Home   CV    Groups   Solo    Releases   Theory    Links   Next

ACTIVITY CENTER

photo: klaus kürvers, 2010

Michael Renkel - strings and percussion               Burkhard Beins - percussion and strings

Over the past twentyfive years the Berlin musicians Michael Renkel and Burkhard Beins have developed a highly destinctive musical vocabulary with their duo Activity Center. Within this duo, as soloists, but also - conjointly or independently - as members of diverse ensembles they have appeared on international tours and festivals and released numerous records. Their long sold out double-CD Activity Center "Möwen & Moos" (1999) has been regarded as a milestone of it's genre, while they have managed to build bridges between generations and allegedly also styles with their CD Activity Center & Phil Minton in 2005.

Occasionally Activity Center also teams up with Sven Åke Johansson:
QUICKTIME DEMO: live im Buchhändlerkeller Berlin, 22.01.2008

QUICKTIME VIDEO - ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC DUO

Releases:

ACTIVITY CENTER "Möwen & Moos" 2:13 Music CD008/009, DoCD, 1999 - limited and numbered, 150 copies with original handmade covers by Fehmi Baumbach

MICHAEL RENKEL "Möwen & Moos - Remix" 2:13 Music CD014, CD, 2001 based exclusively on material from the original double CD

ACTIVITY CENTER & PHIL MINTON   Absinth Records 006, CD, 2005 - limited and numbered, 500 copies with original handmade covers by Marcus Liebig

ACTIVITY CENTER "lohn & brot"   Absinth Records, CD 017, 2010 - limited and numbered, 300 copies

michael renkel, photo: willehard grafenhorst 2007

This music adds new meaning and new vitality to the "genre" of guitar and percussion improv - in fact it ignores the genre altogether and creates something better. Other improv players dream, in their politically correct and polite way, of leaving enough space for their fellow collaborators to perform... Activity Center go one stage further, and create that space - defining huge areas of interactive possibility between the notes.
This method - and this music - guarantees your listening delight - you sit and wait in fascination.
What will come next?  - Ed Pinsent, The Sound Projector -

burkhard beins, photo: willehard grafenhorst 2007

Michael Renkel and Burkhard Beins were/are both members of:

• FRAKTALES
  trio with double-bass player Jürgen Morgenstern
  (1990-1995)
• NUNC
  quartet with Wolfgang Ritthoff (voice) and Martin Pfleiderer (sax)
  NUNC (2:13 Music CDoo2, 1996)
  (1995-1999)
• 2:13 ENSEMBLE BERLIN
  has worked in the area of combining contemporary composed and improvised music.
  quintet with Bettina Junge, flute, Margarete Huber,soprano and Markus Wettstein,metal objects
  - Two full length performances (five hours) of Cornelius Cardew`s "Treatise" (1998/1999).
  - ISOMERIE, comissioned work for Kryptonale 1998, Berlin
  - Pricewinner of the Wettbewerb für Junge Kultur/Düsseldorfer Altstadtherbst 1999.
  (1997-2000)
• SOWARI QUARTET
  with Phil Durrant,violin and Rhodri Davies, harp, British Arts Council tour 1998.
• PHOSPHOR (Berlin)
  with Annette Krebs (guitar, electronics), Robin Hayward (tuba), Ignaz Schick (electronics), Andrea Neumann (inside-piano, electronics) and Axel Dörner (trumpet, electronics)
  (with Alessandro Bosetti, soprano saxophone, from 2000-2005).
  PHOSPHOR    (Potlatch P501 CD, 2002)
  PHOSPHOR II (Potlatch P109 CD, 2009)
  (since 2000)
• MEK
  Burkhard Beins (analogue electronics, electro-acoustic treatments, chimes), Michael Renkel (acoustic nylon-string guitar, analogue synth, electronics) with Derek Shirley (bass synthesizer)
  Mars Expedition Komplex (homophoni 043, creative commons 2010)
  (since 2009)
  
  

photo: katrin hoefer 1989