smallforms w/ Dana Schechter & Paul Wallfisch x Silvervest x Sebastian Bauer
the monthly series of smallforms seeks to support
contemporary and experimental forms of music which require an attitude of listening. in collaboration with the artspace Chateau Rouge run by performer and artist Elisabeth Bakambamba Tambwe.
Saturday December 6th 2025
Doors: 19h30
Music: 20h30
★ Dana Schechter & Paul Wallfisch
Even if you’re unfamiliar with the names Paul Wallfisch and Dana Schechter there’s a very good chance you’ve heard their work over the last few decades. The former lives in New York, and the latter resides in Berlin, and they’ve both spent time touring and recording with SWANS, but each artist has pursued wildly diverse careers, toggling between sounds of ferocious brutality and tones of meditative serenity. Wallfisch has played in bands like Firewater and Little Annie, while Schechter has logged time with American Music Club, Angels of Light and her own Insect Ark, among others. They’ve been friends since meeting in New York in the 1990s. Years later they forged a stronger connection as bandmates in Botanica.
Over the years Paul Wallfisch has been a prolific composer for film and TV, including Dummy, with Adrien Brody and Milla Jovovich (which the musician also appeared in). After spending years splitting her time between New York and Berlin, Dana Schechter settled in Berlin in 2020 and is currently a fix member of Swans.
They renewed their artistic partnership in 2021, when Paul invited Dana to Vienna to help him develop the music for a multimedia theatrical spectacle called Die Politiker written by Kleist prize winner Wolfram Lotz. The music from the production provides the foundation for the duo’s first album, The Heart of A Whale.
Across its six intense tracks one can detect a subtle homage to storied Berlin musical traditions, as the pair puts a raw, often brutal veneer on songs steeped in Weimar cabaret (a la Tom Waits) but updated with a visceral mixture of noise, post-punk, and industrial elements. Performed on a panoply of instruments from bass, organ and lap steel to SOMA Synths, Guitaret, a variety of electronics and a grand piano hammered with a shoe, the music reflects the New York-Berlin nexus they’ve both been part of for decades. Echoes of Swans, Einstürzende Neubauten and The Birthday Party, but also hints of Throbbing Gristle, Eno and even William Basinski and Michael Gordon. The music can’t
be contained by any single tradition, with a decidedly experimental bent that ruptures the fixed rhythm of rock for something more theatrical and emotionally harrowing.
http://danaschechter.com
http://paulwallfisch.com
https://www.trost.at/dana-schechter-und-paul-wallfisch-the-heart-of-a-whale.html?
"These 2 beautiful exiles travel limbic landscapes and underwater dreams with a map that disintegrates instantly when viewed. Their
fractured sounds dissolve and reconfigure endlessly in our cochlea and infest our imaginations with spiked armies of ultra-vivid, sentient and carnivorous coral predators, atavistically intent on devouring the sweet meat hiding deep in the center of the amygdala." ~Michael Gira (SWANS)
Multi-colored prisms of mysterious tones bask in an Americana sunspot storm. ~ Larry Mullins (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds)
★ Silvervest : Zombik & Caloia
Silvervest is the duo project of Nicolas Caloia and Kim Zombik that plays in the field of improv, storytelling, soundscapes, and jazz. Intimacy is at the heart of Silvervest's vibrant and melodic music, toggling between swagger and sweetness, caressing and careening. Their music remains unset and generous. The duo intuitively explore the nuts and bolts of humanity's mortal coil while remaining open to all possibilities.
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https://www.silvervestmusic.com/
silvervest.bandcamp.com/
"In terms of inventive new concepts with historical roots, Montreal's Silvervest - being the duo that is poetess Kim Zombik and bassist Nicolas Caloia - cooks up a sound that is savory,
witty and flecked with surprising twists, with hints of Abbey Lincoln, Billie Holiday and hip-hopping post-beat poetry. Stir and enjoy." ~ Josef Woodard - Downbeat, May 9, 2024
★ Sebastian Bauer: Past/Fear
The Vienna based sound designer and composer for dance and performance pieces conceived a new form of musical approach.
The simple gear (a mixing console and a digital effects processor) is turned into an instrument as such through performative action. Left unused for several years they collected dust which enables them to live a life on their own. Like outdated ideas for todays challenges come crashing in our present time the background noise of the console works its way through the hall unit like through a megaphone. Going into overdrive and feedback until the digital effect processor is overloaded and it begins to simulate the remoteness of war or the brutal intensity of torrential rain.
https://timerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/past-fear
https://vimeo.com/1028887302?share=copy
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
smallforms is a platform and music label for contemporary and experimental forms of music. the monthly series of smallforms seeks to support contemporary and experimental forms of music which require an attitude of listening and consists of recording sessions in the afternoon and concert/live set in the evening – joining forces with electronic allies, spoken word, spinning tunes or sweet stuff of pop culture that may lead to the underworld (or hell). in collaboration with the artspace Chateau Rouge run by performer and artist Elisabeth Bakambamba Tambwe.
Team: Alisa Beck (Programm), Gustavo Petek (Programm, Label), Elisabeth Bakambamba Tambwe (Host).
http://smallforms.org/
http://www.chateaurouge.at/
Mit freundlicher Unterstützung von SKE, Bundesministerium für Wohnen, Kunst, Kultur, Medien und Sport und der Kulturabteilung der Stadt Wien.
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