Welcome to the Sound House — a place of contemplation, curiosity, and discovery. Here, echoes of the Baroque intertwine with the unpredictable shimmer of electronics, as Miako Klein and Jia Lim traverse centuries of sound and imagination.
Drawing inspiration from Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis (1626), the duo reimagines the “sound-houses” he described — laboratories of resonance and invention — as a living metaphor for their own musical practice.
At the heart of Nova Atlantis lies a dialogue between the historical and the experimental, between notation and improvisation, between gut strings and glowing LEDs. A Renaissance harpsichord replica hums beside recorders and baroque violins; beneath, a constellation of cables and pedals shape the music into new dimensions of color and texture.
Klein and Lim explore the Doctrine of Affections through fresh ears, uncovering the rhetorical power of the old masters — Biber, Matteis, Buxtehude, Frescobaldi, Weckmann, and Schmelzer — and reanimating their spirit through the lens of the Stylus Fantasticus. Improvisation flows freely, merging the precision of early music with the spontaneity of modern sound art.
The result is a sonic journey through past and present, where historical gestures resonate with electronic echoes, and the language of the Baroque is refracted through contemporary sensibilities.
Willkommen im Sound House – einem Ort der Kontemplation, Neugier und Entdeckung. Hier verweben sich die Echos des Barock mit dem unvorhersehbaren Schimmer der Elektronik, während Miako Klein und Jia Lim Jahrhunderte von Klang und Imagination durchschreiten.
Inspiriert von Francis Bacons New Atlantis (1626) entwirft das Duo eine neue Vision der von Bacon beschriebenen „Sound-Houses“ – Labore des Klangs und der Erfindung – als lebendige Metapher für ihre eigene musikalische Praxis.
Im Herzen von Nova Atlantis steht ein Dialog zwischen dem Historischen und dem Experimentellen, zwischen Notation und Improvisation, zwischen Darmsaiten und leuchtenden LEDs. Ein nachgebautes Renaissancemodel eines Cembalos summt neben Blockflöten und Barockgeigen; darunter formt ein Geflecht aus Kabeln und Pedalen die Musik zu neuen Dimensionen von Farbe und Textur.
Klein und Lim erforschen die Affektenlehre mit frischem Gehör, entdecken die rhetorische Kraft der alten Meister – Biber, Matteis, Buxtehude, Frescobaldi, Weckmann und Schmelzer – neu und beleben ihren Geist im Licht des Stylus Fantasticus wieder. Die Improvisation fließt frei und verbindet die Präzision der Alten Musik mit der Spontaneität zeitgenössischer Klangkunst.
Das Ergebnis ist eine klangliche Reise durch Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, in der historische Gesten mit elektronischen Echos resonieren und die Sprache des Barock durch die Empfindsamkeit der Gegenwart gebrochen wird.
Miako Klein, Berlin-based musician, performer and improviser, has a greatly varied musical background. Classically educated on the recorder and violin, she has extensive experiences in performing contemporary music, as well as in Early and improvised music. Miako constantly questions and challenges the conventional ways of music performance by pushing boundaries between styles and genres, by experiment, and by interdisciplinary collaborations. She performs as a soloist and chamber musician and often collaborates with composers who have written works for her.
_ Miako has played as a guest with Ensemble Modern, ICE International Contemporary Ensemble, Il Pomo d'Oro, Constanza Macras | Dorky Park and Quartet New Generation, and she regularly performs with her trio JANE IN ETHER (with Magda Mayas and Biliana Voutchkova), her duo WARBLE (with trumpeter Brad Henkel), trumpet player Sava Stoianov and harpsichordist Jia Lim, Cité des Dames, the Marc Sinan Company and different constellations for contemporary, Early and improvised music.
Throughout 2010/11, she worked as musician at the Cirque du Soleil Show ZAiA in Macau. She won fellowships as Artist in Residency at Kunstmeile Krems in 2014 and Akademie Schloss Solitude 2014-15.
