In 2016, Marco von Orelli, Benjamin Brodbeck and Kaspar von Grünigen had the idea to bring together the various improvising micro-scenes in Basel into something bigger. The initial ignition for “unorthodox jukebox o.” was the Festival Klangbasel in autumn 2016: During 2 nights, around 40 Basel musicians improvised for 16 hours in a variety of combinations. About a year later, a cross-genre and intergenerational improvisational orchestra emerged.

The protagonists come from all corners of Basel’s music scenes: 

New Music, Jazz, New Improvisation Music, Electronic Music, Early Music, Alternative Pop Music, Contemporary Music Theatre…

The wealth of experiences is also the concept of ujb o. – the collective is at the center and so since summer 2017 various ideas have been worked on: space, design of time, sonicity, no rules of the game or strict compositional rules. The most important constant, however, remains the living organism. unorthodox jukebox o. is the sum of its parts, but also a particle accelerator: the individual voice always remains audible.

Marina Tantanozi (fl) Olga Marulanda (ob) François Houle (cl)
Eva-Maria Karbacher (ss) Jaronas Scheurer (as) Remo Schnyder (ts)
Kame (tp) Marco von Orelli (tp)

Antonia Ravens (hp) Giancarlo Nicolai (laudes) Giovanni Vicari (g)
Anna-Kaisa Meklin (vdg) Kaspar von Grünigen (b) 

Christoph Schiller (spinett) Pio Schürmann (p) Lukas Rickli (p/rhodes)
Alvin Schwaar (p/synth) 

Lukas Huber (electr.) Eric Ruffing (analog synth) Volker Böhm (electr.)

João Carlos Pacheco (perc) Benjamin Brodbeck (dr) Michael Anklin (dr/electr.)