The wonderful Bells Echo series is entering its tenth year – on November 21st this will be celebrated with another concert at a special location.
The premiere of Bells Echo took place in the Philippuskirche in December 2015 – and churches remained the preferred setting for this series to host very special and unique concert evenings with local and international ambient and experimental acts. While in the first few years exclusive compositions by co-curators Stefkovic vaninterest and Alex Röser were presented, in recent years Bells Echo has focused more on performances by international greats such as Ben Frost, Maya Shenfeld, Fuji|||||ta, William Basinski, Maria W Horn and most recently Kali Malone – artists who are rarely seen live in the city.
What has remained the same over the years: the fascination for unusual concert venues and for the interplay of sound, light and architecture. The fact that Bells Echo pulled this off over such a long period of time is a great achievement and has greatly enriched the Leipzig music scene.
For the anniversary, we're going to a church again – and the makers are reflecting on their local roots. Moritz Fasbender, alias Friederike Bernhardt, is a musician and composer who can also make the interplay of space and sound pulsate very well. She has already taken part in two editions and this time she will play a more electronic set in collaboration with her side project Geza Cotard – without grand pianos, but with lots of synths and other equipment.
Stefkovic vaninterest is also there again. With him, flat, noisy sound structures are layered into expansive and quite threatening, but always fascinating sets.
As a co-organizer, how does he look back on 10 years of Bells Echo?
“It's crazy how many places we've been able to play in now. Things like the Völkerschlachtdenkmal and the Thomaskirche were less visions than nonsense back then. We've benefited a lot from the trust of the places and the audience. The feeling of organizing things has changed a bit. It's become more professional and more characterized by curation and advertising. That's why the birthday is a little more like it used to be – more creative and more ourselves.”
He goes on to talk about the development of the local experimental scene:
„A lot is happening, but more in the DIY area or subculture. This is all extremely exciting, but we've always been interested in the transition to a larger, more mixed audience like you see at festivals like Rewire, CTM or Unsound. I hope a lot more will happen in Leipzig soon – even if smaller funding pots mean that this area of events in particular poses an extreme risk.“
By the way, there was an interesting interview with him on Radio Blau during the “Simultaneous fluctuation” program, which we highly recommend for a further review:
10 years of Bells Echo –
21. November 2025 –
West cross in the Heilandskirche (Plagwitz)
w/ Moritz Fasbender feat. Geza Cotard, Stefkovic van Interesse, DJ Wurzel, Special Guest
Buy tickets online
Source: https://www.frohfroh.de/45349/10-jahre-bells-echo
