Drumming

Everyone carries a rhythm inside them for the whole of their lives, one that leads them, from which everything comes and to which everything returns. The beat of our heart, our pulse, is the foundation of our existence and the eternal unit of measuring from one moment of existence to the next. Since people began to think, it has also been the starting point of human music and musical activity. Because if this pulse, our heartbeat is expressed externally, we start to beat and bang on objects, the world and all its things become an instrument and start to vibrate.

The quartet is regarded as the highest and purest form of music and there is a hardly a quartet anywhere which can combine the primal event of natural sound with such a high level of technical precision and musicality as the Schlagquartett Köln. These four magnificent virtuosi create a world of sound which is at times pulsatingly dry and at others sparklingly metallic, they drag zinc baths across the floor, rattle cardboard boxes loudly and create the widest range of elemental musical situations with unceasing rhythmic power and a gentle feel for the poetry of sound.

This extraordinary concert pulses between the evocative music of Steve Reich and earth spirit rituals, between John Cage and Claude Vivier, between ancient and synthetic sounds, arousal and rest, play and ritual, spirituality and intoxication.

A Ruhrtriennale commission.

The Turbine Hall has no heating. We recommend appropriate clothing for this industrial heritage site.