“I believe he is an outstanding talent gifted with unusual profundity which he combines with great musical and emotional depth.”
Georg Friedrich Haas
Demetre Gamsachurdia is a georgian-swiss musician currently living in Basel, Switzerland.
His compositions are employing a variety of acoustically and electronically generated elements found in Ambient, Noise, Trash, Metal, folk music and modern classical repertoire. They feature controlled improvisation with frequent usage of loops slightly changing over time, thus providing the possibility of mind-altering experiences for the listener. Based on ancient Georgian vocal polyphony which is still practiced today, this music draws its roots from specific microtonal tunings and vibrations that give the listener the possibility to fully immerse in frequency and time as such, experiencing and exploring the phenomena of sound in both its rawness and pureness. Such methods in many cases lead away from a score-based approach and focus on music creation as a process of its performance. This way of working is present in many new and old musical styles and traditions.
Influenced and inspired by meetings and workshops with Minas Borboudakis, Bernhard Lang, Stefano Gervasoni, Julio Barreto, Antonio Ballista, Sergey Koudriakov and Fred Frith, Demetre Gamsachurdia has been active in the field of contemporary musical composition and production, classical and modern solo and chamber piano literature and instrumental improvisation as soloist as well as in bands and groups.
Demetre Gamsachurdia has dedicated many compositions to the Delirium Ensemble which is part of Delirium-Edition: organization for tomorrow’s art, most notably completing his big scaled musical theatre named „Vikarë“ which was performed 2018 in Poland and Switzerland.
Demetre played many premiere performances such as pieces by Lukas Langlotz (“Agni”, 2012), Yair Klartag (“Know where you came from and where you are going”, 2013), Anda Kryeziu (“Fumes”, 2018), Caspar Johannes Walter (“Split Tones 3”, 2014), Arash Yazdani (“Dimension 2 / Destruction”, 2012), Benjamin Helmer (“Drei Tänze”, 2013), William Dougherty (“Aphakia”, 2013), to name a few.
Demetre’s composition „Karwa“ was commissioned and performed by the famous oboist, conductor and composer Heinz Holliger in Tbilisi, Georgia in 2018 and later in the same year in Geneva, Switzerland.
In coproduction with the DUX label and the Swiss Radio SRF2 Kultur, Demetre is co-creator of “Oracle’s Blast” (2015) , a project featuring five new works for cello and piano, composed especially for this purpose. According to critics, the recording is “of global importance”.
In 2013, Demetre founded „Shatterhand & Bushmill Orchestra“ together with percussionist Bastian Pfefferli. Over the years, the two man band has performed a variety of virtuoso music theater pieces (such as “Drama” by Vinko Globokar in 2014 and “Cellule 75” in 2016), heavily focusing on improvisation and live electronics over a few years.
In 2020, Demetre completed a commission for the Geneva Camerata. The composition named “Droplet Resolution” was premiered a year later in Geneva and broadcasted by the Swiss radio in four languages.
Demetre collaborated with musicians such as Georg Friedrich Haas (Performance of “Schatten..durch unausdenkliche Wälder” in 2011), Khatia Buniatishvili (concert in Paris, Eglise des Batignolles in 2006), Heinz Holliger (in Tbilisi and in Geneva, 2018), Giya Kancheli (in Tbilisi, 2007), Stefano Gervasoni (festival in Recife, BR in 2013), Balz Trümpy (“De/Synchronisation” by Delirium Ensemble in 2019), Roland Moser (in Warsaw, 2012), Rudolf Kelterborn (performance of “Metamorphosen”, in 2009), Krisztina Wajsza (commission for the piano festival in St.Ursanne, 2017), Ulrich Krieger (pre-premiere of “Bergmàl” in 2021), Mario Pagliarani (assisting during the festival “la via lattea” in 2016), Ernesto Molinari (soloist of the composition “Gvalva” in 2014) and Kordz (production of the soundtrack of the movie “the typewriter” by Demetre’s brother Zviad Gamsakhurdia in 2013).
Over the last few years, Demetre has worked and exchanged ideas with the musicians Cécile Unternährer, Azra Ramic, Gvantsa Kiknadzé and Levan Veshapidsé. He has collaborated with ensembles, orchestras, bands and groups such as the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet, Hornroh Modern Alphorn Quartet, Kollegium Novum, PourChoeur, Geneva Camerata, Ensemble Phönix, Qaldea and Georgia Modern.
Since 2020, Demetre has been actively researching in the field of contemporary digital music production and live electronics which has since become an important aspect of his musical work.
Demetre performed in countries such as Georgia, Switzerland, France, Germany, Poland and China. His pieces have been played also in Italy, Austria, Russia and Brazil. He further performed at the Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele (2013), at the Davos Festival (2013), at Klang Basel (2016), at the Codes Festival (2017), at the Warsaw Autumn (2018) and at the Rümlingen Festival (2020).
In 2o22, he was artist in the Uncool Residency in Poschiavo, Switzerland. In the same year, he was invited by the president of Georgia to play in the Orbeliani Palace in Tbilisi, where he performed his newest piece “Mikareba” for piano and electronics.
Recently, the Hoax Quartet performed and made a video production of his piece “Greater Unity” for four e-guitars and electronics. In the same year, a tour of a previous project, “Ghost in the Cell” was realized with concerts in Switzerland in Georgia throughout summer 2023.