The Hille-Könighofer Experience is a refreshingly anarchistic improvisation Duo that spontaneously creates multi-colored and multi-faceted soundscapes.
Their musical conversations have mesmerized audiences in concert halls, art museums as well as in garages or jazz clubs.
Austrian saxophonist Herbert Könighofer also plays the bass flute, the bass clarinet, he sings and speaks, plays guitar, percussion and uses loops.
Hille plays acoustic and electric piano (Fender Rhodes), uses analogue synthesizers, loops and effect pedals, and plays theremin and percussion.
Hille met Könighofer for the first time at the Salzburg train station in September 2016, three hours before their first concert.
After that, the duo has toured extensively, performing in Austria, Finland and Estonia.
Here is a video from a concert at Vienna’s ‘Roter Salon’:
There followed concerts at Espoo’s museum of modern art EMMA, three visits to Tampere’s Sara Hildén museum, various jazz clubs in Finland and Austria as well as two concerts in Helsinki’s Temppeliaukio Church.
The Temppeliaukio Church concert in November 2018 was recorded and released on CD under the title ‘All & Everything’ in 2019.
The CD can be listened to (and purchased) on Sid’s bandcamp website.
Here is a clip from the same concert, including a moment when Hille conducts the audience to participate by coughing:
On various occasions multi-instrumentalist Könighofer teamed up with Hille’s trio F#, an improvising trio that is operating on similar guidelines, creating spontaneously composed soundscapes as a jazz group.
Here is a clip from Philly Joe’s jazzclub in Tallinn, Estonia, where F# feat. Könighofer was joined by Estonian singer Liina Saar to create some magical moments:
The Hille-Könighofer Experience will be on tour in Finland in the beginning of May 2024 and in Austria in June 2024.
Please, check the gig calendar to stay tuned.
Sid Hille