Simon Berz is a transdisciplinary drummer, sound artist, and music educator based in Switzerland and Berlin. Working at the intersection of improvised music, sound art, and performance, and deliberately crossing boundaries between disciplines, his aesthetics are shaped by a sustained engagement with natural materials, particularly stone, and their sonic transformation through electronic manipulation.
A summary of his geological sound explorations across continents. From Iceland to Indonesia and Bali, from New Orleans to China, in caves and at shores, Berz carried his millions-of-years-old basalt stones as both instrument and collaborator. On Java, he met Baron, a builder of stone gamelan instruments. At the Pacitan Tabuhan Cave (Indonesia) he performed with Misbach Bilok and Wukir Suryadi (Senyawa) who work with corals as instruments. Berz brought these encounters and “field recordings” to the Stöðvarfjörður studio in Iceland, where he recorded with his “Tectonic” set-up, drums, and electronics. The music was later mixed in Berlin by Dirk Dresselhaus (Schneider TM).
The resulting album moves from club-driven tracks to ambient passages, from gamelan-inspired textures to HipHop-like beat patterns. It resists easy categorization while staying direct and physical in its impact.
Schneider TM is a multidimensional music project by Dirk Dresselhaus that oscillates extensively between adventurous electronic pop music and experimental, sometimes improvised freeform music while occasionally bringing these and other opposing elements together. The evening ends with an improvised duo set by Simon Berz & Schneider TM.
