HYPHEMIND is a hybrid music theater: a real-virtual expedition into the whimsical world of fungi. What can we learn from the specialists of symbioses and their mycelial networks? What do our human ideas of individuality, intelligence and society look like from their perspective? Can we overcome the crisis of the Anthropocene with them and come to new forms of coexistence between humans, nature and machines?

The music of Andreas Eduardo Frank takes up the text of Matthias Rebstock and lets the most different styles collide in a virtuoso way. It plays with wit and power, with pop elements, analog synthesizers, shimmering soundscapes and through-composed light and video sequences. Like the mushrooms, the music is the medium of symbiosis and mediates between text, the analog visual language of Sabine Hilscher, AI-controlled animations by Niklas Berlec and the stage action.

Between presence and online performance, the online audience can establish contact with the hall audience, the performers and the unknown world of mushrooms through polls and online games. A digital-analogous wattle grows, which wants to connect with the mushroom mycelia to a cross-species network, the HYPHEMIND.

HYPHEMIND is a piece development in which text, music, performance, graphics and web design were created simultaneously and closely related to each other over a series of rehearsal phases.
Andreas Eduardo Frank and Matthias Rebstock

Andreas Eduardo Frank (*1987) is a composer, media artist, and performer. His oeuvre is characterised by close collaborations with outstanding interpreters and artists from various disciplines.

In his works, he explores the intersection between the real and the virtual, blending music, performance, choreography, video, and theatre. He plays with absurdity, humour, and precision, aiming to “virtuosically sparkle with what does not shine, build thought castles without fear of tearing them down, to derive from their rubble a genuine concept of music that boldly flirts with other disciplines.”

Numerous performances and commissions across Europe, Asia, and America have seen him actively involved not only as a composer but also as a sound director or performer. His works are interpreted internationally by renowned ensembles and artists. Since 2019, he has been the artistic director of Ensemble Lemniscate Basel, he is the winner of the 64th Composition Competition of the City of Stuttgart, and since 2021, a member of the programming committee of the Festival Rümlingen.

Biography, as of February 2022

The seven singers are constantly searching for new forms of vocal expression in exchange with composers. One focus is the work with artists who virtuously exploit the possibilities of digital media, with a delight in networking, in playing with genres, in dissolving space, perspectives and functions. Interdisciplinary formats between music theater, performance, installation and concert staging characterize up to 30 world premieres a year. In addition to vocal chamber music theater, the Neue Vocalsolisten explore “magic spaces” together with artists and web designers – performance formats between analog and digital perception. Master classes and a digital “NVS Academy” introduce young artists to the challenges of experimental vocal music. In 2021, the Neue Vocalsolisten became the first ensemble to be awarded the Silver Lion of the Biennale di Venezia. In 2022 they received the Premio Abbiati della critica.

Matthias Rebstock (*1970 in Rottweil) works as a director and author in the field of contemporary music theater. The focus of his work is on play developments in the border area between music, theater and digital media as well as premieres of music theater and new operas. He studied piano, school music and philosophy at the UdK Berlin and King’s College London and assisted Daniel Ott, George Tabori, Andreas Homoki and Achim Freyer, among others. In 2001 he founded the music theater ensemble leitundlause and has since worked regularly with the stage and costume designer Sabine Hilscher. Since 2004 he has had a close collaboration with the composer Elena Mendoza. His works can be seen at national and international festivals and stages. Matthias Rebstock is professor of scenic music at the University of Hildesheim and author of numerous books and articles on forms of staging music, especially forms of musicalized theater, music theater and opera, as well as on the history and aesthetics of new music. Teaching assignments and guest lectureships have taken him to the UdK Berlin and the Hochschule der Künste Bern, among others.

Miguel Ángel García Martín (*1989, Zamora) is a percussionist, performer and improviser active in a variety of contexts such as contemporary classical music, multidisciplinary performances and experimental music based in Basel, Switzerland.
Seeking new sound worlds, developing unconventional playing techniques and collaborating with other artists are currently the basis of his artistic praxis. Some fruitful examples are the collaboration with Swiss drummer Julian Sartorius or different music-theaters with e.g. Simon Steen-Andersen or Ondrej Adamek.
Miguel is member of the percussion quartet “ensemble this | ensemble that”, the “Fachbetrieb Rita Grechen” theater company, the “KvG Bottom Orchestra” and the “Ensemble Lemniscate”.

www.miguelangelgarciamartin.com