Published:
July 2, 2015
There is a small village in Austria, next to the border to Hungary, called Nickelsdorf, which hosts the annual and internationally in-famous Jazz festival Konfrontationen. This year is the 36th edition.
Konfrontationen is a very special music event with a tremendously rich history and tradition, known amongst the jazz heads as a Mecca for free improvised music and electroacoustic.
This year, the festival takes place between 16 - 19 of July and includes a wide range of musicians, such as Mike Majkowski, Bob Ostertag, Dror Feiler, Łukasz Rychlicki, Paweł Szpura, WATUSSI (Ingrid Schmoliner, Joachim Badenhorst and Pascal Niggenkemper), KIMMIG / STUDER/ ZIMMERLIN feat. JOHN BUTCHER (Harald Kimmig, Daniel Studer, Alfred Zimmerlin and John Butcher), NUIVERSUM (Mariam Wallentin, Lisa Ullén and Nina de Heney), REIDY / SCOTT / JEFFERY / HEATHER, VENTIL, ROSE / KNEER / BARRETT, ALL CHANGE, LISBON BERLIN TRIO, SUDO QUARTET, SPINTRACK, GLOBE UNITY ORCHESTRA, ROSE / OSTERTAG / HEMINGWAY and much more.
See the complete program HERE.
Konfrontationen couldn't exist without Hans Falb, the main organizer of the festival and a unique music visionary. ''Personally, I find this music scene richer and more broad-ranging than almost anything else because it is open to all approaches and extends to all cultures. Free jazz and freely improvised contemporary music are an extension of language, enabling people from different cultural backgrounds to come together. Suddenly, they find a common means of communication and enrich each others lives. Thats how I think music should be. I don't want to be blinkered and think only in terms of categories'' says Hans in an interview for wieninternational.at. You can read it in full right HERE.
Nickelsdorf has become an open-minded place, partly thanks to the work of the Jazz Gallery. There's an anecdote from the world of music about two musicians who meet at the airport in New York. One of them asks, "Where are you flying to?" The other answers, "To Vienna." The first one says, "Where the hell is Vienna?", to which the second replies, "You don't know Vienna? Its just next to Nickelsdorf!"
See the complete program and all the details regarding accommodation, tickets and other information HERE.
Read a report on the last year's edition: day 1, day 2, day 3 and day 4.
We'll also be there, so stay tuned for further reports, interviews, pictures and impressions from the festival.