Hands (Almut Kühne, Francesco Bigoni, Mark Solborg) – HANDS


HANDS is a contemporary chamber trio of highly virtuoso players – German vocalist and composer Almut Kühne, saxophonist, clarinetist and composer Francesco Bigoni, and bandleader, guitarist and composer Mark Solborg – and contains both fully composed and structured improvisational works.

Drawing on compositions, texts, and concepts by all participants, the group explores connections between movement and sound. With this release, we invite you to a unique musical expression. Contrapuntal works dispersed over in three EP’s; beautiful and intense, live and from the studio, with added short films. It offers humour and edge, for both laymen and specialists.The artists in HANDS has been praised and awarded all over Europe and Japan for their artistic integrity and musical depth.

 “We never have anything to do with another human being without holding something of their life in our hands.” – K.E. Løgstrup

Hands are (still) humanity’s primary physical interface with the world. With them we act, create, and make physical contact with one another: We caress, strike, kill, signal, give, receive, conduct, and much more. 

In a world where many people interact without ever being in physical contact, we want to highlight the deeper and more nuanced communication that takes place when we see, touch, and hear each other in the same space.. 

Hands contains both fully composed and structured improvisational works. Drawing on compositions, texts, and concepts by all participants, the group explores the connections between movement and sound. With this release, we invite you into a unique musical expression: 13 contrapuntal works dispersed across three EPs — mesmerizing and intense pieces from both the studio and live concerts, accompanied by short films. Hands offers beauty, humour, and edge for both laypeople and specialists. 

Vol 1 holds studio recordings from the island of Møn, DK, Vol 2 contains two larger pieces live from KoncertKirken in Copenhagen. Vol. 3 features a guest appearance by legendary German trumpeter Axel Dörner, recorded live at LOFT during Cologne Jazzweek 2024. 

Over the past years, the group - supported in part by research funding from the Goethe-Institut Denmark, the Danish Arts Foundation, the export fund Neustart and others - has developed an intense, contemporary chamber musical expression across genres, colored by Kühne’s exceptional voice and surgical precision, Bigoni’s motion-controlled processing, and Solborg’s prepared 6- and 12-string guitars. 

Hands (Almut Kühne, Francesco Bigoni, Mark Solborg) – HANDS

Triple-EP (digital/CD/LP) 
Release date June 5, 2026 
Catalog no.: ILK382 

Line-up:
Almut Kühne · voice 
Francesco Bigoni · clarinet & motion controlled processing 
Mark Solborg · guitar & electronics 
+ 
Axel Dörner · trumpet & electronics (On disc 3, tracks #1-4 only)

VOL 1 - STUDIO SESSIONS
1. Hands 9:54 (Hands, text: Kühne)
2. Spheegm, O Man-O-Meter! 7:26 (Bigoni)
3. Bing Bing Bing 5:23 (Hands, text: Kühne)
4. HP 1:26 (Solborg)
5. Foxtrot for Three 5:33 (Hands)
6. Strum 4:37 (Solborg)
7. Metronomes 3:26 (Solborg)
Total 37:46

VOL 2 - LIVE AT KONCERTKIRKEN
1. Song 8:51 (Hands)
2. Hands 13:08 (Hands, text: Kühne)
Total: 21:55

VOL 3 - LIVE AT LOFT feat. Axel Dörner
1. LOFT #1 7:45 (Hands/Dörner)
2. LOFT #2 3:25 (Hands/Dörner)
3. LOFT #3 7:24 (Hands/Dörner)
4. LOFT #4 2:14 (Hands/Dörner)
Total: 20:43