On February 23th, 2018, we celebrated the second concert of the year in Natascha Osterkorn’s Salon Dreiklang with with an extraordinary duo: Antonis Anissegos on the piano and Kay Karl on the gongs. Certainly a formation rarely encountered on the concert podiums of the world. Antonis Anissegos, born in Thessaloniki, is an extremely eclectic and open-minded musician. His repertoire ranges from classical European music, experimental, free jazz to electronic music. He feels at home in the world of Rachmaninov as well as that of Cecil Taylor. Antonis also made a name for himself as a composer, his works include chamber music and orchestral works, and he even wrote an opera. Kay Karl has a completely different background. She is a long-time student of Don Conreaux, the Grand Master of the Gongs from the USA, from whom she learned playing techniques, gong yoga, gong pujas and gong baths. The gong is a self-tinting sound body, which consists of a circular metal plate. The first evidence of this musical and signal instrument can be found in ancient Greece, other traces lead to China and Central Asia. When playing, vibrations and oscillations arise, which have a healing and cleansing power. Through the sound exposure, deep trance states are possible, the expansion of one’s own limits is noticeable. The best conditions for us to burn some incense. For this evening we decided for two wonderful plants: Sweet grass (Hierochloe odorata), also known as manna grass, Mary’s grass, vanilla grass and holy grass, is a representative of the sweet grass family (Poaceae) that contains coumarin. It smells fragrant of woodruff and was used in the veneration of the Virgin Mary. The fragrant Sweet grass is widespread throughout Europe, Asia and North America, but it occurs only scattered to rarely.
In the second part of the evening, we burnt wood and resins of the guaiac tree, a plant with very hard, resin-rich wood, which is native to tropical and subtropical America. It has particularly aromatic essential oils that have a deep, intense, balsamic and aphrodisiac effect. A very special evening unfolded in the interplay of the musical and olfactory dimensions. Of course the videos presented here can only help to guess – at least that!