NAMES

NAMES (New Art and Music Ensemble Salzburg) is a contemporary music ensemble from Salzburg founded in 2014. The musicians, who come from seven European countries, aim to combine various forms of contemporary art in their programmes and concepts in order to enrich their musical approach.
Wonderful sonority, precision, expressiveness, delicacy, sonic power, maximum attention to the score and what goes beyond it, sounds that granulate in space and become particles of light.... This is what happened at the premiere of my piece High over the distant horizon.
Javier Torres Maldonado, Composer
Ekmeles

Ekmeles are a phenomenon. They already stand among the brightest and best of a small international group of vocal ensembles dedicated to creating the future of vocal art, and are perhaps unsurpassed as interpreters of microtonality in vocal music, a painstaking labour requiring the utmost expertise, concentration and determination, one which brings out the best in this unique group of singers.
James Weeks, composer and director of EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble, UK
Ekmeles is a vocal ensemble dedicated to the performance of new and rarely-heard works, and gems of the historical avant garde. With a special focus on microtonal works, they have been praised by the New York Times for their "extraordinary sense of pitch". New York is home to a vibrant instrumental New Music scene, with a relative paucity of vocal music. Ekmeles was founded to fill the gap by presenting new a cappella repertoire for solo voices, and by collaborating with these instrumental ensembles.