»MESSING« (2020,released at Ventil Records) by Lukas Kœnig is a courageous statement that rejects straightforward pop and instead shines with artistic freedom and the will for change. The metal, the brass, always reverberates, at times mercilessly pounding on us, driving us forward, resonating. An artistically valuable and independent work by one of the most remarkable drummers of these times.
»MESSING« is the German noun for brass, a metal that is a component of percussion cymbals. Messing/brass is the cheapest metal alloy for cymbals. Therefore it is easily deformable and bendable.
»MESSING« as an English verb which describes a chaotic handling.
Not chaotic at all is Lukas König’s impressive sound study presented here. The internationally acclaimed drummer concentrated only on a single cymbal (brass plate) as a sound source, messed around with it and therefore discovered new possibilities for sound developments. According to Kœnig, this reduction in means can be attributed to the loss of his rehearsal room and additionally to an acute lack of space, which is also connected to his constant commuting between New York and Vienna. The warehouse was converted into a quiet rehearsal room, where he explored his dexterity on the cymbal and its tonal characteristics using contact microphones and headphones, and perfected his technique to this end. And this reduction of means bore fruit.
Koenig is cooperating with the Laser-Artist “BR-LASER” (Bernhard Rasinger) for live-performances.
Lukas Koenig, born 1988 in Austria works and lives in Vienna.
He has collaborated with Klangforum Wien, Audrey Chen, Julien Desprez, Sensational, Elvin Brandhi, Peter. Kutin, Chris Pitsiokos, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Briggan Krauss, Shahzad Isamaily, Jorge Sánchez-Chiong, Elliott Sharp, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Franz Hautzinger, David Murray, Reggie Washington, Malcolm Braff, Steven Bernstein, Kazuhisa Uchihashi, Koenigleopold, Kompost3, Bilderbuch, Ensemble für Neue Musik Zürich and many more.
Download press photo here.
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