Foto: Andi Hofmann

Interview by Makery.Info with Simon Berz at Home Made 2025

Radio Lora SO21 @ Kunstraum Walcheturm Zürich
Simon Berz TECTONIC live

Kunstradio So21 auf Radio Lora – die Sendungsmacher:innen live im Konzert. Hören und spazieren. Essen, trinken und den längsten Tag im Walcheturm geniessen.

Line-Up
17:00 Sebastian Hofmann
17:20 Hörgäng
17:40 Leo Collin
18:00 Chlapf
18:20 OffrOadio
18:40 Grauton
19:00–20:00 Pause mit Gespräch
20:00 Radio Difficulture
20:20 radio: ansteckende symbiosen
20:40 Akaria fonografica
21:00 BADABUM Simon Berz TECTONIC
21:30 Schluss
21:20–22:30 Vorproduktionen auf Lora

Moderation: Leo Collin
Sounddesign: Willy Srehler

Upcoming Shows:

MONSTER GROOVE
eine soziale Plastik von Simon Berz

Monstergroove.ch

Chollerhalle Zug

3.Dezember 2026 – 13. Dezember
IMPROSITIONS Finale

MeinBlau Berlin

New Releases:

OUT NOW 27.3.2026 Get it on KARL RECORDS BERLIN

Tectonic becomes more than a travel diary or a concept piece; it stands as a vivid, compressed portrait of a long‑running artistic inquiry, channeling the slow timescale of geology into music that feels urgent, contemporary and intensely alive.” soundohm.com

Yes, rocks like to dance too. As a whole, there are countless moments like these; I challenge anyone listening to sit still for more than a minute. Fans of percussive-centered work with unique instruments and field recordings from remote areas of the globe. Highly recommended!. ***** musiquemachine.com

Berz spins the amplified stones into dance-driven and even hip-hop textures, with some gamelan-tinged, ambient soundscapes. The outcome is genre-binding, playful, seductive, and quite addictive, directly motivating all kinds of physical movements. Eyal Hareuveni

In an era where experimental music often oscillates between technological fetishism and nostalgic organicism, „Tectonic“ proposes a more interesting possibility: that matter, technology, and human imagination are not opposing forces at all, but different manifestations of the same ongoing process of transformation. The rocks, it turns out, were never silent. We simply needed someone patient enough to listen.
chaindlk.com

Label: Karl (KR124)
Format: lim. ed. LP, coloured vinyl, handnumbered + DL card / download
EAN: 5050580866478
LC: 18598
Release date: march 27th, 2026

press contact:
dense promotion / Ed Benndorf
ed@dense.de

www.karlrecords.net

“Tectonic” is a concise portrait of SIMON BERZ’s geological sound explorations across continents over the last 15 years: drums, electronics, and a set of electronically manipulated basalt stones from Iceland.
SIMON BERZ is a transdisciplinary drummer, sound artist, and music educator based in Switzerland and Berlin. Working at the intersection of improvised music, sound art, and performance, and deliberately crossing boundaries between disciplines, his aesthetics are shaped by a sustained engagement with natural materials, particularly stone, and their sonic transformation through electronic manipulation. Beyond his performance work, BERZ founded BADABUM as an art label and a music school.
For the last 30 years, BERZ has been performing in Japan, China, Russia, the USA, Cuba, Iceland, Turkey, and across Europe. He has collaborated with artists including BILL LASWELL, BABY SOMMER, DAMO SUZUKI (CAN), JAMES TURRELL, JIMI TENOR, JOHN SINGLAIR, JOJO MAYER (NERVE), KONDO TOSHINORI, KIDD JORDAN, LAUREN NEWTON, LEE “SCRATCH“ PERRY, MAURO PAWLOWSKI (dEUS), NILS PETTER MOLVÆR, NIKI GLASPIE, NORBERT MÖSLANG, PAUL LOWENS, PFADFINDEREI, ROB MAZUREK, SKÚLI SVERRISSON, and he was the live drummer for APPARAT. As BERZ understands artistic practice as energy emerging from nature and through dialogue with people, his recorded output is intentionally selective, with one highlight being “Beats versus Breath” with KONDO and LASWELL (2023). Alongside a regular drumkit and electronics, he has developed his own instruments such as the “Lithophon” in which resonating stones are turned into amplified sound through water drops, and “Tectonic”, a set of Icelandic basalt stones shaped through electronic manipulation. These self-built instruments form the material basis for his performances, installations, and sound recordings.
“Tectonic” is also the title of BERZ’s latest work: a summary of his geological sound explorations across continents. From Iceland to Indonesia and Bali, from New Orleans to China, in caves and at shores, BERZ carried his millions-of-years-old basalt stones as both instrument and collaborator. On Java, he met Baron, a builder of stone gamelan instruments. At the Pacitan Tabuhan Cave (Indonesia) he performed with MISBACH BILOK and WUKIR SURYADI (SENYAWA) who work with corals as instruments. BERZ brought these encounters and “field recordings” to the Stöðvarfjörður studio in Iceland, where he recorded with his “Tectonic” set-up, drums, and electronics. The music was later mixed in Berlin by DIRK DRESSELHAUS (SCHNEIDER TM).
The resulting album moves from club-driven tracks to ambient passages, from gamelan-inspired textures to HipHop-like beat patterns. It resists easy categorization while staying direct and physical in its impact.

2024

NATURE Album by Simon Berz

NATURE, by Simon Berz 17 track album INFO/PRESS

Simon Berz improvised with found slate Phylitt stones from the french alps as morning ritual in the Swiss Alps during the pandemic. The recording NATURE documents the search for the infinite variety of sounds of these 220 million-year-old stones