Bella Adamova Michael Gees by Various, Do. 05 Okt. 2023, Ab (2023/2023), Theater X10, Prag, Tschechien

Where is home? Is it where did we spent our childhood? Or in our memories, when we can no longer return to such a place? Perhaps, home is where we choose to live? Contralto Bella Adamova and pianist Michael Gees ponder these questions in their musical journey entitled there is home. The seemingly disparate duo – Gees was born in West Germany in 1950’s, Adamova in the North Caucasus just after the collapse of the Soviet Union – formed in 2015, and four years later, the musicians released the album Blooming. They presented in it a set of spontaneous compositions in the spirit of classical music. In there is home, they interweave their improvisations with the songwriting by composers such as Mahler, Mussorgsky, Britten, and Pavel Haas. “Free improvisation isn’t really a genre so much as a philosophy of playing,” Adamova says. “There are no rules, just that you’re in touch with the other players, with the place you’re playing, and that you listen and respect what you hear.”