DUO OXYMORON

Anna Stein­kog­ler &
Valen­tin Butt

Old and new. Light and dark. Cham­ber music and groo­ve. Harp and accor­di­on. In their debut album “Scen­ted Rus­hes”, the Ber­lin-based ensem­ble DUO OXYMORON crea­tes an uncon­ven­tio­nal, colourful sound lan­guage, com­bi­ning jazz, neo­clas­si­cal and con­tem­po­ra­ry play­ing techniques. 

Their love for free­dom, their desi­re for expe­ri­ments and the mix of styl­es both musi­ci­ans can revert to results in an inde­pen­dent sound uni­ver­se. DUO OXYMORON tre­ats any kind of music like cham­ber music in the truest sen­se of the con­cept: per­fect ensem­ble play­ing, careful inter­ac­tion, lis­tening, trust. Fee­ling the same pul­se makes the groo­ve come ali­ve regard­less of the genre.

“Scen­ted Rus­hes” is a dia­lo­gue bet­ween two fairy-tale worlds, two musi­cal lan­guages. For our debut album, Stein­kog­ler and Butt let them­sel­ves be inspi­red by three gre­at sto­ry-tel­lers and phil­an­thro­pists: Lewis Car­roll, Mau­rice Ravel and Ber­nard Andrès. Not only their works, but also their sen­se of humor, ear­nest­ness and their distas­te for being stuck in a pige­on hole is what attracts DUO OXYMORON to the com­po­ser Mau­rice Ravel and the wri­ter and mathe­ma­ti­ci­an Lewis Car­roll. And they both knew about the importance of blur­ring the lines.

“Scen­ted Rus­hes” is a toun­gue-in-cheek homage to Lewis Car­roll, aut­hor of both Ali­ce novels. To his poe­tic light-hear­ted­ness. To the scen­ted rus­hes always gro­wing out of reach – “almost as if it was on purpose”.

OXYMORON — oppo­si­tes attract

From the very first moment Anna Stein­kog­ler and Valen­tin Butt made music tog­e­ther, they felt a strong musi­cal bond, and the exci­ting desi­re to crea­te some­thing powerful, enthr­al­ling and inten­se­ly emo­tio­nal tog­e­ther. The jux­ta­po­si­ti­on of their instru­ments — harp and accor­di­on — has never felt like ant­ago­nisms, on the con­tra­ry, they attract each other. Their name says it all: OXYMORON.

True musi­ci­an­ship and dedi­ca­ti­on are the keys to Steinkogler’s and Butt’s own com­pel­ling arran­ge­ments. The con­tras­ting per­so­na­li­ties of both musi­ci­ans and instru­ments seem to blend into each other on stage, while main­tai­ning their extre­me posi­ti­ons. Their music is an orga­nic and refres­hing take on the encoun­ter of the well-known and the new-found.

With their own com­po­si­ti­ons, DUO OXYMORON explo­res and expands their aes­the­tics. The lack of musi­cal tra­di­ti­ons or role models for their uncom­mon instru­men­ta­ti­on allows Anna Stein­kog­ler and Valen­tin Butt to deve­lop their own indi­vi­du­al musi­cal language.

“If I had a world of my own, ever­y­thing would be non­sen­se. Not­hing would be what it is becau­se ever­y­thing would be what it isn’t. And con­tra­ry wise, what is, it wouldn’t be. And what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?” — Lewis Car­roll

PANAMOUR

Anna Stein­kog­ler &
Liam Mallett