Wind, Electricity and Song

Cosy is perhaps the last adjective one would use to describe the industrial venues of the Ruhrtriennale. The floors are cold mosaics of chance, tiles gnawed by the ravages of time set in concrete. Lonely nails and hinges, now rendered useless, protrude from the walls, bearing witness to a bygone era. The audience often experiences the halls from spartanly upholstered seats on dizzyingly high grandstand scaffolding. This year, at least in one venue, things will be different. In Bochum’s Turbinenhalle, where wind and electricity were once generated, concerts will take place this year that are largely acoustic, albeit not unamplified. At the same time, the venue will become an inviting oasis of varied seating, enveloped in musical atmospheres that are kindred spirits to other creations in this year’s programme. 

On the subject of family ties: When director Lisaboa Houbrechts (SIDDHARTHA) saw Meskerem Mees performing in a production by choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (BREL), this became the spark that set things alight: she was so impressed by the young singer’s unique presence that she asked her to take on the lead role in her world premiere. In August, between rehearsals for the musical theatre production SIDDHARTHA, Meskerem Mees packs her guitar into her case and heads to Bochum for two concerts. There she will present the programme that Lisaboa Houbrechts once championed for her: a tribute to the walking blues from the dance evening EXIT ABOVE, performed together with the dancer and guitarist Carlos Garbin. Meskerem Mees’s roots lie in pop; or at least, she first attracted attention on the radio in 2020 with her sensitive cover versions. Since then, the career of the now 26-year-old Belgian has been unstoppable. In 2021, she won the Talent Award at the Montreux Jazz Festival, where her presence was compared to that of Nina Simone or Joni Mitchell. Her discography includes several albums and singles, but recently she has been touring Europe primarily as an inspiring collaborator with the greatest living Flemish artists of the moment. 

The music she created for EXIT ABOVE together with Garbin and producer Jean-Marie Aerts has now become a programme in its own right, dedicated not only to so-called ‘disaster songs’ in the blues tradition, but also to walking and hiking and the music that has explored these themes – with a nod to Franz Schubert. On Sunday at the Relaxed Concert, she will present her previously unreleased solo material. In a noisy world, she creates unusually intimate music, skilful yet accessible, seemingly effortless yet with great emotional power.

Bulgarian choral singing has become a brand in its own right. And this choir is the reason why. The ensemble Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares moves audiences with its voices. Yet the choir did not choose this name for itself. In 1975, the Swiss musicologist Marcel Cellier released recordings of the Bulgarian Radio Choir under this name, making them accessible from behind the Iron Curtain. The name emphasises the mystique of their unique singing style, which is both archaic and complex and has achieved cult status in popular culture. 

Their music featured in the opening sequences of the 1990s series Xena and Hercules, inspired the soundtrack for the legendary anime Ghost in the Shell, and provided the musical backdrop for the wedding of rock star David Bowie and model Iman Abdulmajid. For performance artist Marina Abramović, this distinctive singing forms part of her artistic Balkan landscape in her large-scale performance Balkan Erotic Epic. 

Behind the choir’s seemingly traditional and folkloric performances lies a talent pool cultivated over decades, featuring countless works and arrangements written specifically for them. Once recruited from the finest voices in Bulgarian villages, the Bulgarian Women’s Choir reinterprets traditions and folk songs yet constantly seeks new artistic challenges. At Ruhrtriennale, Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares will present a programme comprising a cappella compositions and new works for string quartet and choir.

The 21st century is brimming with musical genres that would never have emerged without globalisation, the internet, historical catastrophes and sheer chance. One of these genres, Grime, grew out of turbulent life stories in the much-vaunted yet ultimately under-supported cultural melting pot that was London in the 2000s. Grime stands for fast beats and aggressive electronic sounds. But it also represents a way of life: a break from the hopelessness of working-class neighbourhoods in affluent societies, born of a migrant’s ‘make-it-or-break-it’ mentality and characterised by English accents that can be pinpointed geographically. Of the Turbinenhalle concerts, the one by Lady Leshurr from Birmingham is the loudest. Fast-paced freestyle rap is the rapper’s speciality. The UK-based artist went viral with her Queen’s Speeches but has also made a name for herself as a reality TV star in recent years. She blends British street rap with Afro-Caribbean influences and internet culture, making her a prime example of the diasporic ethos championed by Cute Community Radio. The Bochum-based initiative is hosting this concert alongside the parties under the water tower in the Down the Rabbit Hole series.  

Since her huge success with the Partita for 8 Voices, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize in 2013, Caroline Shaw has been the great hope of classical music. The breadth of her work defies genre boundaries. Her timeless, delicate music stands on its own. It is also frequently used as the soundtrack for successful TV series and films. Shaw composes and produces groundbreaking pop albums, most recently Rosalia’s Lux, whilst her artistic collaborations also include major names in classical music such as Renée Fleming. The Attacca Quartet, too, is at home at the forefront of musical excellence, equally at ease with Franz Schubert and György Ligeti as well as Flying Lotus or Becca Stevens. Caroline Shaw’s career is closely linked to the Attacca Quartet – she  won two Grammy Awards with them for different albums. It is precisely this ethereal blend of voice and strings that defines the quintessential Shaw sound. In Evergreen & Beyond, the composer presents herself as a universal musician.  The evening draws on her latest collaborative album, Evergreen, featuring musical essays, songs and a tribute to an early string quartet by Beethoven. In Evergreen & Beyond, she delves deeper into her exploration of the quartet’s aural possibilities.