BOTH MORE AND LESS THAN ITSELF is a new collaborative project that grows out of a dense network of previous collaborations, with shared projects between the members setting the ground for new connections.
The previously existing constellations have developed their own aesthetics and practices over time, with distinctive sound worlds and methods of interaction. These accumulated experiences and memories are brought into the sextet. The project is not simply a meeting of six individuals but also of the ensembles and histories they bring into the collective.
The ensemble has a wide instrumental range, with setups moving between acoustic sources, experimental amplification, electronics and preparations. With this, they will develop a 60–80 minute set during a residency at Studioboerne45. A variety of collaborative strategies will be put into practice, using improvisation, different forms of notation or any other means necessary.
Liz Allbee - trumpet
Kobe Van Cauwenberghe - guitars, electronics
Emilie Škrijelj -accordion, electronics
Tom Malmendier - drums, percussion
Marina Cyrino - amplified flutes, objects
Matthias Koole - guitars, no-input mixing)
STUDIOBOERNE45
16.04.2026
Doors 19:30 | Concert 20:00
Börnestr. 43/45
13086 Berlin
Lokal Harmonie
27.06.2026
21:00
Harmoniestr. 41
47119 Duisburg, Germany
Meakusma Festival
03 - 06.09.2026
(exact date TBC)
Eupen, Belgium
Funded by Musikfonds e.V. by means of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media (BK
The previously existing constellations have developed their own aesthetics and practices over time, with distinctive sound worlds and methods of interaction. These accumulated experiences and memories are brought into the sextet. The project is not simply a meeting of six individuals but also of the ensembles and histories they bring into the collective.
The ensemble has a wide instrumental range, with setups moving between acoustic sources, experimental amplification, electronics and preparations. With this, they will develop a 60–80 minute set during a residency at Studioboerne45. A variety of collaborative strategies will be put into practice, using improvisation, different forms of notation or any other means necessary.
Liz Allbee - trumpet
Kobe Van Cauwenberghe - guitars, electronics
Emilie Škrijelj -accordion, electronics
Tom Malmendier - drums, percussion
Marina Cyrino - amplified flutes, objects
Matthias Koole - guitars, no-input mixing)
STUDIOBOERNE45
16.04.2026
Doors 19:30 | Concert 20:00
Börnestr. 43/45
13086 Berlin
Lokal Harmonie
27.06.2026
21:00
Harmoniestr. 41
47119 Duisburg, Germany
Meakusma Festival
03 - 06.09.2026
(exact date TBC)
Eupen, Belgium
Funded by Musikfonds e.V. by means of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media (BK
Liz Allbee is an improviser, composer, and performer residing in Berlin, Germany. She performs most often on self-designed quadraphonic trumpet, trumpet, electronics, and voice. Her work encompasses electro-acoustic composition, improvisation and instrument creation, often focusing on issues of embodiment and extension.
She has facilitated workshops for professional artists/musicians, university students as well as for young children in regional schools, focusing on group improvisation, multi-disciplinary performance, text, and collective composition.
She has appeared at such festivals and venues as Maerzmusik, JazzFest Berlin, Donaueschinger Musiktage, and Darmstadt (Germany), San Francisco Electronic Music Festival (US), Huddersfield (UK), Goethe Institute Tokyo (Japan) and Wien Modern (Austria) among others. She is the recipient of funding and grants from Initiative Neue Musik, Musikfonds, Berlin Senat, the European Network for Contemporary Audiovisual Creation, Árvore Foundation, and Berlin Arbeitsstipendium and has been Artist-in-Residence at Cité International des Artes, Paris, Kunstmeile Krems, Austria, Avatar-Quebec, and STEIM in Amsterdam, among others. Allbee completed her M.A. in Music composition at Wesleyan University in 2013, studying with Anthony Braxton.
https://lizallbee.net/
Tom Malmendier is a mostly self-taught drummer and percussionnist. From the beginning improvisation naturally imposes itself as a central point of all his musical and sound research. He claims an interest in transdisciplinary projects and multiplies meetings with dancers, visual artists or poets.
