The Austrian Embassy is very proud to present the first Bass Clarinet and Hang Duo in the world, Living Room, at HIFA 2010 – another fine example of pushing the artistic boundaries at our now world famous Festival!  We know you are wondering, what on earth?  All will be revealed!

Pioneering Austrian musicians Christoph Pepe Auer and Manu Delago have created a new era of chamber music, by combining the versatile tonal scope of the bass clarinet with the new, UFO-like instrument, the ‘HANG’.  Together these complement each other splendidly, producing an eccentric, yet highly beguiling sound!

When Manu Delago began playing the Hang, an enchanting new sound sculpture from Switzerland, in 2003, he simultaneously discovered his passion for writing music.  With more than two million hits on Youtube, his solo piece “Mono Desire” is the most popular Hang video on the internet.

“The master Hang drummer” (Modern Drummer), Delago has performed with ensembles Manu Delago Handmade and Living Room in Europe’s metropoles London, Paris, Moscow, Berlin, Athens, Madrid and Vienna, as well as in North and South America and Asia.

The Hang can be best described as a tuned percussion instrument akin to a cross between a dimpled mini-flying saucer and a lidded barbecue!  A brand new percussion instrument, it was developed by Swiss instrument builders Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer at Panart and premiered at the Frankfurter Musikmesse.  It connects the worlds of rhythm and melodies in ways never before seen or heard!

“MORE a grotto of eccentric acoustic delights than anyone’s living room, this intimate little show restores one’s faith in the ability of the Fringe to come up with some idiosyncratic gems,” enthused The Scotsman following Living Room’s performances at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

With the many and varied sounds produced by Auer on the versatile bass clarinet with its melancholy tones as the perfect foil, the Hang, which is way more than a gimmick instrument, rattles out rhythms or chimes melodies under Delago’s flying fingers.  Sometimes, it offers up a hypnotic undercurrent below the clarinet melody. Their shows are infused by turns with humour and moments of wistful and enchanting magic.

Christoph Pepe Auer plays a whole range of instruments besides the clarinet, from the flute to the alto, tenor and soprano saxophones and his very own “Pepephon”.  He has toured all over the world from Serbia, Kosovo, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Slovakia and Croatia, to Poland, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Cyprus, as well as Jerusalem, New York, Ireland, Scotland and England.  In 2007 he was presented with the Hans Koller Award “Newcomer of the Year” as well as the Hörbiger Culture Award.

Living Room’s hip chamber music includes original compositions as well as creative arrangements of such diverse offerings as works by Nirvana, The Beatles, and computer game soundtracks!  More than 500 000 people have experienced this innovative duo pushing the limits of their instruments on YouTube and in concerts all over Europe.  They add glockenspiel and unique homemade instruments to their most unusual and highly acclaimed live performances.  Whether playful or mellow, Living Room is a soul-reaching musical experience you should be sure not to miss at HIFA 2010, where they will perform twice on the BancABC Global Stage, thanks to the generous investment of the Austrian Embassy.