Cottbusser Chor

Yusuf Ergün
Margareth Kammer
Laura Mello
Alice Chauchat
Eduard Mont de Palol
Rico Repotente
Aaron Snyder

Lucile Desamory
Rico Repotente
Todosch Schlopsnies
Fernanda Farah

How should music be structured to make the unfamiliar accessible?

How can we create complex music that is defined not by exclusion but by permebility?

How can we create music that expands or challenges our listening habits without reproducing an attitude of artistic-virtuosic superiority?

How should music be structured to envision a diverse society?

What would the music of a diverse society even sound like?

The Cottbusser Chor is a vocal ensemble and performance group. It has been in existence since the beginning of 2014. The singers of the ensemble speak 13 languages and come from different musical contexts.

Drawing on our experience with improvised music and inspired by the algorithmic structure of digital cultures, we develop music that, structurally, gives everyone the opportunity to contribute their own musical “language.” A significant number of works exploring these questions have emerged over the past 12 years: “The News Blues,” “Major News/Minor News,” “Secret News,” “Kopiergruppe,” “Singing Yesterday’s News Again,” “Vorahnungen,” and “Arabische Zahlen.” These pieces have been performed numerous times; “The News Blues” has been performed over 80 times in Europe and China.

Since its foundation with the premiere of "The News Blues", the choir has given concerts at Maerzmusik Berlin 2016, Hangar Bicocca Milan 2016, for documenta14 Radio 2017, among others. "The News Blues" became "The News Trilogy" with further parts "Major News / Minor News" and "Secret News" .

We expanded the choir to a band: "Kopiergruppe" is a musical neighbourhood project at SAVVY Contemporary & Zeitzone in 2019, an open structure to process musical donations. In the run-up to the concerts we asked pedestrians for musical donations, This little recordings were being copied by the choir The copies of the donations were meshed into a medley during the show. The group plays also an important role for the Wandering Dunes as a performance. The group took part of all three iterations in Innsbruck, Porto & Berlin

The group was also involved in three film scores for "Miete essen Seele auf" by Angelika Levi Arte 2016 Weitermachen Sanssouci by Max Linz / Berlinale 2018. and the upcoming film by Max Linz.
T–p records / Austria & Subjam / China have released an album Digital and on Vinyl on bandcamp

Kopiergruppe

2019 Savvy Contemporary Berlin-Wedding
Galerie Zeitzone Berlin-Kreuzberg

Nicholas Bussmann & Cottbusser Chor – Vorahnungen

For Vorahnungen we ask friends, writers, artists to make us a small text or poem in a language we do not understand. One of us learns these words by heart to teach them during the concert to the others and transform it into music. So far we have sung lyrics by Miya Yoshida - Japanese, Farkhondeh Shahroudi – Farsi, Vinit Agarwal – Hindi & Mewati, Jasmina Al Qaisi – Romanian, Yan Jun – Chinese, Haytham El Wardany – Arabic, Pavel Braila – Romanian, Konstantin Schimanowski – Russian, Jia Chen Xu – Chinese, Mikhail Lylov – Russian, Shadi Habib Allah – Arabic

Grand Prix d’Amour Productions

Cottbusser Chor

Kopiergruppe

Nicholas Bussmann & Cottbusser Chor – Vorahnungen

The News Trilogy