Flatland Prayer x Bjørk Semey ⎢Merman Kiss at Donau115

This evening we have 2 acts playing at Donau115!
Flatland Prayer x Bjørk Semey
Liva Dumpe- voice
Antonio Moreno- trumpet
River Adomeit- bass and compositions
Bjørk Semey- visuals
Flatland Prayer reimagines songwriting in a free-improv context. The trio pulls from a wide variety of influences, combining elements of American folk, avant-garde jazz, and contemporary Classical music. Though their influences are broad-reaching, Flatland Prayer has a cohesive sound, with all the clarity and tenderness of the musicians behind it. This is as much due to their unusual, stark instrumentation as River Adomeit’s songwriting, wherein each set has its own narrative flow reminiscent of a literary or theater performance.
Their debut record, ""Like Staring Straight into the Sun,"" is the metaphor that the music encapsulates: bold, confrontative, and ill-advised. Written by bassist River Adomeit in the summer of 2022, the record serves as an audio diary of a tumultuous period of River’s life.

At their album release and subsequent tour, Flatland Prayer will perform the record in its entirety, featuring Bjørk Semey with corresponding visuals. An interdisciplinary artist coming from Scandinavia, Bjørk takes a musical approach to the world of visuals. Utilizing the subtle interplay of colors, textures, and moving animations, Bjørk meets Flatland Prayer in the middle as another member of the band - feeling the flow and ebb of their music, and highlighting - or obscuring- certain parts of the lyricism or music.
instagram.com/flatlandprayer
https://flatlandprayer.bandcamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0XVFIeH7l0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xfhz71P7ihs

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Merman Kiss
Sebastian Merk, keys, synths & effects
Kiki Manders, voice & effects
Mix lushious beats, the spaciousness of the deep sea, together with spoken word and sultry singing and you’ll hear “Merman Kiss” an explorative, mostly improvised collaboration between Kiki Manders and Sebastian Merk.

Sebastian Merk
Sebastian (b.1977 Frankfurt/Main, Germany) has quickly made a name for himself throughout Germany as drummer and pianist.
While living in Frankfurt he was awarded a scholarship from the city of Frankfurt to attend workshops in New York City. Sebastian's teachers were Keith Copeland and Jo Thönes at the Fransz-Lizt School of Music in Weimar after which he moved to study at the Hans Eisler Conservatory in Berlin. Since then he became a important Voice in the Berlin Jazzscene.
Sebastian has played with a long list of great players including Lee Konitz, Till Brönner, Ack van Rooyen, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Eddie Henderson, Don Friedman, Mark Murphy, Johannes Enders and Ernie Watts.
Since 2006 he is composing for is own Band „MERKUR“ which streches the Elbow from Contemporary Jazz to Alternative Rock.

Since October 2010 Sebastian Merk holds a professorship for Jazz/Rock/Pop drumming at the HfM „Carl Maria von Weber“ in Dresden.
Kiki Manders
With her widely acclaimed debut album ‘’Love is your is mine’’ (Unit Records 2016) Kiki Manders already made a clear statement: she doesn’t fit into any category. She goes her own way, searching for the familiar unfamiliar. A young and free-spirited non-conformist with a story of her own, with which she faces the musical world openly and without prejudice: ""A new star in the jazz heaven has risen"" writes JAZZTHETIK magazine (DE).
Kiki Manders, born and raised in Venlo in the Netherlands, has traded Amsterdam and New York for Berlin, the city of art, contrasts and diversity. The raw beauty of the German capital is clearly audible in her musical kaleidoscopic world, where she cleverly brings fanciful finesse and fine storytelling together. She switches between improvisation and songs, between the predetermined and free, between her roots, the Venlo dialect from the Netherlands and English and German lyrics. ""Sometimes with a dreamy, warm voice, but also howling like a foghorn"" as JAZZFLITS (NL) aptly describes her singing on the in 2019 with ZenneZ Records released album ‘’Universe in a Shoebox’’. December 2022 Manders released her latest EP “Symphony of Stars”.

Manders made it into the finals of the Voicingers International Singers Competition in Poland and was a semi-finalist in the Brussels Young Jazz Singers Vocal Competition. She has also performed and / or collaborated with, the Metropole Orchestra, Jim Black, Bob Moses, Maarten Ornstein, Oene van Geel, Vince Mendosa, Mike Roelofs, Yuriy Yaremchuk and Christian Steyer, among others.
Since 2020 Manders holds a teaching position at the jazz departement of the Hochschule für Musik in Dresden. http://www.kikimanders.com
http://www.sebastian-merk.de/