Square the Circle - Luis Reich feat. Richard Ojijo & Annie Blochs luvt

"Square the Circle" combines song structures, ambient music, electronic sound art, and spatial audio into a concert format at St. Bonifatius church in Frankfurt. A quadrophonic speaker system surrounds the audience and transforms the church's architecture into an active part of the music.

At the heart of the event is the quadrophonic programme "Square the Circle", developed by ambient musician Luis Reich, complemented by the live electronics of Richard Ojijo and Annie Bloch's luvt project, which merges the sound of a chest organ with electronic and experimental elements. The concert moves between pop, sacred sound tradition, contemporary music, and improvisational moments.

Luis Reich works with live sampling, instrumental motifs, and analog sound carriers as source material for electronic distortion processes. His quadrophonic solo programme SQUARE THE CIRCLE emerged from a context of numerous collaborations, including Reich & Würden and the Sono Kollektiv.

Richard Ojijo is a composer, lecturer, and sound engineer with over 20 years of experience. He leads workshops at institutions including Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln and has held a lectureship at the Institute for Popular Music at Folkwang University of the Arts in Bochum since 2014. As a live engineer and producer, he has worked with artists including Patrice, Modeselektor, Joy Denalane, Moderat, and GAS.

luvt (from luven = to turn into the wind, from air) is the project of organist and songwriter Annie Bloch. At its centre is the chest organ - a wooden Baroque instrument with four rows of wooden pipes, a bellows, and a keyboard, limited to four flute-like registers. Through electronic manipulation, luvt draws the instrument out of its historical context: the warm pipe sounds blend with their electronic amplification and transformation.

Organ solo, Annie Bloch documentary on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA01cbLMU9c&t=175s