top of page
Landskron_#3_073-Web-©Samuel_Bramley.jpg

REVIEW

LANDSKRON 3

08.09.2024

Landskron 3 took place on Sunday 8 September 2024 and led from Theater Basel by tram through Baselland via Flüh and Mariastein (Solothurn) across the border to France to Landskron Castle.
This time, around 120 visitors strolled to the first raindrops of the year, to the poetic and vibrant Turkish-Kurdish sounds of Çiçek Taksi, to plant-based human poems by author Anna Ospelt, to background information about the French forests from the deputy mayor of Leymen, Roland Cron, past the sweet flavours of the region by Annekäthi Schaffter and Christophe Aebi from Chirsgartehof and on to the castle, where dancer Kihako Narisawa welcomed the audience with strong gestural and spherical movements.

 

At the castle, visitors were able to fortify themselves with local flammekueche and a bar offering regional specialities in the dry under large sails before being surprised by the first concert in the castle hall. With their costumes, masks and wild sounds, Cyril Cyril immediately turned the audience into fans of their cynically explosive music and got everyone dancing and celebrating together.

 

One of the highlights of the Landskron 3 micro-festival was the performance by singer Lynn Adib together with dancer Hala Salem and percussionist Neşet Kutas on the castle tower at sunset. The grey, stormy rainy weather took a break for this moment and let the sun set spectacularly behind fast clouds, while this first collaboration of the three artists, with their interpretations of various Arabic traditional songs, gave the audience goose bumps.
The last audio-visual concert in the Burgsaal was also the result of a first collaboration between three artists. Timnah Sommerfeldt and Mario/Varuna played together for the first time in a live set, while Niculin Barandun intensified the pull of their rhythmic, pulsating soundscape with swirling plays of light on the castle wall.

In an almost floating state, the visitors then made their way down to the tram back to the city, accompanied by the songs of Anuk Schmelcher, who played solo again after a long time and made her audience, who were listening in deep absorption, dream in such unusual surroundings.

Illustration Landskron 3: Jan Bachmann

LANDSKRON 2

03.09.2023

LANDSKRON 2 was intense. Full of powerful stories, voices and sounds.
Moving inside and out and surrounded by nature with spectacular views.
Here is a brief look back at 3 September 2023.
Further down impressions from Try Out Landskron 1 in 2022.

Landskron 2 ©Léontine Soulier

Raquel Fernández greeted us right at the Basel Zoo tram stop with a performance that set the mood for a day full of surprises and discoveries. Accompanied by a demanding four-legged friend, the dancer and artist moved across and towards borders - thoughtful, cautious and at the same time playfully humorous, her performance told a personal yet abstract story of closeness and distance, of strangeness and familiarity, and awakened new thoughts in the audience about their own barriers that need to be overcome or built up.

230903-Landskron_#2-©Samuel_Bramley-008-

The author was waiting for us in a meadow below Landskron Castle with excerpts from her forthcoming novel. With a view of the vastness of the meadows and fields, we followed her words into the barn, took a loving look at the cows, caught a glimpse of the feeling of taking responsibility for the land and animals and realised how nature can reclaim everything at any moment by doing nothing. Her insight gave us an idea of the stories that could be hidden behind the fields surrounding us.

230903-Landskron_#2-©Samuel_Bramley-046-WebRes.jpg

Our bellies and brains filled with new impressions, Rebecca and Pawel then got us moving. Together with the dancers, we each took a moment for ourselves, slowly got moving again, and finally jumped and danced with and around each other in the hilly Alsatian landscape. Exhilarated and refreshed, we also took the last ascent to the castle in an unusual way - walking backwards, new perceptions of the surroundings and of our walking together opened up to us.

230903-Landskron_#2-©Samuel_Bramley-069-WebRes.jpg

A murmur went through the crowd when Rebecca Solari from Creme Solaire appeared in a yellow, fizzy and creamy costume in the ancient gate high up in the castle. Together with Pascal Stoll, she conquered the castle with a stormy voice and a physical presence that not only made us sway and marvel, but also the castle itself. Creme Solaire knocked us out of our composure with their performative power, the rhythms and melodies had us cheering and stomping and singing along with and without words. When the exuberance couldn't get any bigger, a spontaneous duet with Baby Volcano completely blew the audience's socks off.

230903-Landskron_#2-©Samuel_Bramley-085-WebRes.jpg

The castle hall began to glow as the first beats of Baby Volcano boomed out of the speakers. Hidden behind mystical woollen masks, Baby Volcano and their two musicians / DJs slowly began to cast a spell over the audience. After the first whispering, rhythmically enticing notes, we were already very close to Baby Volcano, following their explosive movements into an ever-expanding, driving and also furious experience, until our bodies almost spent themselves in an activist rave of trap beats, Guatemalan rhythms and inciting Spanish-French vocals.

230903-Landskron_#2-©Samuel_Bramley-155-WebRes.jpg

Julia Rüegger & Valerie Katharina Meyer

The two authors and performers accompanied the last visitors back down to the city in the glowing moonlight. As if infected by the golden moonlight, the two in their golden suits turned the glaring tram into a sparkling story train and, with their poetic words about encounters, love and relationships, radiated the right good-night atmosphere that made the tired but enthusiastic visitors dream imaginatively on the way.

julia_valerie.jpeg

His lighting turned the old castle hall into a warm, dark and mysterious, sparkling place in which the old stones began to glow and Baby Volcano was able to drift into another world with the audience, passing through different dimensions of time, colour and place in a floating, dancing, pulsating rhythm.

