German pianist, composer and musical adventurer Volker Bertelmann a.k.a. Hauschka graduated from classical piano. His interest gradually shifted from classical music to hip hop and drum n’bass. Since the beginning of the millennium, he has composed experimental electronic music, and from 2004 he has also produced records at the boundary of ambient and classical music, but to whose tradition he has a very unorthodox approach. He returned to acoustic music through experiments with dissected pianos, the sound of which is modified by, for example, ping-pong balls or plastic bottles. He releases his records under such labels as Karaoke Kalk, FatCat, City Slang and Deutsche Grammophon. He returns to Prague after 5 years with his current album, A Different Forest, which he released at the beginning of February under the prestigious Sony Classical label and which he will introduce on Friday, May 17, at the Archa Theatre.
The evening will be opened up by the talented Dutch composer Pieter De Graaf, who at the beginning of his career was devoted mainly to jazz music. His work slowly shifted towards post-classical music, where he combines the impact of his greatest influences such as Miles Davis, Nils Frahm, Rachmaninov, Bach, Chopin, Herbie Hancock, and Keith Jarrett. In the autumn of 2018, he debuted with his EP Prologue under Sony Classical, where he also plans to release his next album (in the spring).
