation.
The project was born in 2020. Both of the original pieces, Nico's Desertshore and Lutosławski's Preludes and Fugue apperaed as part of the project Witold/Nico(Jaws) and were performed in the small time spot between the first lockdowns during the pandemic in August 2020 at Radialsystem, Berlin.
