TONTON w/ Déandrah & Julia Toggenburger // Annie Aries & Tamara Janes // Simon Lanz

In einem offenen Raum begegnen sich elektronische Klänge, zeitgenössische Klangkunst, visuelle Experimente und performative Ausdrucksformen. Wir schaffen einen Ort des Austauschs, der Neugier und des künstlerischen Dialogs.
Mit unserer Veranstaltungsreihe „TONTON“ geben wir Raum für musikalische Experimente, kreative Prozesse und das Erforschen neuer Ausdrucksformen. Performances entstehen live und spontan – jede Darbietung ist ein Unikat.

Zwei Duos und eine grenzenlose Improvisation: Am 23. Januar 2026 trifft Déandrah auf Julia Toggenburger und Annie Aries auf Tamara Janes – ergänzt wird der Abend durch Simon Lanz mit seiner selbstgebauten Orgel.

Julia Toggenburger ist aufgewachsen in Winterthur, studierte literarisches Schreiben in Biel/Bienne und ist als Musikerin, DJ, Radiomacherin, Organisatorin und als freischaffende Autorin unterwegs im Schweizer Kulturwald. Sie schreibt Lyrik, experimentelle Prosa und Texte für die Bühne.

Annie Rüfenacht aka Annie Aries (she/her) is a Swiss-Philippine composer and sound artist whose practice explores the intersection of generative processes, modular synthesis, and live improvisation. With a modular synthesizer as her primary instrument, Annie creates textural soundscapes that shift between minimal clarity and dense complexity, inviting audiences into immersive listening environments.

At the center of Annie’s work is an inquiry into the entanglements of sonic processes and technological systems. Generative structures, algorithms, and improvisation form a sonic language that foregrounds process and emergence. Annie’s performances highlight the fragile yet dynamic interplay between control and chance, exploring both the intimacy and friction of human–machine interaction. Annie’s artistic practice engages with electronic and electroacoustic music, feminist perspectives, and the intersections of technology and performance.

Annie’s music has been presented internationally at festivals and institutions including MATA Festival (New York), New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, International Computer Music Conference (Shenzhen), ZKM Karlsruhe, IGNM Bern, Gray Area (San Francisco), Heroines of Sound (Berlin), and Superbooth (Berlin), among others.
Annie holds an M.A. in Music and Media Arts from the Bern University of the Arts and has studied musicology at the University of Bern. She currently lectures on music production and performance at the Winterthur Institute for Contemporary Music and the Bern University of the Arts.

Tamara Janes (St. Gallen) lives and works in Bern. After studying ­ at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and the School of Visual Arts in New York (SVA), she completed a master’s programme at the Institute of Art Gender Nature (IAGN) at the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst Basel. Prior to this, she worked for several years as a graphic designer and art director in the communications industry.

As an artist, Tamara Janes works with poor images, digital image archives and image search engines. Her work has been exhibited all over Europe. In 2017 her book „Halbschlaf“ was published by Kehrer Verlag in Heidelberg. After a six-month artist-in-residency in New York (2018), funded by the city of Berne, Tamara Janes began a project with the analogue archive „The Picture Collection“ of the New York Public Library. Since then she has created several editions from the archive’s visual material. Her project was supported by a grant from the canton of St. Gallen, a grant from the canton of Berne and the Double Mentoring programme of Migros Kulturprozent.

The Photo Elysée presented her first institutional solo exhibition last year, bringing together her work with the New York Public Library Picture Collection. Her projects have received several awards. Among others Tamara Janes received the Swiss Design Award 2023 in the category of photography. She has been a lecturer at the F+F photography programme since 2019.

Simon Lanz (he/him) is a sound artist and designer based in Bern, working primarily with self-built instruments and installations. After collaborating on several projects, including his debut album Arches, released on Hallow Ground with his brother Tobias Lanz, he is now presenting excerpts of his new solo work at TONTON. Expect drones, organs, and a lot of tubes.