The FRAGMENTATION ORCHESTRA is an orchestra founded in March 2023 by Kriton Beyer, consisting of 12 internationally established musicians from the Berlin improvised, experimental and jazz music scene while incorporating also the wider musical background of its members, such as contemporary, electroacoustic and electronic music influences.

The orchestra operates somewhere in between the fields of composed and improvised music and tries to use as broad a spectrum of improvisational and compositional approaches as possible, with a special focus on structured collective improvisation.

All members of the FRAGMENTATION ORCHESTRA function as composers, performers and improvisers at the same time.

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The MINTON–BEYER DUO seems like a study of the phenomenon of the voice with two different instruments: the human voice and the daxophone.
Phil Minton, perhaps the best-known vocal artist in free improvisation, is known for his remarkable extended vocal techniques that span the entire spectrum of human expression: from simple breathing, to murmurs, grumbling and whispering, to whistling, burping and rattling, screaming and moaning – from shrill highs to rumbling lows, all part of his vocabulary.
Kriton Beyer in turn, uses his still quite obscure instrument, the daxophone, in an extremely voice-like way, often imitating human and animal sounds and speech patterns that seem to have been built into the nature and character of the instrument.
Acoustically, despite the speed, changeability and abundance of musical information, the sound of this duo is simple, clear, unambiguous and direct and therefore very intimate and never artificial. The two voices complement each other equally, without one ever covering up the other. They move gracefully somewhere between the animal and the human, sometimes comical and grotesque, sometimes subtle and fragile, in an intuitive musical exchange of blows between two multifaceted voices of different natures.

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enLIGHTenment is a performance project combining sound, light and movement, featuring Yuko Kaseki (butoh dance), Teo Vlad (light ninja) and Kriton Beyer (daxophone, light control system). Its central theme are networks of physical, biological and social nature, and the exploration of the phenomenon of (inter)connections, transference & transmission.

Yuko Kaseki engages with this topic in typical characteristic Butoh tradition: with clarity and reduction on one hand, but also with an intense, unfiltered expression on the other.

Kriton Beyer explores territories of experimental, ambient and noise music with his daxophone while simultaneously controlling a variety of light bulbs, fluorescent tubes and floodlights in real-time by means of a specially designed light control system.

Teo Vlad, the light ninja, uses analog and digital means to set light in motion and to transform shadows and colors into lively characters in a physical interplay of reality and fiction.

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Shadow plays or shadow theatre have existed for centuries as a folk art form all over the world in which stories, legends, fairy tales and parables are told. This takes place in an audiovisual intermediate world, the screen. Many forms of shadow theatre traditionally have the functions of both entertainment as well as education and criticism – in a space between fiction and reality.

In a very special manifestation, the figure of the Karagöz / Karagiozis has established itself in the geographic area of Turkey and Greece. This figure – in the truest sense of the word cross-cultural – still deals with current issues of social coexistence. Although Karagöz certainly continues to exist in the 21st century and is especially popular as children’s theater, the figure is still quite rare in an abstract artistic adaptation, as is the case in this project.

In Dark Eye the 3 artists transport the figure of Karagöz into the present and develop their own dramaturgy, which they implement with their own characteristic means of expression.
Each of the three artists also contributes a different perspective to the theme through their individual life story. In the course of the performance, this difference results, as it were, in a web of dialogue that can be traced back to the own childhoods of Korhan Erel and Kriton Beyer, who both grew up with the provocative and socio-critical parables of Karagöz, being interwoven with the visual interpretations and associations of Nicolas Wiese.

Korhan Erel is an electronic musician, improviser and sound designer of Turkish origin, Kriton Beyer is a musician, composer with Greek roots and Nicolas Wiese is an audiovisual artist and electronic musician/composer born in Northern Germany.

The Dark Eye Trio:
Kriton Beyer – harmonium, daxophone, sampling
Korhan Erel – electronics, percussion, voice
Nicolas Wiese – visual art / live projections

Concept: Kriton Beyer

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Uproot is an electroacoustic music group that is based in Berlin, consisting of Ganesh Anandan on shruti stick and microtonal metallophones, Marcello Lussana on live electronics and kriton b. on harmonium and objects. The trio works with the use of both the natural sounds of the acoustic instruments as well as with preparation of these instruments, the use of objects and extended techniques. The interplay of the two acoustic musicians is linked and fused with the use of live electronics, creating a sonic hall of mirrors where the beginning and the end of any sound merge and the sound source begins gradually to disappear. Faint harmonic shapes shine through dense clusters of sound, complex rhythms are subtly woven into organic soundscapes, elusive microtonal structures fade gently in and out, sounds fade to noise and back to sound again and create a world of surreal sonic phantom Images.

