As we're traveling constantly, we're also constantly receiving the question "how do your travels influence your work?" Implicit in the background of this question is normally some kind of wish of the asker for a sort of stylistic reference to different cultures. The truth is that, stylistically speaking, our travels have made only small impacts on our music - and that is very much so by design. Instead, the act of traveling itself, and the journey we’re on has massively changed the way in which we create music, and our musical process.

We began creating our own instruments in order to be able to play the music we would like to play anywhere at any time, and each year we seek to find a live set which more deeply connects with that specific approach. Thanks to collaborations with dozens of artist residencies and institutions, we've slowly incorporated many other mediums and approaches into our work, influenced by the artists from other disciplines that we're often working alongside. Most recently, we've even begun to improvise a bit more, something we never thought we would do, because it is a very pure way of having a musical conversation with someone we haven't met before, especially when common languages aren't on offer.

All this is to say that our approach, from when we started traveling continuously seven years ago until today, has changed so much about what we do - it's hardly recognizable from where it began, and that is entirely to be credited to our travels.

By now we've traveled to, and performed or had musical projects in, 54-ish countries (well it depends what you count as a country). That's just about every fourth country in the world. Each of these places has moved the needle on our practice in some way, sometimes small and sometimes big. We think that traveling affords some kind of mental flexibility that normal life does not - one does not need to attempt to change, but rather one must change in order to meet the strange new circumstances in which they find themselves.

Below is a small reflection on everywhere we've been so far - let's see where we can go next:

1. Argentina

We were in Argentina as part of our long tour across South America - our favorite memories were in Mendoza, crossing through the Andes from Chile. While in Argentina, the first big snowfall of the year closed the mountain pass, and we were stuck without a place to stay. The cello teacher from the city’s university, Gabriela, very graciously hosted us until the pass opened back up again some days later. Everyone we met during our stay came over to hang out for an impromptu barbecue, filled with red wine and asado. The photo is from the beautiful snow fall in the mountains on our way back to Chile.

2. austria

Back in 2021, we had a fantastic opportunity to work with a very special synthesizer in Austria, a Buchla 100 from 1964. We were hosted by the Ernst Krenek Institut and AIR Niederöstereich in a little town in the Wachau Valley called Krems. For a small town on the Danube, it is bursting with culture - even if things were a bit on the quiet side, we loved meeting the other residents and biking down the Danube to explore the other villages.

3. azerbaijan

We visited Azerbaijan as part of our long train journey from Tbilisi to Shanghai. In Baku, we had to find a way to ride a cargo ship across the Caspian Sea, to get to Western Kazakhstan. Because of various visa concerns, this was the only possibility to continue our travels strictly overland. After various attempts calling the port, and a 14 hour wait alongside a couple other intrepid travelers, we boarded the Professor Gull, a soviet-era ship from the 1970s, for a 25 hour journey toward Aktau.

4. belgium

We lived in Brussels for about a year - it was the first place we called ‘home’ as Passepartout Duo. It did not last too long, but we love the city. Every time we have a chance to return, we are replenished in some way. We owe a lot to this place for helping us discover a different side of contemporary art in Europe, especially in terms of contemporary dance (from spending a lot of time around P.A.R.T.S. / Rosas). The photo is the view from our apartment in those days.

5. BULGARIA

As part of a recent tour we got to visit another one of our missing Eastern European countries - thanks to the organization of Amek Collective, we had the chance to perform in Sofia, and even more so we got to meet with likeminded travellers and even learn about the Korean community in the city. The most memorable moment was trying Boza together!

6. canada

*Our very first concert as Passepartout Duo!*

This is where it all started! Our very first residency was at the Banff Centre in Canada. So many great memories here, and a lot of friends we’re still in touch with even today. We played our very first duo concert here, and explored all the beautiful nature Banff has to offer alongside new friends. There were also lots of wonderful conversations about art and life with Martin Bresnick and Lisa Moore shared during our daily cafeteria meals.

