about

echoes – soundforum bonn has been combining artistic and scientific research and artistic practice since 2022. In close cooperation with a Bonn-based and an international scientific institution, sound artists engage in dialog with scientists on topics such as biodiversity, sustainability, society and the destruction of nature.

A research trip by sound artists and scientists to an annually selected region of the world and an artistic residency in exchange with local scientists form the basis for the development and presentation of new sound art works both in Bonn and at the locations of the partner institutions.

In the first year, Bonn City Sound Artist 2022 Robin Minard researched the sounds and living conditions of frogs in the rainforest together with biologists from Museum Koenig in Bonn and the University of Santa Marta in Colombia. In the following year, the two Bonn City Sound Artists Roswitha von den Driesch and Jens-Uwe Dyffort investigated the development of plants in the extremely arid regions of the Atacama Desert in Chile with biologists from the Nees Institute at the University of Bonn and the CRC1211 international research network.

The central theme of echoes – soundforum bonn 2024 is the role of sound and music in communities.

For this year’s project, artists Miki Yui and Stefan Schneider, who live and work in Düsseldorf, have been appointed City Sound Artists Bonn 2024 by the Beethoven Foundation. In close collaboration with researchers from the Institute of Linguistics, Media and Musicology at the University of Bonn and the University of Cape Coast (Ghana), the two will focus on the West African country of Ghana, partly because of the central role of communal thinking and action in the local traditional music cultures there. After two research residencies in Ghana, Miki Yui and Stefan Schneider will first present their artistic results in Cape Coast, Bonn’s project partner city. After that, they will  develop a larger artistic project, which they will present in September 2024 at the Beethovenfest in Bonn.

Already from 2010 to 2019, the Beethoven Foundation Bonn had invited renowned sound artists as City Sound Artists each year within its sound art project bonn hoeren. This sustainable work of bonn hoeren forms the basis for the new sound art project echoes – soundforum bonn.

city sound artist bonn 2024

For this year’s project, artists Miki Yui and Stefan Schneider, who live and work in Düsseldorf, have been appointed City Sound Artists Bonn 2024 by the Beethoven Foundation. In close collaboration with researchers from the Institute of Linguistics, Media and Musicology at the University of Bonn and the University of Cape Coast (Ghana), the two will focus on the West African country of Ghana, partly because of the central role of communal thinking and action in the local traditional music cultures there. After two research residencies in Ghana, Miki Yui and Stefan Schneider will first present their artistic results in Cape Coast, Bonn’s project partner city. After that, they will  develop a larger artistic project, which they will present in September 2024 at the Beethovenfest in Bonn.

Miki Yui & Stefan Schneider

Miki Yui (JP/DE) and Stefan Schneider (DE) are autodidactic musicians mostly working in the field of electronic music. They both do have backgrounds in fine arts and hold master degrees in Media art (Miki Yui) and Photography (Stefan Schneider) at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf.

Miki Yui is an artist / composer from Tokyo, based in Duesseldorf, Germany. With her background in fine art, she explores the grey areas of our perception and imagination, in the fields of music, drawing, installation and performance. Her work has been shown in exhibitions in Europe and Asia. She also took part in numerous concerts and worked on otherpublications and radio play productions.

Her music consists of noises, field recordings and electronic sounds, whose different elements are woven into a fragile, minimalist-organic soundscape with abstract and narrative power. Her music plays with the subtle perception of the listener, unfolding imaginary spaces and images.

Since 2018 she also integrated ecological issues in her artistic practice. In Amazon forest in Brazil, an ecological village in south Taiwan, or organic winery in central Italy, she has documented the tie between landscape and human activities by making interviews with locals, making field recordings and recordings of folk or traditional music.

www.mikiyui.com

Stefan Schneider is a Düsseldorf based musician and producer in contemporary electronic music. He is a founding member of Düsseldorfs electronic band KREIDLER (1994-99) and has also been a third of the internationally highly acclaimed trio TO ROCOCO ROT (1995-2014). Since 1994 he has been touring in Euorpe, USA, Japan, Malaysia, Australia, China andAlgeria.

Between 2011 and 2015 he has been invited several times to Kenya to record music of local musicians in the rural landscapes of Malindi and Siaya. Many of these recordings have been released in Europe and also in Kenya.

He is the founder of the TAL label, which is an internationally operating record label established in 2016. With a continuous and carefully curated selection of releases, TAL has also become a home for multidisciplinary artistic activities, research, archival projects, public talks and live events. On his label TAL, Schneider has released a.o. the music of Kenyan folk singer OGOYA NENGO AND THE DODO WOMENS GROUP, unique collection of folk music from Venezuela between 1972-1981, and the reissue of the stunning 1982 album of NON BAND from Tokyo, Japan.

www.talmusic.com

First research in Cape Coast, Ghana

At the end of November, the two Bonn City Sound Artists 2024 Miki Yui and Stefan Schneider traveled to Ghana for an initial research. Several meetings in Accra were followed by a week-long stay in Cape Coast, Bonn’s project partner city. There, both artists presented themselves at the University of Cape Coast (Department of Music and Dance), as well as to the public at the Center of National Culture (CNC). They also went on several excursions to different communities in the area (e.g. to a fishermen’s community), visited musicians, religious rituals and concerts. This first trip served as preparation for the planned three-week research residency in February 2024.