DUO OXYMORON

Anna Stein­kog­ler &
Valen­tin Butt

“Old and new. Light and dark. Cham­ber music and groo­ve. Harp and accor­di­on. In their debut album “Scen­ted Rus­hes”, the Ber­lin-based ensem­ble DUO OXYMORON crea­tes an uncon­ven­tio­nal, colourful sound lan­guage, com­bi­ning jazz, neo­clas­si­cal and con­tem­po­ra­ry play­ing tech­ni­ques.” GLM Music

Their love for free­dom, their desi­re for expe­ri­ments and the mix of styl­es both musi­ci­ans can revert to results in an inde­pen­dent sound uni­ver­se. DUO OXYMORON tre­ats any kind of music like cham­ber music in the truest sen­se of the con­cept: per­fect ensem­ble play­ing, careful inter­ac­tion, lis­tening, trust. Fee­ling the same pul­se makes the groo­ve come ali­ve regard­less of the genre.

“Scen­ted Rus­hes” is a dia­lo­gue bet­ween two fairy-tale worlds, two musi­cal lan­guages. For our debut album, Stein­kog­ler and Butt let them­sel­ves be inspi­red by three gre­at sto­ry-tel­lers and phil­an­thro­pists: Lewis Car­roll, Mau­rice Ravel and Ber­nard Andrès. Not only their works, but also their sen­se of humor, ear­nest­ness and their distas­te for being stuck in a pige­on hole is what attracts DUO OXYMORON to the com­po­ser Mau­rice Ravel and the wri­ter and mathe­ma­ti­ci­an Lewis Car­roll. And they both knew about the importance of blur­ring the lines.

DUO OXYMORON — oppo­si­tes attract

“Scen­ted Rus­hes” is a ton­gue-in-cheek homage to Lewis Car­roll, aut­hor of both Ali­ce novels. To his poe­tic light-hear­ted­ness. To the scen­ted rus­hes always gro­wing out of reach – “almost as if it was on pur­po­se”.