Incorporating elements of video art, dance, and Lena Willikens’ eclectic sonic palette, the duo’s performance is described in a press release as “a socially-conducted, aesthetically-charged experience that whirrs, reels, and metamorphoses as a film playing in the deepest crevice of one’s mind.”
Lena Williken has established herself in the forefront of contemporary music and it comes with little surprise that she’s now pushing the boundaries even further. Both Willikens and Szczesny attended the Dusseldorf Art Academy and Phantom Kino Ballett is their most recent collaboration. Between 2011 and 2014, Szczesnty designed all of the artwork for Berlin-based label Cómeme, on which Willikens released her 2015 EP Phantom Delia.
The duo have, thus, announced the limited release of the score to their audiovisual performance piece Phantom Kino Ballett as part of their collaboration for the music-and-art series Commend See. The score will be available via RVNG Intl. on September 19, and will include two alternate takes of the performance, as well as additional paper materials.
“How Sarah and I worked together was something neither of us had experienced before,” Willikens said during an interview back in March. “It was like a rework of ideas, like a constantly morphing cabinet of curiosities where we’d both bring in everything that we were fans of that we just wanted to show to people. That energy was so important.”
Willikens and Szczesny’s Phantom Kino Ballett was initially conceived as an improvised live score performed back in September of 2016 at RVNG Intl’s retail and community space, Commend. The project continued into the following year with the pair taking up a residency in Kyoto, Japan in the autumn.
Commend See will release the score as a limited run of cassettes and vinyl LPs on September 19 via RVNG Intl. and is available for preorder now. The cassettes will include a 40-minute addendum, ‘Passage Transkript’, and all proceeds from the release will be donated to agisra e.V., a non-profit organization based in Cologne advocating on behalf of migrant women and against sexual and racist violence.
RVNG and Commend See will present the latest live iteration of Phantom Kino Ballet at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn, NY, also on September 19. Check out the event here.
Lena Willikens joins a stacked line-up including Eris Drew, Helena Hauff and Object Blue at Berlin Atonal this month.
ABOUT LENA WILLIKENS
Lena Willikens is one of Germany’s current top DJs and producers. For five years now she has been a resident of the famous club Salon Des Amateurs in Dusseldorf as well as one of the driving forces behind Cómeme Records. It was on this label that she released her first EP in 2015: ‘Phantom Delia’, a juicy serving of drone, EBM, ghosthouse and no-wave grooves. Catchy and edgy, Willikens’ live performances never fail to impress.
Recently the German artist has focused on creating live performances to accompany film showings. For her debut she created a spellbinding soundtrack for the Japanese film ‘Japanese Girls from the Harbour’. Armed with only a theremin, loop pedal and some turntables, she managed to create the ultimate spooky, melancholy atmosphere. ‘Phantom Kino Ballett’ is her most recent feat of musical mastery.