Our studio at AIR Niederösterreich
An introduction to our work in Krems
The New Year brought us to Austria, living and working in an artist in residence program called AIR Niederösterreich from January through March. Despite all the problems COVID-19 has brought to the world, this residency has managed to keep their studios full, and our three months here kept us productive and filled with creative energy.
Our stay in Krems an der Donau, a town off the Danube river about one hour outside of Vienna, was especially characterized by our work with a vintage Buchla synthesizer. It’s a special instrument that is kept by a local institution called the Ernst Krenek Institut, the foundation of the late composer that’s also in possession of many of his belongings on display at their own museum. We spent the first two months of our three month residency working away nearly all hours at the museum with this instrument; the result was a short EP that we’ve called Epigrams, available through our bandcamp.
Filming at the Kunsthalle Krems
The Landesgalerie Niederösterreich in Krems
Our final presentation at the Ernst Krenek Forum
The remainder of our time focused on working through a new and experimental notation system for synthesizers, and recording at the local Kunsthalle Krems. Between exhibitions, we managed to film in a massive room to document some of our new works for handmade instruments of our own.
Despite not being a major city, Krems is completely filled with art and culture. We felt so lucky to spend weekends visiting the world class local museums, like the Landesgalerie and Kunsthalle.
In our final days in town, we were able to present our work in an “open studio” at the Ernst Krenek Forum, where we played through some music we’ve been working over the last year in Italy, China, and now Austria. It was our first “concert” of 2021, and really reminded us how much was missed because of the pandemic.
Besides working on our music, a distinct highlight of our stay was biking up and down the Danube in our spare time, exploring one small village after the next, and of course trying a lot of local wines. Nearby Dürnstein seems to be a staple favorite of every resident artist that comes through.
We already know we’ll be back in Vienna, and cannot thank enough the other artists here, the residency staff, and to all the wonderful people we met in these three months.
