Encore: Duo Lömsch Lehmann – Matthias Debus

As part of Jean-Luc Cornec’s pop-up exhibition: December 11–13, 2026

TIME OUT AT THE PYRAMID

The title—a mix of two jazz albums:

"Time Out" by the DAVE BRUBECK Quartet and "Pyramid" by THE MODERN JAZZ QUARTET

The exhibition focuses on the sculptures of Jean-Luc Cornec. He transforms letters into sculptures of various sizes, arranged in such a way that the words and the sentence as a whole become recognizable only upon closer inspection.

What happens when two musicians who have known each other—literally—their whole lives come together? A dialogue of rare depth emerges. Lömsch Lehmann and Matthias Debus grew up—with a slight time lag—in the same small village in the Vorderpfalz region. Both were shaped less by the confines of their surroundings than by the urge to break free from them: out into the world, on tours with countless ensembles, and into the boundless spaces that can be opened up through their own instruments.

This dual movement—rootedness and departure—is immediately audible in the duo’s music. Lehmann and Debus do not improvise over music; they think within it. Avant-garde sound exploration meets the narrative power of jazz, the formal depth of classical music, and the physical energy of rock. Sound becomes a motif, and a motif becomes form: a bowed bass note can transform into a pulsating riff, a clarinet line into a chamber-music-style chorale—and in the next moment, everything veers into free, risky territory. Nothing is set in stone; everything is possible. The fact that this does not result in chaos, but rather in music with a compelling internal logic, is thanks to the duo’s decades of shared musical experience and an instrumental mastery that can afford to take any detour.

For Lehmann and Debus, anything can become music: a work of art, an everyday object, a glance, a memory. Their shared history spans numerous collaborations—such as the trio “Die Motive des Richard W.” (with drummer Erwin Ditzner), which explores the thematic landscape of Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelung” through improvisation and exemplifies just how effortlessly this duo moves between worlds.

In a duo, all of this is distilled down to the essentials: two voices, two instruments, and complete attentiveness. An adventure with an open-ended outcome—and a listening experience of great intensity and sensual immediacy.

A project by KulturTandem International e.V. in cooperation with the " Enjoy Jazz " Festival and formAD e.V.