The Leipzig-based experimental Ideal Orchestra, led by composer-conductor Gellért Szabó, who is also a guitarist and former student of Frank Möbus, was founded in 2021. Since then, it evolved from a chamber, free improvised ensemble, employing a unique toolset of hand-sign language, into a platform for avant-garde orchestral music, a synergy of conducted improvisations and meticulously crafted compositions, focusing on its uncommon instrumentation and its will for extreme sound combinations. The ironically titled Ideal Orchestra has nothing to do with Plato; if there was an ancient philosopher whose spirit it embodies, it would be Heraclitus, the ambiguous ‘weeping philosopher’ who once said that nobody ever steps in the same river twice because everything flows.
Live at Berghain is Ideal Orchestra’s fourth album, following the studio MYTHOPOEIA, Monument, and Monument II (Self-Released, 2022 and 2024). It was recorded at the Berlin club Berghain on November 26, 2023, the Protestant holiday commemorating the faithful departed, the Totensonntag.
The twenty-musician Ideal Orchestra’s instrumentation characterizes it as a chamber jazz meets a contemporary ensemble – with three vocalists (who deliver wordless vocalizations), two violinists, two double bass players, and an accordionist. But now the Ideal Orchestra acts as an intense sonic laboratory that enjoys the acoustics of the Kantine am Berghain. Szabó composed sixteen short, expressive and dramatic compositions, integrated into one long suite. The unorthodox sound combinations trigger the listener’s imagination into a cinematic journey.
Live at Berghain moves seamlessly but unpredictably between noisy sound walls, restless, eruptive dissonances, restrained, deeply emotional and melancholic passages, and quiet, almost silent segments, and creating a provocative yet highly immersive listening experience, swinging between brutal storms and delicate passion. The livesound by Christoph Giesemann and the mixing by Lukas Rutzen captures the raw, intense energy and the elusive emotional impact of this performance.
Eyal Hareuveni
Gellért Szabó (conducting), Alejandro Barria (cello), Friederike Bartel (saxophone), Myrsini Bekakou (violin), Floortje Beljon (violin), Rebecca Chammas (vocal), Lorenz Bergler (bass clarinet), Maximilian Bischofberger (vocal), Johannes Bode (drums), Johannes von Buttlar (drums), Stephan Deller (double bass), Georg Demel (trombone), Gustav Geissler (saxophone), Barnabas Herrmann (vocals), Felix Kothe (drums), Gregor Littke (trombone), Simon Lucaciu (piano), Justin Remfrey (double bass), Philipp Reinsch (tuba), Susanne Stock (accordion)
