For our 2021 residency we invited artist Beatrix Ó Corráin (Battle-ax).

Born in Sydney, Battle-ax (Beatrix Ó Corráin) moved to Vienna to further her studies as a classical violist but it was when she began playing in clubs that her sound truly developed. Taking cues from the elegantly robust symphonies of Viennese composer Gustav Mahler, her performances are as much disruptive as they are refined. Distortion clips and merges with relentless chains of reverb broken by intimate passages of acoustic sound, testing the characteristics of her instrument as a means of both escapism and immediacy.

With a nod to her heritage, Battle-ax recently introduced arrangements of traditional Irish folk melodies to her sets. It provides a gentle contrast via the roughened fiddle technique applied together with the music that expresses what can already be heard in her instrumental style.

Performing in the context of festivals such as HYPERREALITY Festival for Club Culture and the Neue Musik festival MaerzMusik at Berliner Festspiele, Battle-ax offers a broad approach to how neoclassicism and the classical instrument can be interpreted today.

The residency is realized with the kind support of the Peripheral Unit of Chania.