Joachim Kühn

At first glance, the pairing of veteran American saxophonist Archie Shepp and German pianist Joachim Kuhn seems an unlikely one. Performance at the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain - May 2011.

Joachim Kühn and Michael Wollnyse perform as a duo at the Leipzig Opera. Their first four-handed encounter was back in 2008 and resulted in the album Piano Works IX: Live At SchlossElmau. Fifteen years later in 2023, a new opus entitled DUO, also recorded live, sealed the reunion of these two giants of European jazz piano. The specialist press in Germany were gushing in their praise, calling it ‘the concert of the century’.

Coal mining has shaped Lusatia for generations. In the GDR it was still an important industrial location but, after the fall of communism, companies shut down and livelihoods were destroyed. With the planned phase out of coal, the region is facing another upheaval. Britt Beyer takes a sensitive look at the people who must deal once again with the collapse of existing structures and points of reference.