230903-Landskron_#2-©Samuel_Bramley-161-WebRes.jpg

After a walk from Flüh in Baselland through the forests across the border to France, we met Lukas Merkelbach on the side of the road. The biologist talked about the work of the conservationists who have turned the forested area back into a paradise for rare plant species and for the goats of the Domaine du Geissberg farm. He drew our attention to green, buzzing and flying things and philosophized about the concept of the natural. Infected by his enthusiasm, the last part of the walk became even more buzzing and colorful.

230903-Landskron_#2-©Samuel_Bramley-034-WebRes.jpg

Having already roamed the meadows with our ears and eyes and heard about working in and with nature, Domaine du Geissberg invited us to explore the flavours of their work on their biodynamic farm in the neighbouring village of Biederthal. From fresh goat's cheese and the unmistakably flavoursome Munster to crunchy saussisson and freshly baked soft bread, we feasted with murmurs of appreciation on the products made from the milk of the cows we watched graze.

230903-Landskron_#2-©Samuel_Bramley-048-WebRes.jpg

After Rebecca and Pawel had led us to the castle in an inspiring and activating way, they explored the entrance to the Landskron with their own bodies in a mutual dance game. They rolled through the ancient tunnel, stirred up the stony dust and turned the walls into elastic take-off points for their acrobatic-organic movements. 

230903-Landskron_#2-©Samuel_Bramley-076-WebRes.jpg

On the tower, the two musicians welcomed us with an acoustic and visual spectacle. Their sounds of modular, guitar and voice floated out into the landscape with the billows of smoke above the audience, and with them the swarms of flying ants that had just pixelated our field of vision left us. Whispering, murmuring voices overlapped with snatches of conversation from other places and frequencies. Evocative tones, sometimes delicate, sometimes powerful chants and distorted, distorted guitar sounds, together with the neon-coloured, billowing sunset, intensified in their performance as if in a lava lamp to create a ceremony that set us into devout, spherical vibrations.

230903-Landskron_#2-©Samuel_Bramley-127-WebRes.jpg

The Bernese author likes to explore his surroundings not only with his feet, but also with words. At Landskron 2, he took visitors from the castle to Füh, on the tram back to the city. His stories picked up speed and kept stopping at the place names of the stops. Together with his words, we briefly got off the tram and took a look behind the meaning of these place names and the stories that may lie behind them. The journey back to the city became a poetic journey of discovery along the way and awakened even more wanderlust for new perspectives in the visitors.

230903-Landskron_#2-©Samuel_Bramley-165-WebRes.jpg

With Leontine Soulier's artwork, we were able to make our way from the city to the countryside up to Landskron Castle before Landskron 2. In the bright, warm sunshine through colourful hills, with the artists' names in our heads for anticipation, past grazing cows, surprising views and insights, up to the castle's sun spectacle shimmering in all colours and the mystical glittering moonlight over ancient walls. And even now, in retrospect, her drawing still tells us about a day full of impressions and encounters that will remain in our memories as colourful as her colours.

Léontine Soulier

Bar & Kulinarik

Landskron 2 offered all sorts of bubbly and grapes from the region. From local crémant, white wine and rosé to Alsatian Meteor beer, one of the last large family breweries in Alsace, the castle bar with seating and hanging areas made from wooden leftovers was an invitation to enjoy. In the second edition, the Wallasitter association from Leymen ensured satisfied bellies with the universally popular Flammekueche, which even celebrated its premiere at Landskron in its vegetarian version.

230903-Landskron_#2-©Samuel_Bramley-141-WebRes.jpg

TRY OUT LANDSKRON 1

At the edge of the path in the forest, the journalist read her text about the biologist Florianne Köchlin, who deals with plant communication. Flora and fauna accompanied the participants on their walk in a different way from then on.

Landskron_TryOut#1-220904-©Samuel_Bramle

Sanja Lukanović

After the final ascent, the participants were greeted by the performer in a particularly princess-like manner at Landskron Castle ruins. A powerful, melodic and humorous homage to the castle itself, which brought a surprised smile to the audience's faces.

Landskron_TryOut#1-220904-©Samuel_Bramle

Freshly arrived in the country from Paris, the performer and musician captivated us with her sound-movement experiment in the spectacular sunset on the tower of the Landskron. With a view of the hills of both countries, sounds, colours and rhythm merged into a magical stage spectacle.

Landskron_TryOut#1-220904-©Samuel_Bramle

David Löffel Saltzmann

He made the castle glow, and out of itself. Through him, the castle walls came alive and could move to the sounds of Anklin | Oron and captivate the audience. His installation on the way home also allowed the visitors to dive in and then out of the castle for a sparkling, enriching experience.

Landskron_TryOut#1-220904-©Samuel_Bramle

Max Wyss

The long-time president of the association «Pro Landskron» grew up in the Grenzweiler Tannwald and gave an insight into the history of the boundary stones in LANDSKRON 1. He gave the audience new insights into these artefacts of an eventful history.

Landskron_TryOut#1-220904-©Samuel_Bramle

Exuberant French chanson pop thrilled the visitors inside the castle. With their charming energy, the band from Geneva set ears and legs swinging and refreshed summery heads with just the right amount of light-heartedness.

Landskron_TryOut#1-220904-©Samuel_Bramle

The duo transformed the interior of the castle into a hypnotic soundscape where the sounds and rhythms spurred each other on, taking over the space and those present until the walls began to move in the minds of the audience. A conclusion that led to murmurs and cheers.

Landskron_TryOut#1-220904-©Samuel_Bramle

Catering

LANDSKRON 1 was a treat for all the senses - including the taste buds. The homemade bar served the finest white wine and crémant from the region, freshly tapped beer, rosé for the summer mood and some local non-alcoholic refreshing drinks.The Alsacian Flammekueche tasted delicious - especially thanks to the sympathetic efforts of many visitors.
We are looking forward to LANDSKRON 2 and further treats for the palate.

Landskron_TryOut#1-220904-©Samuel_Bramle
bottom of page