T.ON meets RAGE Thormbones feat. Weston Olencki & Mattie Barbier

The trio T.ON plays contemporary music on the borderlines of advanced forms of experimental music; between improvisation, jazz and new music.
The aim is to find a simple abstract language that nevertheless has a narrative character; a music that, beyond well-trodden paths, constantly sets out on new adventures in sound and stretches genre concepts with relish.

Herzog/Muche/Nillesen are among the most active international players on the Cologne scene as evidenced by the response to their current album T.ON plays LA BERGE / GREEENSTONE / PLUTA / WOOLEY (Impakt) with reviews by F. Matzner in THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORDS (01/2023), among others: "Taken as a whole, the result is an amalgam of sound that, while borrowing from earlier innovators such as Anthony Braxton or the found sounds and minimalism of John Cage, goes beyond simple imitation. It represents its own form of interaction between space and sound, technical constraints and the possibilities of individual instruments." As well as D. Mulder in VITAL WEEKLY (05/2022), "There are many different influences from improvisation and modern composed music, noise and drone music in the music of this ensemble. It must be impressive to experience the space filled with the omnipresent sounds of this adventurous trio." Or F. Klopotek in STADTREVUE (11/2020) about the debut T.ON plays Matthias Muche (Impakt): "a homogeneous, compact, very dense, yet audible and clear music...the musicians act as a unit from the very beginning, rely on the fusion of sounds and dynamics - and that throughout on a high intensity level. This makes the music rousing and immediately comprehensible, but just not predictable."

In the first meeting of the new international series T.ON meets NYC, Herzog/Muche/Nillesen meet musical soulmates RAGE Thormbones.
Weston Olencki: trombone, electronics
Mattie Barbier: trombone, electronics

RAGE Thormbones is a low-frequency duo whose work lies at the intersection of "fuck around" and "find out." Both members, Weston from NYC and Mattie from Los Angeles, are classically trained trombonists but jumped ship some time ago and luckily found each other in 2014. Their sounds combine various de/reconstructed brass instruments and electronic synthesis + amplification, with many forays into DIY and the polyphonic hum of Mattie's workshop and Weston's overloaded CPU. They create sculptural sound masses of high density, creating metallic resonance and subcutaneous tones to make spaces truly heavy. Their goal is to shift the role of brass instruments away from vocal virtuosity and toward their true selves as improvising organic air compressors - physically modeled synthesis transcribed back into the acoustic realm.
RAGE has collaborated with a range of artists including Kevin Drumm, Sarah Davachi, Michelle Lou, Clara Iannotta and British pop maverick Scott Walker. They have sounded their trombones everywhere from Walt Disney Concert Hall, Darmstadt Ferienkurse, Borealis Festival and ISSUE Project Room to Donaueschinger Musiktage and a charming community center deep in the Swedish countryside.