Kamigaku Ensemble - Homage to Catherine Christer Hennix

Originally founded by Catherine Christer Hennix (1948-2023), the Kamigaku Ensemble reunites for a rare performance at the Biennale Musica 2025 to pay tribute to the late Swedish pioneer and multidisciplinary artist, and to present a reactivation of the contemplative practices and compositional principles of sustained tuning transmitted by Hennix directly to the musicians in the final phase of her life. Through Hennix’s characteristic use of high-intensity combination tone harmony, acoustically produced tones and electronic combination tones fuse harmonically and give rise to a sound with a seemingly autonomous force; a sound in which the members of the ensemble navigate the subtle movements of tone through precision-controlled tuning, at once guided by and guiding the emergent process of harmonic structuring.
Growing up in a vibrantly musical context in Stockholm, Sweden, Catherine Christer Hennix spent her formative years immersed in modal music, attending concerts by John Coltrane, playing jazz drums, and learning trumpet from Idrees Sulieman. As a musician, composer and sound artist, Hennix went on to become part of the NYC downtown school of sustained harmonic sound and was closely engaged with some of its key figures such as La Monte Young and Henry Flynt. Influenced by her studies with Pandit Pran Nath, a master of the Kirana tradition of classical Hindustani music, and the contemplative practices transmitted by him, Hennix produced a large body of sound works, including sine waves compositions, solo works for tampura and for keyboard, as well as ensemble works performed by her own groups, all of which emphasise an understanding of harmonic sound as an expression of the divine. This special performance by the Kamigaku Ensemble features Susana Santos Silva and Ellen Arkbro on trumpet, Amedeo Maria Schwaller and Mattias Hållsten on shō, and Marcus Pal on electronics.