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“Redox Reaction” is an improvised music duo consisting of Simon Rose on baritone saxophone and Kriton Beyer on daxophone. In spite of the obvious differences of these two instruments in construction and sound production they have a surprisingly similar timbre, similar pitch and similar range, and generally also unexpectedly similar possibilities in expression: Two equal partners, melodically intertwined in performance, squirming and dancing – at other times two rivals fighting each other with the same weapons. As a duo, “Redox Reaction” convinces with their organic, rich, room-filling sound and with their lively, inventive melodic improvisations: sometimes loud and intense – sometimes intimate and fragile, but always incredibly dense and in flow.

Simon Rose is a British baritone and alto saxophonist and author who is primarily active in the fields of Jazz and Improvised Music. He collaborates in a wide range of contexts in music and beyond with dancers, fine artists and others. He has performed in Europe, Canada and the USA, with Simon H. Fell, Mark Sanders and Steve Noble in the formation of Badland; with Paul Stapleton; Kjell Nordeson; Stefan Schultze; Willi Keller and Jan Roder; London Improvisors Orchestra; and many others. He has recorded solo albums Procession (alto saxophone) and Schmetterling (baritone saxophone) alongside numerous other releases on labels Emanem, Leo, PSI, Bruce’s Fingers, Not Two, Rayon, PFMentum, Red Toucan and others. Rose’s interest in improvisation extends to research and he has written extensively about creative processes. His recent book is: The Lived-Experience of Improvisation: In music, learning and life (2017, Intellect/Chicago).   www.simonrose.org

Kriton Beyer is a Greek-German musician and composer, who – as a performer and improviser – mainly works with the harmonium and the daxophone. He studied musicology in Greece where he played with a variety of local music groups. In 2004 he moved to Berlin, where he got heavily involved in the improvised music scene of the city. Since then he has worked with many musicians like Axel Dörner, Tristan Honsinger, Tomomi Adachi, Kresten Osgood, Richard Scott, Floros Floridis, Matthias Bauer, Olaf Rupp, Antonis Anissegos, Nicola Hein, Els Vandeweyer, Liz Allbee and Harri Sjöström. Kriton Beyer is also a member of the electroacoustic trio “uproot”, the ensembles “id”, “Crosstalk Jitter” and the “Berlin Soundpainting Orchestra”. As an improvising musician, he has performed throughout Europe.   www.kritonbeyer.com

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flicker is a solo performance project exploring territories of experimental, ambient and noise music with the daxophone, while simultaneously controlling a variety of light bulbs, fluorescent tubes and floodlights in real-time by means of a specially designed light control system.

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Color Music is a game piece and ongoing performance series that is based conceptually on the synaesthetic correlation between color and emotion.

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The Procrustean Bed is a concert series dedicated to experimental, improvised music that explores and combines diverse artistic territories, currently taking place at the venue of  T Berlin. Most of the performances as of beginning of 2016 are being recorded, made available for free download and can also be purchased as physical CDs at the concerts of the series and online as noted below. So far, the following performances took place:

Color Music is a game piece that is based conceptually on the synaesthetic correlation between color and emotion.

The players:
Emilio Gordoa – vibraphone, objects
Kriton Beyer – harmonium, color organ

Color Music was first performed on April 2, 2015 @ T berlin.

Permutation “explores new possibilities through radical rearrangement of existent elements”.

Harri Sjöström – soprano saxophone
Adam Pultz Melbye – double bass
Kriton Beyer – harmonium, objects

Permutation took place on May 7, 2015 @ T berlin.

Uproot “deals with the necessary deconstruction of musical heritage”.

Ganesh Anandan – shruti stick, microtonal metallophones
Marcello Lussana – live electronics
Kriton Beyer – harmonium, objects

Uproot performed on June 4, 2015 @ T berlin.

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Subterfuge “uses artful deception as a strategy against reality”.

Liz Allbee – trumpet
Richard Scott – modular synthesizers
Kriton Beyer – harmonium, objects

Subterfuge performed on January 7, 2016 @ T berlin.

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Apophenia “explores incidental patterns in collective, real-time improvisation”.

The Vasana String Trio:

Shasta Ellenbogen – viola
Hui-Chun Lin – cello
Adam Goodwin – double bass

and Kriton Beyer – harmonium

Apophenia was presented on March 3, 2016 @ T berlin.

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Parapraxes “explores the importance of errors in the Psychopathology of Everyday Life and their value as a source of artistic inspiration”.

Tomomi Adachi – voice, electronics
Thea Farhadian – violin, electronics
Kriton Beyer – harmonium, objects

Parapraxes performed on May 5, 2016 @ T berlin.

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Syzygy “investigates the inevitable interdependence of things”.

Frank Paul Schubert – soprano saxophone
Chris Hennan – alto saxophone
Philippe Lemoine – tenor saxophone
Miriam Siebenstädt – baritone saxophone
Kriton Beyer – daxophone

Syzygy performed on March 5, 2017 @ T berlin.

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Digressions “explores the art of leaving off to ensure unpredictability and subversion”.

Nicola L. Hein – guitar
Rudi Fischerlehner – drums
Kriton Beyer – harmonium, objects

Digressions was performed on June 8, 2017 @ T berlin.

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