7. chile

We arrived in Chile the very first day that the land border reopened from the pandemic, crossing down from Peru. Northern Chile, around the Atacama and the Altiplano is absolutely stunning. We found such precious new friends in Arica, who organized an amazing event for us, and gave us permission to be brave and try driving out to the Altiplano near to the border of Bolivia. It’s another world there, and since there’s no gas station for hundreds of kilometers, and the altitude reaches 4500 meters (~15,000 ft) it’s quite an extreme journey. The photo is from the town of Parinacota, a strange little place in the middle of nowhere, around which we also helped a man tow his SUV to get it started again - it was a true adventure!

8. china

China is the country in which we’ve spent the most time together as Passepartout. After two enormously influential trips to Beijing and Chongqing, we spent eight months in Shanghai at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel. We arrived before the pandemic began, and weathered the first Chinese lock-down there. It was extraordinary to see such a bustling city evolve into a total desert, and then open back up again as things started to normalize. Toward the end of our stay, we managed to go on a trip together to Yunnan, near to Tibet, with our friends and collaborators from Beijing (Yannis & Yumo). It was such an interesting experience to try to navigate the world in the middle of the pandemic, and to explore a part of the country far away from cities with a very distinct cultural identity.

9. colombia

One of our favorite things to do, is to meet someone one place, and then have the chance to meet them again in their hometown - we absolutely love that. We were in Colombia to meet and collaborate with Julian Brijaldo, who we previously met in Miami. It was so wonderful to see his country through his own eyes. Medellín is such a beautifully vibrant city, with an interesting culture and arts scene. In our short stay, we still amassed many memories collaborating with Colombian artists, and really cherished all the events we put together in Medellín and Bogotá. The photo is from a visit a bit outside Medellín to share some Bandeja Paisa and look out at the city below.

10. cuba

Playing at the Festival of Contemporary Music in Havana represented one of our first experiences together outside of Europe or the States. Visiting ISA, the arts school, alongside a local theater director really changed our view of what a school can be and how artists can thrive in different environments. The campus was an attempt of Castro and Guevara to create a truly world class contemporary art school on the old grounds of an American golf resort. Despite their best efforts, construction stagnated and the buildings were never completed. Some sad concrete structures filled the gaps to make the school functional, as it is today. Somehow the entire campus is an art installation in and of itself, with all these incomplete modernist architectural wonders peaking through the tropical vegetation. The image is from the amphitheater of the to-be school of circus arts.

11. cyprus

We had quite the experience here! We spent about two weeks living in a very tiny village (like 30 inhabitants) in the middle of the mountains, a kind of attempted artists’ community created by a half-Finnish half-Cypriot couple. We have so many memories of exploring the whole Island: an unexpected visit to watch sea-turtles hatch on a beach around Girne, the ultra-affordable and artist-frequented Armenian bakery in Nicosia, the best freshly made freshly grilled, and tastiest, Halloumi ever brought to us by our village neighbor.

12. czech republic

We spent a month here playing some concerts around the country in Prague, Brno, Ostrava, and Pardubice. Met so many wonderful musicians honestly - we actually recorded an entire album (Circo Pobre) in Pardubice at a super cool art gallery called Gampa Gallery. It was a very snowy and magical place around Christmas time, even if the sink of our bathroom collapsed off the wall on Christmas day. (One of the perks of not having your own place, is that all accommodations are temporary!)

13. denmark

*Hjorring concert with Snow Mask Collective*

We visited Denmark directly after Cuba, and it truly was one of the most shocking contrasts imaginable - different climate, society, culture, everything! We almost missed our concert in Hjorring, because they were repairing the train tracks between Denmark and Germany - they were able to help by putting the train car on a ferry and taking a different route. The photo is from our setup before the concert started.

14. estonia

We had a quick stop in Estonia for a concert at our exhibition in Narva. It’s a very interesting place, one that doesn’t quite beckon travelers, but which you might find yourself in only because of these kind of peculiar arts initiatives that pop up just about everywhere. The town is positioned directly on the border between Russia and Estonia, and various bridges connect the two countries across the Narva river. Some borders are felt more than others, and this is definitely one of those that is felt - it’s quite interesting to see this confluence of different cultures, and the layers of history that convene in the architecture of the city.

