Tobias Preisig & Stefan Rusconi / Thom Luz & Moebius Produktion

Levitation for all: An organ and violin church concert from two Swiss jazz high-achievers amid a giant fog installation.

Jimi Hendrix said, »Music is my religion.« And who doesn’t know the quasi-religious feeling that comes with listening to music: emotion, ecstasy, levitation. Now entering the church of St. Gertrud, the International Summer Festival focuses on the suspension of gravity: In advance of Swiss theater artist Thom Luz’s play at Kampnagel about the decline of a fog-machine factory, he will install an expansive fog installation entitled SEA OF FOG, developed in collaboration with Swiss artists Christoph Moerikofer and Georg Birkner (Moebius Produktion). This installation will serve as the setting for a concert performance by Kampnagel regulars Tobias Preisig and Stefan Rusconi. The latter is among the best jazz pianists in Switzerland and has conquered the dance stages through his collaborations with the choreographer Meg Stuart. Tobias Preisig also is a rare specimen: a violinist who spans genres, and has played everywhere from the Überjazz Festival to the Golden Pudel Club and the Montreux Jazz Festival. There, the two performed the »Leviation« cycle for church organ and violin this past year, having recorded the music in Saint Etienne Church in Cully for an album. In the Gothic Revival St. Gertrud church, they are now expanding the »Levitation« cycle into a three-hour musical performance, above the huge SEA OF FOG sculpture. In this concert installation, visitors can decide for themselves how long to stay, the admission is possible throughout. A meditative trip about the spiritual depths of existence, and what lies above and below them.