He plays with Otomo Yoshihide, Fred Frith, Axel Dörner, Michael Thieke, Franz Hautzinger, Christine Abdelnour, Mike Ladd...
https://www.tomalmendier.com/
Marina Cyrino is a Brazilian flutist, sound artist and researcher currently based in Berlin. She works across improvisation, composition, DIY instruments, performative installations. She is a member of the Brazilian experimental music label/production house Seminal Records. She holds a PhD in Music Performance and Interpretation from the University of Gothenburg.
Her flute playing is shaped by techniques developed through the use of internal amplification. Kaleidoscopic rhythmic patterns, the extensive use of objects and balloons attached to the instrument, and the use of disassembled flute parts are striking elements of her playing.
https://marinacyrino.art.br
Matthias Francisco Koole is a guitarist working as a soloist and in vario
us forms of collaboration in written music, improvisation and multidisciplinary projects.
Matthias Francisco is a member of various groups covering a wide range of musical styles and practices: Institute for Certified Nomadic Illicit Sonic Practices (ICNISP) with Marina Cyrino, the new music guitar duo Oh Mensch with Kobe Van Cauwenberghe, the experimental music trio Infinito Menos with Mário Del Nunzio and Henrique Iwao, a quartet with JD Zazie, Tony Elieh and Marina Cyrino, …
Matthias Francisco is a member of the Brazilian experimental music label/production house Seminal Records with Henrique Iwao, Sanannda Acácia, J.P.-Caron and Marina Cyrino.
Matthias was awarded a Stipendienpreis at the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt (2010) and was resident at Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart (2013-2015).
Matthias received his PhD from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, under the supervision of percussionist Fernando Rocha and ethnomusicologist Lúcia Campos.
He lives and works in Berlin.
matthiaskoole.com
Emilie Škrijelj explores the accordion in its smallest folds and uses it both as a percussion instrument and a generator of electroacoustic materials. Inspired by her research around the turntable, modular synths and field recording, she brings the accordion to the abstract territory of electronics by manipulating the bellows, rubbing its contours and exploring its extremities.
She plays with Lê Quan Ninh, Michael Thieke, Otomo Yoshihide, Christine Abdelnour, Biliana Voutchkova, Xavier Charles, Mike Ladd…
https://www.emilieskrijelj.com/
Guitarist Kobe Van Cauwenberghe, born in Antwerp, Belgium, is a committed performer of the music of today. In addition to a master degree in guitar performance at the conservatory of Ghent, where he studied with Tom Pauwels, he received a 2nd master degree in Contemporary Performance Practice from the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, where he studied with David Starobin and Mark Stewart.
As a soloist he released his first solo-album “Give my Regards to 116th Street” on the New York label Carrier Records in february 2015, receiving critical acclaim in Wire Magazine a.o. In 2017 he created the solo project “No [more] Pussyfooting” with live arrangements of music by Brian Eno and Robert Fripp, which he toured extensively in several international festivals and venues. He also forms the guitar duo Oh Mensch with Matthias Koole, with whom he was a fellow at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart.
Kobe has a PhD in the arts at the Conservatory of Antwerp, focusing on the music of Anthony Braxton. His research resulted in the acclaimed solo album “Ghost Trance Solos” (ATD10, 2020) and the double LP “Ghost Trance Septet” (eNR105, 2022). With his Ghost Trance Septet he performed double bill concerts with Anthony Braxton at Rainy Days Festival in Luxembourg and De SINGEL in Antwerp.
Kobe is a founding-member of the electric guitar-quartet Zwerm, and, from 2011 till 2021, a member of the Nadar Ensemble. As a freelance guitarist he performed with several groups and ensembles such as the Ictus ensemble in Brussels, ensembles 2E2M and Multilatérale in Paris, and in New York with the Wet Ink Ensemble, Talea and in a tour celebrating Helmut Lachenmann’s 75th birthday with Signal Ensemble a.o.
www.kobevancauwenberghe.com