15. faroe islands

*Driving around the Faroes nearly always reveals some spectacular view*

A tremendously cool and underrated place - it feels like no one has heard of these little islands in the North Atlantic, which are absolutely one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever visited. An Icelandic friend once described them as Iceland in the past, before tourism and modernity took over a bit too much. We had such a fantastic experience here playing at the Summartónar Festival for two different editions, and especially hanging out with Kristian (the festivals director), and Arnold and Ana (amazing local talents). An old friend from Glasgow also took us on a totally spontaneous midnight boat ride on the Islands’ largest lake, followed by eating copious amounts of delicious fermented lamb and fish sausage.

16. finland

*Life in Åland meant biking to the next island of the archipelago for our groceries!*

We’ve been to Finland quite a few times, but among most interesting was spending two weeks on the Åland Islands for the Eckerö Post and Customs House residency - it’s a very interesting little archipelago between Sweden and Finland, which essentially acts as an independent nation, but is officially under Finland. Lots of time in the sauna (one of the best perks of an artist residency ever!). To get to the island you take an incredibly cheap ferry from Sweden, which is packed with people just attempting to buy alcohol, duty-free and at cheaper prices. It came as a surprise to us that when we arrived no one left the boat but us once - they were really just on board for the beer. Other Finnish memories are of small town experiences in Fiskars and Rauma, where we spent midsummer and Christmas respectively.

17. france

*Our day in the ochre caves was spent filming in almost total darkness*

Our most memorable experience in France was hanging out in Marseille to film a movie with director Florent Meng. We were both composers and ‘actors’, becoming the musical interpreters of a quartz crystal harvested from the top of Mont Blanc. It was half documentary, half-surrealist, but took us to some very cool locations: an anechoic chamber, the caves used to mine ochre for dyes, and the film set of one of the most popular telenovellas (Plus Belle La Vie).

18. georgia

The best and most underrated food in the world (that we have tried at least)! Pikhali, kinkhali, khachapuri - we cherished every meal here. And of course there’s the wine too - don’t be fooled by the reused plastic water bottle its often stored in either. Of course we also played a concert here though, shared with a whole group of very cool Russian improvisors that we still kind of keep in touch with today, at a small artist residency outside the city centre.

19. germany

*An outing in nearby Tübingen with Bonnie*

We’ve had so many different experiences in Germany so it’s hard to summarize just one: Berlin is obviously a nucleus of incredible art in Europe. Our little residency in Baden Württemberg was so memorable though: there was no internet in our place (we were staying at an former elementary school), and so we had to do a twenty minute hike up to this castle everyday. On the first day we bought the crazily priced €6 coffee, and every subsequent day we just huddled outside with our laptops until their batteries died. We also met our first and only Passepartout super-fan, Bonnie Turner - she is a fountain of amazingly captivating stories from being a muralist in Rhode Island.

20. greece

Back in 2022, we managed to line up three small concerts in Athens and Thesseloniki. It was part of a pretty extensive tour around Europe, and to pass by such a culturally rich place was of course among the highlights. While in Athens, we also managed to meet some folks from the conservatory who showed us some important technologies linked to the composer Iannis Xenakis from his time teaching and working there, including an original UPIC which was used to convert drawings into sound all the way back in the late 70s. Some slow days in Thesseloniki hanging around with the organizers of our concert at Pikap were equally fun, with some much needed seafood and wine.

21. HONG KONG

*Tai O fishing village, worth the visit!*

Easily one of our favorite places in the world so far. The last time we were there was deep in the pandemic, and in fact there was just about no place in the world that was accepting visitors from China except Hong Kong - this place really saved us back then! We spent two weeks in quarantine with special tracking wrist bracelets, in a room about the size of a queen bed. There was a lot of delicious delivery though, and the weeks to follow were as sunny as summer! Hanging out with musician Vanissa Law and company with a very memorable trip to Lantau all together was the best.

