The New Atlantis

 

The New Atlantis - an orchestra of sound practices - is a collaborative project founded by composer and sound designer Nicolas Becker, which brings together an original ensemble of musicians and performers working in different ways. It functions as a laboratory for in situ creation, where musicians, artists, filmmakers, researchers, and instrument makers come together to form new connections.

 

At its core, the ensemble is dedicated to developing immersive experiences and experimental musical structures through improvisation. Combining ancient instruments, new lutheries, electronic and electroacoustic systems, sculptures, and sound objects, the project becomes a playground for sonic exploration.

 

Each appearance of the collective is conceived as an original creation that responds to the specific context of the city and the space. The core team around Nicolas Becker includes sound artist Tarek Atoui and composer Quentin Sirjacq, in collaboration with Julien Colardelle (Souffle collectif) on production and curation. 

 

Past collaborators have included artists such as Pan Daijing and Youmna Saba – both of whom also have been connected to Haus der Kunst.

 

 

Collective Practice as Utopia

 

The name The New Atlantis refers to the 1627 text by philosopher Francis Bacon, who envisioned a utopian society guided by empirical knowledge and experimentation. In this fictional narrative, Bacon imagined "sound houses“; spaces for acoustic research, speculative instruments, and sonic inventions. As one of the first European intellectuals to highlight the significance of sound in science and art, Bacon’s vision resonates with the ambitions of the collective in imagining new futures.

 

Musicians and artists from diverse backgrounds come together to improvise, explore, and discover new forms as a collective. In this space, there are no hierarchies and no rules about who leads and who follows—only the joy of listening, responding, and inventing together.

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more descriptions below 

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