Week of Surprise: Of Cabbages and Kings // Maja S.K. Ratkje & Stian Westerhus

A Week of Surprise full of musical surprises, diversions, oases and discoveries. Due to the current Corona situation, the Cologne festival "Night of Surprise", will take place as a six-day festival, including not only the Stadtgarten but also other concert venues such as the Christuskirche and the Galerie Martina Kaiser. The program of this interim format focuses on niches of the European musical landscape and projects of some darlings of the last festival editions, on local projects and new collaborations in more concert-like formats.

Of Cabbages and Kings Neo A Capella
Multicoloured, iridescent, in-between and polyphonic - the outstanding young singers of the Cologne quartet Of Cabbages and Kings extract astonishing facets from the a capella format: Between subtle harmonies and poetic lyrics, evocative melodies and neo-tonal abstractions, beguiling movement singing and expressive solos. The internationally touring ensemble is currently developing music for its second release,

Maja Ratkje & Stian Westerhus Archaic Experimental Songs
The power is off, the songs are shining. Stian Westerhus and Maja Ratkje are key figures in the Norwegian musical avant-garde, shaping the musical possibilities of their respective instruments. Actually at home in electronic-analogue in-between worlds, as musical alchemists they combine and alienate guitar and voice with effects, samplers, amplifiers, computers - without losing emotional directness. In this new project, however, they play completely acoustically - with fiddle, acoustic guitar, their voices. A dreamlike, captivating sound world that evokes associations with Kristiania in the 19th century or saloons with emigrated Norwegians in the Midwest of the pioneer era.