On the title track are from a poem by seamus. 2 decades later by the. Ringback latest collaboration explores the space between. And modern classical. And its an enormous pleasure to have time out. Here with me in the studio welcome thank you for coming in twice. A labor of love im assuming obviously between the 2 here and its interesting because its such a very diverse body of songs. From greensleeves to the 20th century composers that youve brought on there john cage. But youve brought it together in such a highly personal narrative can you tell us what is the red thread for you there well. Whats at the base of this album is our shared passion for folk songs because i believe i speak for both of us we really like the simplicity of the folk song and the way that it tells a story. Through the music and i we have been playing folk songs for as long as weve been playing together always putting them as part of our classical concert programs and in the past its always been my very simple basic harmonic accompany meant to the melody to the existing melody which is the folk melody and when we thought to put an album together to record it i felt embarrassed to put my own arrangements theyre not so interesting so i set up to look for existing arrangements of great composers and this way i found the arrangements from Benjamin Britten and valma williams and Aaron Copeland and what was interesting for me is to weave them together in a way that shows the similarities rather than the differences and we also added 2 new songs by young composers. And these songs also have elements of the same elements of melancholy and solicits and dissonance as well and i will get to those songs in just a 2nd i want to come to you andreas because theres a countertenor obviously youre specialized in early music in baroque period music this was really new terrain for you how challenging was that. I have a great love for these english folk songs some of them featured on the album and many more of these songs i studied them with my singing teacher when i studied them basel i know many different types of arrangements by john by. I mean everybody who sings folk music needs to arrange these songs by themselves. Might singing teacher said the artist to make it not sound like an art and thats the challenge with these songs that you as a classic music singer you present them in the most direct and honest way without resorting to classic music money or is what is it do you think i mean the countertenor community is relatively small its growing as as as you told me by. For instance the cust tatty back in the fighting nellies days used to be the real rock stars what is it about the countertenor just briefly voice that you think is so captivating for pinnacle i believe its an instant confusion when you hear a count to 10 and you have never heard a man sing that high before because in society these days the roads are pretty clearly a sign men speak and talk louder than women do so a man singing high. Crosses this barrier and confuses the audience and then the brain tries to make sense of it but you cannot make much sense over it so you just need to listen to the music but you bookended this album very interestingly with these young composers houri frankel at the beginning and you said that i actually think his piece the rest was a highlight of making this album for you lets see if we can just if we can pull that music in and have a have a listen to it. Was our. Home. And for our 1st piece. The fact that it has the same kind of simplicity as the folk songs have. And then it talks to also has the melancholy in the year ending that you often find in folk songs on the other hand it relates to. More recent history so its based on a text by play more levy and i think describes the feeling of somebody who was exported from their home country to their concentration camps and. What i like very much is the fact the fact that i franco is israeli living in boston i am israeli living in germany and the other young composer on the album is joseph tyler address hes from egypt living in london and a virtue also on the words and we can possibly pull some some of that in because that is the last piece the other book and lets see if i can listen to joseph how about. Not only did you sing australian. Believe here. And we have this this idea. Of building bridges between. Diverse cultures and religions is certainly a big in your work and what is your experience with all of these collaboration for many collaboration that youve done of how music. Can be a Unifying Force i think for musicians its so hard to understand that the rest of the world can get along really well but theres so many conflicts because i traveled in the last 30 years i traveled all over the world from asia australia south america all over europe United States canada everywhere and i meet musicians all over the world and we speak a common language so being on stage with musicians from different different cultures Different Countries is something soul easy for us and its so self explaining that the moment we walk on stage all our differences dont matter and we just theres Harmony Music exists through harmony so if theres no harmony in between the musicians on stage there can be harmony in the music they they want to communicate and thats the sensational thing for me is that for me its a daily thing and i have experienced that so many times and i wish that the audience can experience the same through our music well im sure they will twilight people will be on tour with the album in the coming months to la hood petting and thank you so much for bringing us this music and for coming into the studio here today and all the best for the holidays thank you. All from me if ariel world of the soul to the very precise and composed worlds of cancun not the photographer from frankfurt creates miniature scenarios that almost always take some kind of a jab at our societal conventions making the tragic thing comical and the absurd somehow optimistic. A street that leads to an abyss. An ordinary cafe. Houses that could be in any german suburb nothing special but whats this the new neighbor overshadows the older buildings. Somethings not right here in these buildings actually exist the answer is yes in front kuhn out imagination the photographer builds miniature sets creating selfcontained worlds that he then photographs. As is most i use it in my view thats all i try to show the entire spectrum of life in my works from tragedy to comedy and and im able to do that by making the world smaller and representing it in the form of architectural models. Could not create still lifes with great attention to detail uninhabited sets use humor to take a socially critical stance like these creations ironic comments on the realities of modern life. The photographer tries to make everything look as realistic as possible and his ideas dont come from his imagination alone it is a careful observer and he finds inspiration even in a highway bridge a common theme in his work is living space and his wife had to move away from his native city of frankfurt for lack of Affordable Housing because models often look at where and how people live. For instance in this tiny home one and a half square metres stuffed with everything youd need to live nothings missing yet its all useless likes taking minimalist urban Living Concepts and exaggerating them creating something new. Surge and impossible its his way of expressing criticism. That in balance every single year in a heavily populated cities like frankfurt you get very little living space for a lot of money. Thats what im addressing with this model and the resulting photograph. The Model Builder and photographer take several weeks sometimes months to create one photo tries to get every detail perfect the planters are plastic caps. The doormats are cut out of sand paper. Or uses an analog large format camera to give his photos just the right look for fun Building Models and taking photos complement each other. His family boyle im building the model i keep looking through the camera to see if it works the way i wanted to because and the interesting thing is that when i do that at a certain point the model starts looking real to me as though it were out there on the street somewhere that never fails to fascinate me in the noir. Fun cool no small worlds are available as postcards in galleries and exhibitions or collected in a book. The pictures depict the mondays but with some surprising twists a playful mixture of the realistic and the absurd with an astonishing attention to detail. Ill be sure to visit our website if youd like to learn more thats all we have time for today though so until we meet again all the best from here in berlin and i know off. The. Cold africa. Dear god they are not many construction material. For to. Use the garbage like old bottles to build. This is the school now. I hear. A simple solution for a serious problem. The cold comfort. The commitments on w. Its. Absolutely essential some of the famous naturalist and explorer. To some racial politics on the front of the worlds 250th birthday we were embarking on a voyage of discovery. Expedition voyage on t. W. A. A fuel with words. Where i come from we dont want a way from a confrontation. When i was 5 years old my father took me to his fences and i was hooked on the spokes of. A sport that you learned soul until soul. Fencing is a language and a good source for it is a conversation. Must be your opponent understand that thinking new of the main to get close otherwise you can score a hit. Its not unlike a tough interview really when interviewing politicians all corporate c. E. O. s you have to wait for the right moment just to get around that defense and then make your move downfield. Yes to take risks to get results. Im not alphas and i work at g. W. And. As he did over the years live from shootouts in moscow. Government opens fire never had courses of Russia Secret Police the f. S. B. It says one of its man was shot dead before the gunman was neutralized if he could live to moscow also on the program remembers the terror attack in the sense