Radio show: what went down at Monheim Triennale 2025
A boat, a chapel, a club, a town. A heatwave. A storm. Open ears and eyes on the horizon. I’m sure like everyone who attended last week, Monheim Triennale sparked so many thoughts, feelings and an overwhelming sense of inspiration at the sheer range of music that emerged in front of us. It remains a festival of new music, experimentation, collaboration and countless discoveries.
Each day, composers and instrumentalists at the top of their fields, get to present complex works or sit down in improvisational duos and trios. Each day is also a musical adventure spanning anything from plangent folk music to pointillist freeform jazz. I swear I heard a fragment of Bjork’s ‘hyperballad’ at one particularly beautiful point in a set by Darian Thomas that was poetry and a seeming orchestra of solo violin.
Lurking somewhere at the back of the town’s new Sojus-7 venue, I co-hosted a radio show for Radio Rakete on the event’s Friday night, with my compadre Vivian Host from Los Angeles (I was sitting in for the inestimable Thomas Venker who was sadly unavailable). We spoke with inspiring signature artists Anushka Chkheidze and Selendis S.A. Johnson about their work and experiences at the festival.
You can listen to our round-up and interviews below.
