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Don Li (born 7 April 1971 in Bern, Switzerland, real name Don Li von Arx) is a Swiss composer, musician (clarinet, saxophone) and music producer of reductive music.
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Don Li (born 7 April 1971 in Bern, Switzerland, real name Don Li von Arx) is a Swiss composer, musician (clarinet, saxophone) and music producer of reductive music.
Born into a family of graphic artists, he played drums, piano and saxophone as a child and started writing his own compositions at the age of 16. As a young saxophonist he played with George Gruntz, Christy Doran, Harald Haerter and Joseph Bowie, among others. He presented most of his compositions with his sextet "Tonus" (1993–2002), which consisted of the musicians Mich Gerber (1997–1998), Nik Bärtsch (1996–2002), Björn Meyer (1998–2002), Werner Hasler (1995–2002), Marco Agovino (1993–2002) and Patrick Lerjen (1993–2002). The album Gen, released in 1999, which forgoes all solo contributions and thus intensifies to become a mesmerizing 27-minute suite, has particularly been acclaimed by reviewers. With respect to rhythm, sound and concept, Gen presents nearly all elements which characterize the essence of Tonus-Music.
In 1999, Don Li founded the music label Tonus-Music-Records and began publishing recordings of various musicians. In 2000, he established the Tonus-Music Laboratory in Bern (Since 2012 renamed as Orbital Garden), which functions as a recording studio and public experimental lab as well as a workshop and teaching location; it also serves as a performance site mostly for interdisciplinary and unorthodox performances – such as a 48-hour non-stop drumbeat performance. He has used the lab to work with, among others, Jojo Mayer, Skúli Sverrisson, Pierre-Yves Borgeaud, Peter Scherer, Ania Losinger, Christian Zehnder, Vidya Shah, Milind Raikar, Sanju Sahai, Kaspar Rast, Asita Hamidi, Björn Meyer, Andi Pupato, Norbert Pfammatter, Nik Bärtsch, Sha, and Zimoun as well as to stage various concerts, exhibitions, lectures and installations. He has also done recordings of the groups of Fabian Kuratli (Fab Four), Asita Hamidi, Bänz Oester, Nik Bärtsch (Mobile) or Christian Zehnder.
His "Tonus-Music" concept combines a composing method that relies on reductive discipline and an almost graphic architecture which incorporates components of Indian classical music, jazz, minimal electronics, or funk. He is interested in metric, interlocking and balancing elements of rhythmic structures in combination with musical asceticism. He has been serially numbering his compositions (parts), which often consist of a single formula, ever since; he compares them with Japanese Haikus and calls them musical sculptures. "It has been seven years now since the saxophonist, clarinettist, composer, band leader and organizer Don Li ... published the twenty-six-minute-long CD , a relatively short prelude to a phenomenon which breaks the mold of purely musical categories." Georg Modestin, der Bund 2006
Since 2005, his works have been dealing with the conscious, chronological structuring of time and, in synchronization with the PC, last exactly 60 minutes (Orbital Garden).
In 2006, Don Li received a commission from Pro Helvetia, and in 2006 After receiving a New York scholarship from the city of Bern (2002), he was given the option to cooperate in the grant "Werkjahr der Stadt Bern". In 2008 he was awarded the German Record Critics‘ Prize (Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik).
Nik Bärtsch is a Swiss pianist, composer, bandleader, record producer and author from Zürich.
John Wolf Brennan is an Irish pianist, organist, melodica player, and composer based in Weggis, Switzerland.
Gwendolyn Masin is a Dutch-Irish violinist, musicologist, author, and educator.
Pierre-Yves Borgeaud is a Swiss film director. Borgeaud has a bachelor's degree in arts at the Lausanne University in 1990, with a thesis about the influence of jazz on French writers. He has worked as an independent journalist, writing about music and moving images in different media. He also played the drums in jazz and funk bands and worked as a music producer.
The GAIA Music Festival was founded by violinist Gwendolyn Masin. The festival is hosted annually, usually in the month of May, in Oberhofen and Hilterfingen, as well as the cities of Thun and Berne. The Festival is non-profit. From 2010 until 2014, the Patron of the Festival was David Zinman.
Stoa is an album by Swiss pianist and composer Nik Bärtsch's band Ronin recorded in France in May 2005 and released on ECM the following year.
Ritual Groove Music is the debut album by Swiss pianist, composer, record producer and author r Nik Bärtsch's band Mobile recorded in Switzerland in 2000 and first released on the Tonus Music label in 2004.
Hishiryo: Solo Piano is a solo album by Swiss pianist and composer Nik Bärtsch recorded in Switzerland in 2002 and first released on the Tonus Music label.
Live is a live album by Swiss pianist and composer Nik Bärtsch's band Ronin recorded in Switzerland in 2002 and first released on the Tonus Music label.
Randori is an album by Swiss pianist and composer Nik Bärtsch's band Ronin recorded in Switzerland in 2002 and first released on the Tonus Music label.
Aer is an album by Swiss pianist and composer Nik Bärtsch's band Mobile recorded in Zürich in 2003 and first released on the Tonus Music label in 2004.
Rea is an album by Swiss pianist and composer Nik Bärtsch's band Ronin recorded in Zürich in 2003 and first released on the Tonus Music label.
Pedro Lenz is a Swiss writer.
Continuum is an album by Swiss pianist and composer Nik Bärtsch's Mobile recorded in Switzerland in 2015 and released on the ECM label.
Björn Meyer is a Swedish bassist and composer.
Tomek Kolczynski, aka Kold, born 1973 in Gdańsk, Poland, is a Swiss musician, composer and sound designer.
Awase is an album by Nik Bärtsch's Ronin recorded in France in October 2017 and released on ECM May the following year. The quartet features Sha on reeds and rhythm section Thomy Jordi and Kaspar Rast.
Jean-Claude Zehnder is a Swiss organist in church and concert, harpsichordist, and musicologist. In research and playing, he is focused on Baroque music, and has played and recorded at historic organs in Europe. He led the department for organ at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis from 1972 to 2006. His publications include books and music editions, such as organ works by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Hans Eugen Frischknecht is a Swiss composer, organist, choral conductor and harpsichordist.
Alfred Schweizer is a Swiss composer.
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