22. HUNGARY

We visited Hungary for a pair of concerts and were also very grateful to attend UH Fest - after joining the Shape+ Platform, we found ourselves very often running into Lucia Udvardyova around Europe, who is, from our perspective, a spokesperson for the experimental music scene in Eastern Europe, and taught us a lot about music in that part of the world. All that said, our concert in Budapest unfortunately made it onto the list of those special moments where miscommunications lead to fewer people in the audience than on stage…

23. ICELAND

A crazy trip alongside Hadfís Bjarnadottir brought us all over Iceland with the hope of sharing music with sheep - a strange task. Some highlights included playing for the president of Iceland on his and his wife’s anniversary, visiting the active volcano, and finding ourselves way out in the North East at the museum of the leadership, where the ex-school director (the school closed because there were too few students to sustain it) charismatically explained that he had defended the school from a hungry polar bear that had drifted ashore on a rogue Greenlandic ice sheet. And don’t forget, spending two months in Ólafsfjördur in the darkness of winter gave the namesake for our first album, and the spark for our many collaborations with Yannis and Yumo of Beijing.

24. INDIA

We visited India mainly for an artist residency called Chander Haat, which has been active since the 90s, and can be found in the outskirts of Kolkata. The residency is unique in that the main way in which they sustain themselves is by creating artworks for Durga Puja, a festival and celebration that takes place every autumn in Kolkata. The festival is known for its extravagant works, and Chander Haat is a big part of that. We were so happy to explore this country from their perspective for a month.

25. IRELAND

Our month here in Connemara was spent hosted by Allanah Robbins for her fantastic artist residency program Interface. Visiting the nature around this area was just spectacular - there are indeed rainbows everywhere. Renting a car so that Nico could fearlessly drive on the left, visiting an island which becomes accessible only during low tide, seeing the peat bogs, and helplessly trying to start the peat fire in our cozy little cottage to keep warm in the winter were among the most memorable parts.

26. ITALY

That’s where Nico is from - specifically in the mountains outside Verona. We’ve had many adventures here, but some of our best memories are our visit to Sicily for MainOFF festival, hiking between Rifugi in the Dolomites to collect field recordings, and visiting a marble quarry near Pietrasanta.

27. JAPAN

Our experience in Nakanojo was so memorable. This little onsen village, dotted with abandoned traditional Japanese structures, comes to life every two years for a very special art biennale. We were invited thanks to a lot of support from Jun Itoi, who we met in Finland, who graciously helped us explore the forests where he works both as a lumberjack and a photographer - visiting some of his favorite shrines in the forest, followed by home-cooked nabemono with other Nakanojo friends was simply magical. We’ve been back to Japan twice since then, with every trip seemingly totally transforming our practice.

28. KAZAKHSTAN

What a place - we arrived first in Aktau and then continued East through Uzbekistan, then returned back to the country to stay in Almaty. We had a great experience with local artists in Almaty who took us up to some of the most magnificent mountain views ever. We loved sharing laghman together too. One of our favorite restaurants of all time is Kaganat - it’s the exact thing we always desire, an affordable cafeteria style revolving menu of local dishes; if only they existed everywhere. Aktau on the other hand was one of the most off-the-beaten-path destinations we’ve ever passed through - we were happy to meet a local couch surfer who said our music was “not for everyone”, but we had a great time nonetheless sharing manti and talking about his life as a chemist for a local oil company.

29. LATVIA

After a residency experience in Aizpute called Serde, we set off with the Scottish artist Alan to drive across the country from Liepaja to Daugavpils - it was so interesting to see the country slowly change, and to arrive to this nucleus of borders on the East, with Russia, Belarus, Latvia, and Lithuania all so close by. In Daugavpils, a medieval barracks is now the home of the Mark Rothko Foundation (Rothko was in fact originally from Latvia), and we were very happy to play there.

30. LUXEMBOURG

When we first arrived in Luxembourg, we panicked because we couldn’t find where to buy local tram tickets - slowly it dawned on us that public transport here is completely free. It’s a beautiful city, but also so so expensive - we felt extraordinarily well taken care of, and our exhibition at Casino Luxembourg was a total dream come true, all of our textile instruments displayed together as a little ecosystem for months in a real world class museum.

31. MALAYSIA

*Never underestimate the student cafeteria*

We took the night bus from Singapore to Kualalumpur to do a multi-day workshop with students at University Putra Malaysia - we’re still in touch with Camila who is just about the sweetest and most supportive teacher ever. We have been so flattered to continually see that her research on education still includes our unconventional approach (to be honest we were just improvising a bit), and made it all the way into her thesis and published articles - what an honor! The roti + eggs + curry we had at the student cafeteria is honestly one of the best meals of our life.