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She has performed at the Ultraschall Festival Berlin, MATA-Festival NYC, Aichi Triennale Japan, Festival Musica Strasbourg, Early Music Festival Barcelona, Emergences Festival Avignon, Festival Aix-en-Provence, Boulevard Festival s’Hertogenbosch, DeSuite-Muziekweek Amsterdam and Klangwerktage Hamburg. Miako's live-recordings have been broadcast on German radio stations including HR/DLF, WDR3 and Concertzender.
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At young age Miako won prizes in numerous competitions including first prize at the “International Recorder Competition of Engelskirchen” and the “SONBU” International Recorder Competition of Utrecht/NL. She was awarded first prize at Germany’s National Youth Competition, “Bundeswettbewerb Jugend musiziert”, on multiple occasions. Miako also won the “Prize of the City Erlangen for the Best Interpretation of Contemporary Music”, the special award for outstanding ensemble performance by “Stadtsparkasse Köln”, and the IRINO-Foundation Tokyo award for contemporary music.
The daughter of a classical pianist, Miako received her first musical lessons as a young child. At the Westfalian music school she was then taught the recorder by Gudula Rosa and the violin by Tor-Song Tan. Miako studied the recorder with Paul Leenhouts at the Amsterdam Conservatory, and graduated with distinction, and violin as a second major with Lex Korff de Gidts.
She also studied Early Music UdK Berlin with Prof. Christoph Huntgeburth (recorder) and Irmgard Huntgeburth (Baroque violin) and took Masterclasses with Mechthild Karkow and Luca Giardini.
Miako Klein, Berlin-based musician, performer and improviser, has a greatly varied musical background. Classically educated on the recorder and violin, she has extensive experiences in performing contemporary music, as well as in Early and improvised music. Miako constantly questions and challenges the conventional ways of music performance by pushing boundaries between styles and genres, by experiment, and by interdisciplinary collaborations. She performs as a soloist and chamber musician and often collaborates with composers who have written works for her.
_ Miako has played as a guest with Ensemble Modern, ICE International Contemporary Ensemble, Il Pomo d'Oro, Constanza Macras | Dorky Park and Quartet New Generation, and she regularly performs with her trio JANE IN ETHER (with Magda Mayas and Biliana Voutchkova), her duo WARBLE (with trumpeter Brad Henkel), trumpet player Sava Stoianov and harpsichordist Jia Lim, Cité des Dames, the Marc Sinan Company and different constellations for contemporary, Early and improvised music.
Throughout 2010/11, she worked as musician at the Cirque du Soleil Show ZAiA in Macau. She won fellowships as Artist in Residency at Kunstmeile Krems in 2014 and Akademie Schloss Solitude 2014-15.
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She has performed at the Ultraschall Festival Berlin, MATA-Festival NYC, Aichi Triennale Japan, Festival Musica Strasbourg, Early Music Festival Barcelona, Emergences Festival Avignon, Festival Aix-en-Provence, Boulevard Festival s’Hertogenbosch, DeSuite-Muziekweek Amsterdam and Klangwerktage Hamburg. Miako's live-recordings have been broadcast on German radio stations including HR/DLF, WDR3 and Concertzender.
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At young age Miako won prizes in numerous competitions including first prize at the “International Recorder Competition of Engelskirchen” and the “SONBU” International Recorder Competition of Utrecht/NL. She was awarded first prize at Germany’s National Youth Competition, “Bundeswettbewerb Jugend musiziert”, on multiple occasions. Miako also won the “Prize of the City Erlangen for the Best Interpretation of Contemporary Music”, the special award for outstanding ensemble performance by “Stadtsparkasse Köln”, and the IRINO-Foundation Tokyo award for contemporary music.
The daughter of a classical pianist, Miako received her first musical lessons as a young child. At the Westfalian music school she was then taught the recorder by Gudula Rosa and the violin by Tor-Song Tan. Miako studied the recorder with Paul Leenhouts at the Amsterdam Conservatory, and graduated with distinction, and violin as a second major with Lex Korff de Gidts.
She also studied Early Music UdK Berlin with Prof. Christoph Huntgeburth (recorder) and Irmgard Huntgeburth (Baroque violin) and took Masterclasses with Mechthild Karkow and Luca Giardini.
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