At CatalyseLet’s play body music !
Description
AVOCLAP… An intriguing name, chosen mainly for the way it rings. What does it mean? You decide! Thinking with the right brain, the left brain? Let’s opt for balance. Did you know that one tool used to achieve this balance is improvisation?
AVCLAP 2026, it’s four days to try out or deepen your knowledge of vocal and physical improvisation. A joyful and friendly atmosphere created by well-known artists and experts from a wide range of backgrounds, languages and cultures all blended together.
Circle song is at the heart of this weekend’s activities. Collectively with our bodies and our voices, our differences, we will create an orchestra and let ourselves be carried away… Envisioning a social paradigm that values sobriety, collaboration and co-leadership, isn’t it what we need, what the world needs?
AVOCLAP… Also means EVOLVING.
Editorial by Noga
Already the second edition of Avoclap, this festival whose name can be unpacked, to better savour its fragrances and flavours.
Vocal improvisation and body percussions: the voice, the body… These instruments, we carry them within us, each and every one of us.
Available always and everywhere – especially when we are connected to ourselves and to others!
An “unplugged” festival, naturally simple, close to the essential.
A festival in the garden of childhood, since we have played these instruments from the very beginning—of time and of our lives.
A festival to blossom, to learn, to create, to receive and to give… to evolve.
A festival celebrating the art of improvising together with the body and the naked voice.
What’s it like? Workshops during the day, with renowned facilitators coming from several regions of Europe.
Friendly meeting spaces, where words and exchange flow naturally, when one has just been carried by the voices of the group, entering together into the flow, here and now, play and joy.
And when evening comes, as a spectator ready to open up once again, still tingling with the emotions of the day, we vibrate with the scheduled performance.
The atmosphere? Full of simplicity, easy-going, kind and generous.
Whatever your level, you come as you are, you find what you’re looking for – even what you never suspected you were seeking – and you leave having moved forward on your path.
The hope? To contribute to growing the community of beings who are sensitive to the power of co-improvisation and circle song, like a nurturing breath toward a more harmonious world.
We’re waiting for you!
Artist speakers
Charles Raszl (BRA)
Gaël Aubrit (FR)
Mattias Wyss & Annie Kummer (CH)
Oskar Boldre (IT)
Sonja Morgenegg (CH)
Katrin Sauter (CH)
The programme
The workshops are given in the speaker’s native language. Let go of “thinking” and allow yourself to be carried away! (Rest assured, translation is available…)!
The levels specified for each workshop refer to the theme of each workshop. I.e. an advanced level in yodeling requires practice in yodeling, not in improvisation.
Content of the workshops & Circles
Let us start the day with a collective circle song bringing together all performers & participants and with a presentation of all workshops.
Saturday & Sunday 9h00-9h30 (all levels)
Let us close the day together with a circle song shared with all performers and participants.
Saturday & Sunday 18h00-19h00 (all levels)
Workshops of Charles Raszl
Through a vocal and body percussion arrangement of a Brazilian song the participants will thus be inspired through an approach in which the body is at the same time a percussive, melodic and harmonic event that dances and brings individual and collective stories.
Thursday 14.05 14h30-17h30
In this workshop we will practice various Brazilian rhythms through body percussion and transcribe them into a melodic framework and overlap the voices to make a counterpoint harmonic, thus creating a Circle Song.
Friday 14h30-17h30
This workshop aims to offer musical games that stimulate psychomotor coordination and group synergy, contact with Brazilian rhythms and songs for those who want to experience body music in a fun and challenging way.
For beginners
Saturday 16.05 10h00-13h00
Workshops of Gaël Aubrit
Discover the “fil-tapis-motif” model: three types of vocal patterns that help build balanced arrangements, break habits, and develop sharper awareness of different vocal and musical parameters.
Friday 15.05 14h30-17h30
This workshop offers (re)discovery of a wide repertoire of a cappella vocal improvisation games, forms and setups. From the classics (circlesongs, free co-improvisation, supported solo, etc.) to hidden gems, we move from one game to the next for the sheer joy of the experience!
Saturday 16.05 10h00-13h00
Do you want your circlesongs to keep an audience engaged from start to finish, to sound coherent and balanced, and avoid slow beginnings, empty moments or clumsy endings? Come and explore simple, effective tools to make your circlesongs as captivating as carefully written songs.