32. MEXICO

Where to even begin - what a rich and beautiful country. Every stop we made here was bursting with culture and activity. We had a really excellent group of friends in Puebla who organized all sorts of adventures for us, and we stayed at a really lovely place too. Aga’s tour of liquor of Puebla was very memorable, but also visiting Jaime (who we met during our Shanghai residency) and having him take us to his friends weaving shop in the countryside out of Oaxaca was just a dream!

33. MOROCCO

We spent two months staying in the Medina of Fez - a total exercise in living with and embracing chaos. We organized a kind of dinner event in a square in the Medina alongside a lot of help from the American Language Center that hosted our residency - we also did something very rare which is to take local language lessons; we can’t say we got so far, but it was at least nice to get a head start to parsing some of that aforementioned Medina chaos. Getting a clandestine visit to a totally forbidden ex-king’s palace hidden in plain sight in the city was definitely the coolest experience!

34. NEPAL

*The main square in Patan outside Kaalo*

In Nepal, we stayed at Kaalo.101 - an incredible house in Patan. During our two week stay there, we meet so many local musicians and artists, and it became clear that Kathmandu is such an interesting place to be an artist, especially within that part of the world. We have great memories doing concerts and workshops around the city and at Kaalo, and of course eating way to many Momos and Newari food.

35. NETHERLANDS

Staying at EKWC, an artist residency for ceramists, absolutely pushed all of our limits. There we found many good friends - it was describes as a monastery for ceramics by its former director - and yes there was definitely some contagious discipline there. Each night, a different artist was tasked with cooking for the other 18 - it was quite the experience to attempt to cook for that many people, and just a fantastic way to get to know people. A fellow artist, Ceel, coined the term “cottage-core” to describe the affluent cottage-centric opulent neighborhoods that surrounded the residency.

36. NORWAY

Our four visits to Norway were each special in their own way - staying in Ålvik and exploring the fjords by bicycle was the absolute best though. It was great to see the autumnal mountain peaks, catch the ferries as they cross from one side to the next, and to see the hardangerfiddles and fiddlers in person.

37. PERU

After arriving in Lima, our host Henri insisted on us going on a camping road trip to Paracas further south. His old Volkswagen bus, which broke down continuously, was the main character of our trip - we camped out on the ocean and filmed a music video too. Getting out to Chachapoyas near the Amazon was also super memorable, seeing a completely different side of life.

38. POLAND

Being in Rzeszów, near the border to Ukraine, just some months after the war broke out, was a very unique insight into society - it was interesting to see the slowness of society, and how life was changing for locals. We love bypassing big cities just to visit the small villages of a country. We also had the chance to play in Warsaw, Lódz, Gdansk, and Szczecin.

39. PORTUGAL

Porto is home to Sonoscopia, one of our favorite arts organizations worldwide - a total model for what is possible when it comes to music, community, and experimentation. We absolutely love Porto, and our “garden tour” (as we jokingly called it), was just a completely celebratory moment of outdoor summer concerts as COVID-19 restrictions were finally just beginning to lift. We met so many great artists and people here, and can’t wait to be back.

40. ROMANIA

Another Shanghai connection was finally realized when we attended Capucine’s UNFINISHED Festival in Bucharest. We were also so happy to visit Timisoara and Cluj, where we had a short residency in Viisoara, exploring the town residents’ forgotten childhood instruments and musical toys.

41. SERBIA

During our stay in Serbia, we were hosted at Footnote Centre in Belgrade. We have to say that Serbian turned out to have the most unexpectedly hospitable people we’ve ever met - everyone was just so friendly. Our roommate for the first week, Viktor, was a very cool artist making prints using receipt paper, typewriters, and other obsolete technology that of course we love and are endlessly intrigued by. Highlights included learning a lot more details about the history of the 20th century, meeting with a very old synth at the radio, and lots of really packed energetic concerts.

