For their current project [Unlearn], the members of Mà3 are on a quest to explore the line between performers and composer/performers in a classical music setting.

It used to be a common practice among classical musicians up until the second half of the 20th century be a composer/performer and to write and perform their own pieces, from Bach to Beethoven and Rachmaninov. Nowadays, it is still a common practice in jazz, pop and electronic music. However, in classical music, it developed into the dualism of a composer on one side and a performer on the other, communicating through the means of a score. Mà3 realised that if they wanted to take a step further with their contemporary classical music ensemble they will have to write their own music. 

To accompany the three musicians on their journey, they approached four renowned composer/performers to learn from their experiences, to collaborate and ask the following questions: How is your performance influenced if you wrote the music for yourself vs. if somebody else wrote it? — and concerning the compositional process: How is your compositional process different if you intend to play the music by yourself vs. if you write it for somebody else? Can we then unlearn the conventions that we usually deal with to create something new?

Next to the trio's new compositions, the four composer/performers each wrote a composition in close collaboration with the ensemble while exchanging views on the process. They are the jazz pianists Kirke Karja (EST), Franz von Chossy (D), Michel Reis (L) and the band leader/saxophonist Luise Volkmann (D).

As experienced collaborators with composers in the field of contemporary music in ensembles such as United Instruments of Lucilin (L), Looptail (NL), Ensemble S (D) the musicians of Machine à trois bring to the table a deep understanding of the dualistic relationship between a written score and the processes that led to it. They let their experience fuse this project and bring to the stage their own compositions joined by four compositions of like-minded artists. The sound result promises to be an exciting mix of contemporary classical music.