In September 2021 we started a new online project supported by the Musikfonds “FEB” (Funding for Ensembles and Bands) Stipendium.

Zinc & Copper work regularly with guest musicians. For this project we have extended the ensemble into a quintet format, where two guest musicians work with computers:

Benjamin Jefferys, a Berlin-based software engineer and trombonist who works at Ableton.

Duane Pitre who recently composed "Pons" ("Bridge") for the ensemble and also designed our new website.

The project’s starting point comes from a wish to present music online in a way which actually fits the digital medium, rather than compromising established forms of music making which are already proven to work very well!

Generative algorithmic compositions will be presented on a new website hosted by Hilary Jeffery’s “Berlintune” Studio.

Alongside these new works we are conducting research into how we as creative musicians can effectively work with and navigate the complex world of social media, websites and other forms of online publishing.

We are looking into creative but uncompromising ways to engage with new technology, so that musicians are not reduced to digital avatars on the web, and digital technologies are not used to simulate the complexity of human culture, for instance: live music events! This is not to negate the potential of digital technology but rather to engage with it in ways which matches its inherent nature and where we can play to its strengths.

Ongoing research and documentation of this project will appear here and on other platforms over the next weeks.