Oh Mensch is a guitar duo formed by Matthias Koole and Kobe Van Cauwenberghe. Both musicians are part of a scene that emphasizes new formats, multidisciplinarity and alternative concert situations.
Oh Mensch is the result of the necessity felt by both musicians to render the classical guitar duo it’s participation in innovative musical/performative experiences.
Kobe Van Cauwenberghe, Paris/France — Music/Sound, Solitude fellow 2013–2015
Guitarist Kobe Van Cauwenberghe, born in Antwerp/Belgium, is a committed performer of the music of today. In the past years, Kobe has played concerts all over the world, both as a soloist as well as in a chamber music formation and a large ensemble. Kobe is currently a member of the electric guitar quartet Zwerm, which he co-founded in 2007, and the Nadar Ensemble. He released his first solo album with new pieces written for him on Carrier Records in February, 2015.
Matthias Koole, Belo Horizonte / Brazil — Music/Sound, Solitude fellow 2013–2015
Matthias Koole works as a guitarist and improviser, has ambitions in sound art, and is currently living in Belo Horizonte/Brazil. He is currently working with the new music ensemble SCHLAG!; the experimental music trio Infinito Menos; the improvisation series QI; the strange music record label/producer Seminal Record; the dance music collective Inscrição-Memória-Rasura; the contemporary music guitar duo Oh Mensch; and some freelance projects. He used to be afraid of improvising alone, but is getting over it. He cooks with too much garlic and enjoys doing so.
In its new collective publication, Schlossghost #1, Akademie Schloss Solitude examines the ways in which politics meet artistic and aesthetic practices in contemporary societies. For this the Solitude-fellows who had residencies in 2014, 2015 and early 2016 were invited to reflect on following questions: »Would you say that your practice is political? If so, how would you describe its political dimension?« Schlossghost #1 takes over the role of the traditional yearbooks by the Akademie. Every second year since 1990 they were summarizing all the facets of the work done in Solitude and maintained as a final truth Stéphane Mallarmé’s affirmation that »the ultimate state of the world is a book«. This new publication has lost its materiality and exists only as a virtual yearbook, or one could say as the ghost of a book. WWW.SCHLOSS-GHOST.COM