Archipelago is a collection of improvised pieces on the accordion, an instrument that has been with me for four decades. After taking it for years into minimal territory, where it became almost unrecognisable, I am reclaiming it, returning to its essential harmonic and melodic qualities. The title echoes the original sea (ἀρχή πέλαγος), which I perceive as a metaphor for primordial music – both my own and intrinsically tied to the accordion. Through this unique work, I strive to come as close as possible to it.
In the pieces on this album, I let my fingers move as freely as possible across the keys. I let go, allowing the machine—the accordion—to generate largely random material, which I then sculpt and organise in real time. This opens a different kind of connection with the instrument—one where it leads, even uses me. It overturns the traditional relationship between musician and instrument, taking me somewhere unexpected. It’s a kind of infinite loop between the controlled and the uncontrolled, the human and the machine, generating music that is rigorous, intensely physical, and resolutely unpredictable. The resulting sound material is richly varied: chords, melodic fragments, sudden attacks, harmonic sequences, electronic-like sounds and repetitive motifs.
This solo work began during a residency at the Casa di Rosa in Loco, Switzerland, in April 2024. The process that began at that time continued over the months in the form of playing the instrument without any particular end in mind, driven solely by the desire to produce sound, fragments, to merge my breathing with that of the instrument, and above all, to trust the process.
The pieces on this album were recorded in February 2025 in a dance studio on the top floor of an old industrial building in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. The takes have been preserved in their rawest form, without editing.
Jonas Kocher, April 2025