Saturday 16.05 15h30-18h30
Enough of 4/4! Let’s dive into the world of “odd” meters: 5, 7, 9 beats and beyond. Learn practical tools to recognize these meters, create patterns and solo over them, so you can one day feel (almost) as comfortable as in 3 or 4.
Sunday 17.05 10h00-13h00
Workshops of Mattias Wyss and Annie Kummer
Prior knowledge neither hindering nor necessary
Immerse yourself in body music with us! In this workshop, you will learn your own song that contains composed and improvised elements. It allows you to become part of a collective soundscape through a combination of voice, body percussion and movement. With lots of playfulness and mutual resonance, we will create body music together!
Saturday 16.05 15h30-18h30
Prior knowledge neither hindering nor necessary
Body music has many facets – as many as our bodies can produce! We start off in a playful and enjoyable way in the world of body rhythms and learn grooves. Then we add singing. We explore the combination of body percussion and singing in various forms, improvising and getting more complex. An activating firework display for your brain!
Sunday 17.05 10h00-13h00
Workshops of Oskar Boldre
Just get involved, you have nothing to lose! the best way to prepare to improvise is not to prepare at all! we will practice exercises in the form of play, sacred and fun, developing flexibility and the art of contrasting and supporting others. The exercises are part of the method written by Oskar Boldre: Giocando la voce (Voglino Ed., 2021).
Saturday 9h45-13h00 (beginners)
New tools for your singing increasing dynamism, training in change, emptying out, surprising oneself and developing different ways of giving a solo. We will practice with different exercises focusing on the art of contrast: the ABA defective Band, Rhythmic and Melodic Gifts, Substitutions, Moved Triangle, Sequence for new solos … and synesthetic stimulations such as Olfattimpro, Tattimpro and Tellimpro with the intention of enriching your language, making the best use of vocal timbres as vehicles of emotions. Music exists to be discovered and not just to be repeated.
Saturday 14h00-15h30 (advanced)
Saturday 16h00-17h30 (advanced)
The two workshops are complementary. However, it can also be attended separately.
Workshops of Sonja Morgenegg
What’s Wildyodeling? Wildyodeling is an improvised Form of Yodel – freh and free – out oft he moment.
“Just imagine: You’re standing on the mountain and you can just let out a wild whoop!” It is precisely this expression of inner joy and your very own access to your voice that we will focus on during these two days. We will learn how to use our voice in a loud and relaxed way through physical exercises and vocal technique and learn the Swiss yodeling technique.
We will learn one or two Swiss natural yodels that have been handed down orally in order to integrate the yodel well.
Finally, we also take what arises from the moment, let ourselves be inspired by our surroundings and gain self-confidence by listening carefully, “grad heben” and “zauren” (accompanying the yodel, singing harmony). And – last but not least – we integrate the yodel voice into free vocal improvisation, try out grooves, yodel in other scales and what might a circle song sound like in yodel?
A fresh and cheerful wild yodeling course – a joy to sing along to!
Saturday 16.05 15h30-18h30
Dimanche 17.05 10h00-14h30
Workshops of Katrin Sauter
We explore frameworks and improv games focusing on «Viewpoints of Space» (Shape, Gesture, Spatial Relationship, Architecture, Topography/Landscape).
How do they influence and inspire the composition of an improvised performance (and the musicality of vocal improvisation)?
Thursday 14.05 14h30-16h00
We explore frameworks and improv games focusing on «Viewpoints of Time» (Tempo, Duration, Kinesthetic Response, Repetition) and physical sensations.
How can «Viewpoints» and body awareness help to augment your presence, connection and interaction on Stage?
How do they influence your presence in performance?
Thursday 14.05 16h00-17h30
Price
Workshop 1h30
1h30 workshop of your choice
Welcoming and closing Circles
CHF 30.-
Workshop 3h
3h workshop of your choice
Welcoming and closing Circles
CHF 60.-
Circle Flow
CHF 20.-
Day Pass Saturday OR Sunday
A full day of workshop (6h)
Welcoming and closing Circles
CHF 100.-
Weekend Pass
A full weekend of workshops (12h)
Circle Flow
Welcoming and closing Circles
CHF 190.-
Passes are individual and not transferable.
Meals
Light breakfast included.
Lunch : at your own expense. Microwave available on site and many dining options in the area.
Refreshments, beverages and snacks for sale on site during the whole weekend.