Anna Minster
Anna Minster is an expansive improvisational collective that uses gesture-based conducting as a unifying element.
Coming into an Anna Minster rehearsal you never really know what you'll find. Any number of people could be there tooting or sawing away, and any type of instrument could likely be sitting cheek to jowl with another wildly unassociated one. This is a chaotic entrprise at best where saxes, violins, guitars, voices, bicycle chains, car horns, laptops and footstomps all can share sonic space.
While it certainly can be cacophonous, the ensemble is actually guided by the sure hand of a conductor who oversees the group improvisations and conducts in a gesture-based language the ensemble has collectively created. This means there is a unified timbre and dynamic that gives a startling clarity to the otherworldly sound.
Based on the philosophy of sound-painting this gesture-based improvisation is an exciting development in large ensemble improvisation. Anna Minster's musicians have used sound-painting as a conceptual spring-board and have created their own expanding vocabulary of conducting gestures. That, and the ever evolving line-up combine to creat music of confident direction with a constantly fresh sonic palette.
What is an exciting aspect of the process is that very often, instrumentalists arrive for rehearsal choosing to play some other "instrument' than the one they are known for. This makes it an exciting and constantly mind-opening event for the audience and the players alike. This is the kind of improvised music that people who don't think they like improvised music, might actually like!
The line-up is far too large to list here, and as there is an open invitation for any-one to come and join-in, any solidified list of players would be inaccurate.
Rehearsal One
The first piece of Anna Minster's debut album on Rostfrei Records"