21st IDO Festival: InSea: Electronics & Percussion – Thilo Schölpen and Stephen Oldfield
InSea are the two musicians Thilo Schölpen from Düsseldorf and Stephen Oldfield from London. Using piano, metal and electronics, they create a hypnotic soundscape that bridges the genres of jazz, industrial and ambient.
Their musical collaboration brings together different cultural and stylistic influences, creating a distinctive sound that is both raw and poetic.
Thilo Schölpen is a pianist who grew up with New Jazz, No Wave, avant-garde and contemporary classical music, visual arts, Fluxus and the Beat Generation. Even whilst studying jazz piano, he explored experimental and electronic music, noise and drone. He combines acoustic piano playing with electronics, mechanical objects and unconventional sound generators. His inspirations include groups such as Can, Kraftwerk and NEU!, as well as K.H. Stockhausen and Iannis Xenakis.
Drummer and pianist Stephen Oldfield is strongly influenced by the raw energy he experienced in London in the 1980s. He evokes the spirit of early industrial bands such as This Heat, Test Dept, Bow Gamelan Ensemble and Einstürzende Neubauten, using found metal objects as his primary source material.
Together, with InSea, they create a multifaceted sound: on the one hand, metallic resonances, oil drums and mechanical noises; on the other, piano playing through which jazz shimmers and which, at the same time, becomes part of the industrial soundscape. Electronics permeate the acoustic material, blending with the notes and resonances. InSea operates outside conventional genre classifications: their soundscapes are reminiscent of both derelict industrial sites and intimate improvisations – a fascinating tapestry of steely precision and raw poetry. (Source: IDO Festival)