Jazzexzess returns for the first show of 2026 with a fantastic double bill at Berghain’s Kantine featuring local virtuoso percussionist Katharina Ernst and the French trio Nout.
Austrian-malaysian performer Katharina Ernst started playing the drums at age nine, with an early focus on polymetric, odd and chaotic structures. Across her work, she puts emphasis on transgressing the fields of music, fine arts and choreography, celebrating a hybrid notion of the term “composition”, and allows herself for various forms of expression and translation. Taz writes, her music is “avant-garde, but surprisingly accessible”, as she uses her drums “percussively, but also as a melodic instrument.”
EXTRAMETRIC II is the second solo album of the EXTRAMETRIC series by drummer and composer Katharina Ernst. Following her debut LP EXTRAMETRIC from 2018, this record is an even deeper exploration of polyrhythmics on acoustic drums and electronic devices. This time, Katharina is also experimenting with voice and text.
Missing chain between Nirvana and Sun Ra, the alliance between Delphine Joussein, Rafaëlle Rinaudo and Blanche Lafuente aims at pushing their instruments beyond their limits, with the enthusiasm of a mad scientist in front of his vials. Flute, harp, drums: a rare combination that this trio turns upside down. In the wake of John Zorn’s experiences on the borders of jazz and noise, Nout imagines its music as a scenario with surprising twists: we believe to be the characters of Alien and we find ourselves in Indiana Jones; we start with our eyes shut on a red movie theatre seat and we end up rocking on the dancefloor.
