DIE FLIEGENDEN REITER

A NEW SOUND UNIVERSE

Die Fliegenden Reiter (The Flying Horsemen) is a project by trumpeters and sound engineers Alexander Folonari and Philipp Selalmazidis, accompanied by Ole Wulfers on synthesizer and electric bass. In their music, echoes of early music meet avant-garde visions, and simple musical forms provide the framework for experiments with complex musical ideas. The dialogue between the trumpets develops along a tonal system designed by Selalmazidis, which opens up completely new musical possibilities for the two musicians through the combination of different tonal scales. Thanks to the sonic qualities of their overtone-rich instruments and Wulfers’ unconventional playing that accompanies them, the two tap into the fourth dimension: Die Fliegenden Reiter don’t just make music, they create magic.
Already the first encounter between Selalmazidis and Folonari was special. Selalmazidis was playing the trumpet in his go-to park in Berlin on a rainy day when Folonari noticed and approached him. After Selalmazidis agreed to give the young musician lessons in the future, Folonari left—only to reappear ten minutes later with a trumpet in his hand. This marked the beginning of a unique project in which the two explore the sheer endless possibilities of a musical system designed by Selalmazidis. It is based on the combination of different modal scales, also known as church modes, which creates entirely new scales with very specific tonal and sonic potentials.
Both Selalmazidis and Folonari have always pushed the boundaries, and they have done it in different musical worlds. Selalmazidis was a member of The Yeddings and organised the successful Berlin music dance series Taktstelle. After the sound engineer and producer had set up the Hallbox Studio in Berlin-Kreuzberg, filled with rare vintage equipment, he founded the improvisation collective An Unusual Connection and the project Weiße Augen im Glas (White Eyes in the Glass) in which he, along with Wulfers and Phoebe Killdeer, brings together unconventional electronic rhythms, dense sound textures and striking poetic imagery. The multi-instrumentalist Folonari is active under various pseudonyms as a producer of club music and hip-hop and works as a sound engineer. He has a particular interest in early music.
Folonari and Selalmazidis bring their different backgrounds to Die Fliegenden Reiter. In their compositional work, they draw on their diverse interests as well as their different approaches. Folonari’s technical precision and Selalmazidis’ intuitive approach complement each other, as do the tonal qualities of their B♭ trumpets, which they bring into productive interaction. With overtones, shifts and intonation, they fill the space created by Selalmazidis’ musical system with even more life, while constantly expanding it. At the intersection of traditions such as different scale practice techniques, the melodies of Gregorian music and the stylistic devices of the avant-garde, the two artists create unheard-of music together with Wulfers in the truest sense of that word.
Die Fliegenden Reiter are currently working on their first studio recordings and have begun presenting the project live.