IMPAKT e.V.
Impakt e.V. is a Cologne-based collective dedicated to free improvisation and contemporary music. Since 2014, its young musicians have been shaping the city’s scene through concert series, festivals and workshops, exchange and new musical encounters.
Impakt e.V. (Improvisation & Contemporary Music Cologne) is a collective of young musicians from Cologne whose common ground is freely improvised music. Music that emerges from the stylistic and sonic diversity of the present day; music that is reflected in a spontaneous and constructive way of interacting with one another.
In 2013, a group of ten younger Cologne improvisers who repeatedly encountered one another in different constellations and bands at LOFT and elsewhere in the city decided to pool their energies and increase the visibility of improvised music in Cologne. This resulted in an open newsletter and online calendar that continues to collect monthly concert listings for improvised and contemporary music in Cologne.
In 2014, Impakt officially came into being with a launch festival at Cologne’s Stadtgarten. The collective organises concert series and festivals at LOFT, Stadtgarten, King Georg and the Ebertplatz Passage, making a significant contribution to the diversity of Cologne’s cultural landscape. In 2016, Impakt Records, the collective’s own record label, was launched. Initially conceived as an online-only label, it has also released CDs for purchase since a relaunch in 2019.
In 2019, Impakt organised its first improvisation workshop for non-professional musicians in cooperation with the Cologne Jazz School.
Impakt currently has 14 members and receives funding from the RheinEnergie Foundation for Culture, the Cultural Office of the City of Cologne and the Kunststiftung NRW.