Alois Kinast, vice mayor of Augartenstadt, welcomes the audience and Otto Lechner

Two months after returning from their concert tour, the Windhund performed at Aktionsradius Augarten, sharing some memories and experiences of their adventures and explorations of East African music cultures.

Anna Kuthan opening the night at Augarten.

A charming welcome and brief explanations on the stations of the tour were given by Anna Kuthan. Anna co-organised the Windhund’s trip to East Africa and – with her organisational talent, profound knowledge of Kiswahili, a local network of like-minded musicians and artists, and her capacity to find solutions for unusual problems – provided invaluable support throughout the trip. Anna has now moved to Austria, with her fiancé Dismas to follow soon. Good to have you here!

Well-prepared improvisation regarding the presentation of images and – as usually – outstanding music improvisation provided a vivid and colourful programme, as many visitors confirmed. Part of it was an exhibition of Hermine Ritter’s art works, entitled “Afrikaspuren” and inspired by or created in East Africa. If you haven’t seen them yet, go to http://www.hermineritter.at/aktuelles.html!

With everyone having returned to their lives in Austria (and with Anna Kuthan having returned to Austria to start a new life), this was a wonderful occassion to look back upon the experiences and acquaintances we have made in Zanzibar, Bagamoyo, Dar es Salaam and Nairobi.

Listen to an acoustic postcard in two parts, compiled by Anna Soucek:

part one: Zanzibar (mp3, 14′27”) teil 1 end mp3

part two: Bagamoyo, Dar es Salaam, Nairobi (mp3, 16′20”) teil 2 end mp3

Anne Bennent’s raving interpretation of Arthur Rimbaud’s “Drunken Boat”, accompanied by Karl Ritter on the guitar, was followed by two sets of Windhund’s improvisation – as good as it gets.

Karl Ritter presented a double CD of recordings from the tour. You can purchase it via his website http://www.ritter-produktion.at/ or on karl.ritter@kabsi.at, for only 15 Euro.

And finally here comes a little list of thank-you’s to everyone who helped to make the evening as marvellous as it was: to the Windhund Anne Bennent, Melissa Coleman, Otto Lechner and Karl Ritter; to Hermine Ritter, Robert Zielasko, Felix and Anton Bennent; to the Kuthanis for organisational and emotional contribution; to our hosts from Aktionsradius Augarten for the invitaton, technical support and hospitality (thanks Irmi for your patience in getting the technical stuff together…) and to the wonderful audience, who observed every minute of the evening with sincere excitement.

By the way: following the successful evening at Aktionsradius Augarten, we are convinced that there will be a continuation of the project. Watch this blog for further information or announcements! It ain’t over till it’s over.