42. SINGAPORE

Singapore for us was all about visiting Joachim & Janis, old classmates of Chris. We had a great experience soaking in the sunny green vibes of the city, and performing at the conservatory’s new music festival.

43. SLOVAKIA

We had the chance to do a little concert in Koscice, a lovely city, and also in Bucharest to play outside of an ex-tramcar for a series that’s held there. It was definitely one of those outdoor concerts where it was borderline too cold to be outside, so that’s mainly what we remember. A TV crew was there filming the event for a French television segment on experimental music in Europe, and they just so happened to have visited our next venue stop in Greece, it was a strange coincidence.

44. SLOVENIA

We visited Ljubljana to play at SONICA Festival - had a great time too!

45. SPAIN

We’ve been to Spain a few times, but our two weeks in Torralba de Ribota was the first and most memorable. Very few people live here and our host, Sion, really helped us to explore the place and the local community. Just a random town in the desert with way too many stray cats - isn’t that the best?

46. SWEDEN

We’ve spent some time in Sweden for different concerts in different cities - Lund, Sandvíken, and Gothenburg. Recently though, we were in residence at EMS in Stockholm, a renowned music studio for electronic music that is home to a few incredible historical synthesizers. It was such a memorable experience to work there, to meet other very likeminded musicians, and to explore the art scene of the city from the perspective of that incredible place!

47. SWITZERLAND

Our time in Geneva was the first time we started making our own instruments - it was so nice to spend a summer at Embassy of Foreign artists, and to hang out with the other artists there. We also got around entirely by bike, and even took a trip all the way from Geneva to Lausanne, passing many small towns and beautiful lakeside views.

48. THAILAND

Competing for award of the best food ever - lots of great memories exploring Bangkok and a train trip to Ayuthaya. We were there during the king’s coronation ceremony; in Thailand each day of the week has a unique color, and the day of the week on which the King is born, becomes the king’s color. Lots of people wear that color to support the king, and because one of Chris’ only shirts happened to be that exact color, there was always a lot of conversations and extra explanations on this topic.

49. TUNISIA

Our month in Tunis was just the best - Youssef who hosted us is truly the best chef we’ve ever met. He was cooking for us all the time, and it was really like restaurant quality - he and Florence are both incredibly talented people and artists, as well as authentically so generous. We had a great experience exploring the Medina, visiting Dougga and the Pomegranate festival together, and performing for the students at the conservatoire.

50. UNITED KINGDOM

Well, we definitely have many friends here, and great musicians - but something about the UK just brings up memories of long uncomfortable bus rides and expensive mediocre Tesco sandwich lunches. At any rate, we really loved hanging out with a bunch of composers who invited us for a concert in Sheffield, and time in Scotland, where Nico did grad-school, has always been welcome!

51. UNITED STATES

This is where Chris is from! Lots of great memories here, but its national parks all the way. Visiting the desert in the South West, is just mind blowing - our experience at the Watermill Center also left a deep impression, to be surrounded by a lot of really important art as you work.

52. URUGUAY

During our two weeks in Uruguay we were hosted at Ensayo Abierto, a collective theater space that allowed us the opportunity to stay and work, and to share some workshops about DIY synthesizers. We had a fantastic time also with Lukas Kühne, who introduced us to his amazing art practice and school program - he took us to experience some Candombe in the streets one night which was a visceral experience. Players join around ad-hoc bonfires in the streets surrounded by their drums whose skins dry from the fire to achieve tension, then they march slowly across different neighborhoods - each neighborhood has its own band. Definitely one of the most interesting musical experiences we’ve ever had!

53. UZBEKISTAN

Lots of memories taking the slow train, and sharing a lot of food with locals all along the way. Taking taxis for hours across the desert on poorly paved roads, and seeing all the incredible medival islamic architecture. Our favorite city in the end was probably Tashkent, but our impromptu performance on the roof of a Caravansarai in Bukhara was the most memorable moment.

54. VIETNAM

A fantastic two week long tour took us from Saigon to Hanoi passing by Da Lat, Da Nang, and Hue. It was so fun to discover the local music and food cultures together with a lot of new friends. Vietnam struck us as a place bubbling with new and old art spaces, and many of the places we played in were in their first months of operations - there was a lot of optimism in the air.