Borke–Beckett–Boom
Radio station: Südwestrundfunk
Venue/s of the event: HfG Karlsruhe (Karlsruhe State University of Arts and Design)
Links: http://artsbirthday.hfg-karlsruhe.de/
http://www.tobiasborke.de/
http://www.tobiasborke.de/freestyletagebuch/
http://www.wort-und-klang.de/
http://www.pheel.de/
http://www.zkm.de
http://www.hfg-karlsruhe.de
audio: http://artsbirthday.hfg-karlsruhe.de/
video: http://artsbirthday.hfg-karlsruhe.de/
pictures: http://artsbirthday.hfg-karlsruhe.de/
the situation on stage:
A DJ and musician, a Freestyle-Rapper, a Beatboxer, an improvised dialogue at several levels:
→ the Rapper stands on the edge of the stage, makes the improvisation transparent and responds spontaneously to the feeded voice and music samples of the DJs
→ the DJ comments in turn the improvisations of the Rapper by the selection of music, samples, cuts, and scratches
→ the Beatboxer is the bridge between music and language, complements and extends the musical level in the improvisation and gives room to the human voice
the background:
Samuel Beckett’s one-act ‘Krapp’s Last Tape’ was premiered in 1958.
Without knowing about Beckett’s work, Tobias Borke started an acoustic diary in Freestyle-Raps more than 10 years ago. The idea of the radio play started, when Sascha Verlan listened to some of Borke’s recordings and saw the old Krapp before him, played by Martin Held, as he sits in front of his tape recorder, repeatedly changing the coil, listening to old tapes and a new, the last tape…
The idea for Beckett’s one-act play arose from the new technical possibilities, which made it possible to preserve the human voice… and to confront yourself years later with your own voice: a completely different mood and a lot more concrete situation as a written diary. And that’s the reason why Tobias Borke does not grab pen and paper, but the microphone, and uses rhyme and rhythm, if he wants to preserve his thoughts for the day. On stage Tobias Borke will be confronted with his acoustic diary, which he hadn’t listened since that time.
the protagonists:
Freestyle-Rapper Tobias Borke aka Rawborke (GER):
Tobias Borke is one of the great virtuosos of the Freestyle-Rap scene. Pretended effortlessly he grabs funny stories or political manifestos into improvised rhymes and verses, whether Doubletime or A Capella. Again and again he makes the astonished audience aware of the particular situation in the room, including their reactions and interjections in his improvisations, and creating so unique moments.
Pheel (GER):
Whether with a jazz band, with bassist in the Techno Club or solo on a Hip Hop stage, the Beatboxer Pheel is used to many genres. Together with Rawborke he developed a peculiar dialogue of language and music on the stage. His beats produced by speech sounds are whatever always language and comment on the freestyles from Rawborke, which in turn responds surprisingly and coherent.
Michel Schulz (GER):
The DJ is the director, indicating the direction of improvisation between memory and the present with his language samples. He determines the emotional timbre of the performance by the selection of music (speed, genre, mood) and the excerpts from the Freestyle-Diaries by Tobias Borke.
the authors:
Tobias Borke with Sascha Verlan and Almut Schnerring (aka Wort & Klang Küche)
– ART'S BIRTHDAY – 
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