Florian Walter
Florian Walter lives in Zurich as an instrumentalist (various saxophones, contrabass clarinet, Hechtyphon) and composer. His work spans large parts of contemporary music and is characterized in particular by transdisciplinary and cross-genre approaches. He is an active member of numerous ensembles of very different styles; currently, his activity focuses among others on the groups Malstrom (experimental jazz / math metal), Meat.Karaoke.Quality.Time. (post-vaporwave), Ephemeral Fragments (electroacoustic chamber music), FM RAW (IDM / post-jazz), and Stoffner/Walter/Cina (improvised music). In addition, he tours worldwide as a soloist under the pseudonym BRUIT, his most advanced project in the field of instrumental sound research. What all of these formations share is a conscious engagement with the boundaries and potentials of their respective underlying genres, aiming to expand or transcend their conventional frameworks. Performative modes of mediation and discursive elements frequently find a place here, as does their embedding in entirely new concert formats.
Over the past ten years, Florian Walter has developed numerous experimental event series and established them sustainably within both regional and international scenes. One example is the series Trinkhallen Tour Ruhr International, which since 2010 has presented concerts of improvised music in kiosks and corner shops not only in the Ruhr region but also in various European regions likewise undergoing post-industrial structural transformation.
With Hardcore Easy Listening Boutique, a format emerged in which electronic music, critiques of capitalism, and sales events of various kinds collide in a low-threshold, accessible staging.
Alongside his international concert activity, including tours in the Baltic states, Japan, the USA, and China, he regularly works on theatre productions, with a particular focus on democracy education, violence prevention, and intercultural as well as interclass projects with children and young people.
He is also a co-founder of the label Umland Records and a co-operator of the label ZOK Records in Lucerne, was awarded the Westphalia Jazz Prize in 2019, and together with The Dorf & Umland received the WDR Jazz Prize in 2020.