Pia Achternkamp (aka “loh”) is researching on the borderlands of music, performing arts, language and fine arts - an obscure and yet fruitful landscape as a basis for multi-sensory experience and experimentation.

She interrupted her studies of philosophy at Humboldt University Berlin in order to dedicate herself fully to the composition of music and soundscapes for theatre/dance projects. As she had always been curious about the interdependencies in sound, space and movement, Pia is usually playing her music life on stage when working with actors/dancers - this is how her artistic practices transformed towards a point where it became unavoidable to move her own body and explore its performative qualities and potentialities.

She presented her work in HAU Berlin, Maxim Gorki Theatre and ACUD with director Asaf Hameiri and in Volksbühne Berlin with her performance/research group “Future Witchcraft Project”.

In her solo project “loh” Pia is exploring the power of endless repetition and minimal variations. She developed a strong fascination for the phenomenon of silence in music. “All music has its source in silence. It rises and falls from that infinite source (…) - I said no, you have to slow down and listen to the silence, the overtones between the notes and the pattern rising. It’s the space between the notes where things started happening. So many virtuosos want to play fast to show their technique. But you should slow it down! Slow it down to almost an Erik Satie thing. How slow can you play it? How slow can you chant it? That’s how I learned music.” (Joanna Brouk)

Pia is based in Berlin. She is cooperating with the art residency AADK Spain and the performance group Cuerpo En Crisis initiated by choreographer Abraham Hurtado. In the last years she has been working frequently with Swiss artist Augustin Rebetez and with the Norwegian residency program Kråkeslottet on the arctic island Senja.

Achternkamp is playing in a few bands: Pomelo / grau& / CHRUCH / Mildred