He fills rooms with purpose

Zurich loves the enduring. Institutions that stand the test of time. Buildings steeped in history. Programmes with a long-term vision. Things that have always been just as they are. The Geschnetzelte, the sausage, the guilds’ parade through the city centre. And then there is Sebastian ‘Sebi’ Brunner.

Anyone trying to work out where his events take place inevitably ends up with a sort of mental map of the city: yesterday a former laundry, today an off-space, tomorrow a church, next week somewhere between temporary use, semi-legal nightlife and a carefully curated music bar. His Noise Reduction series has no fixed venue — and that is precisely why it has become one of the most consistent features of Zurich’s nightlife.

For two and a half years, Brunner has been organising concerts that are not tied to an audience, but to an attitude: improvised jazz, Afro-Cuban folklore, global beat, minimal music, poetry set to music, experimental electronica. Sets that resemble experimental setups rather than entertainment. The venues change, the energy remains.

One moment you’re standing in the central laundry room listening to delicately crafted, incisive poetry about the state of mind in the US; the next, the air is vibrating with a trio playing homemade instruments; sometimes a pioneering Japanese ambient artist plays beguiling minimalist mantras in a church, and sometimes Colombian cumbia is playing. But what is the glue, what is the criterion? “That I feel like it.”

Brunner thus fills a gap that is rarely openly acknowledged in Zurich: the one between major mainstream concerts and established venues — for a predominantly young, jazz-loving audience that wants to be surprised.

And he doesn’t dwell on structures for long. Not because they don’t interest him – he knows them all too well. He used to write about them himself, as a culture journalist for the commuter newspaper “20 Minuten”. After that, he sat on the other side, at the City of Zurich’s Popkredit, where decisions on funding are made. “I learnt a lot there — including that subsidies are extremely important, but by no means beneficial in all cases.”

Later, he programmed for several years at the jazz club Moods. Hardly anyone knows the logic of Zurich’s funding, club and scene from so many perspectives. Hardly anyone has a comparable network — or such a keen sense of what works on a Zurich stage and what doesn’t. In his segment, it is often 30 audience members who decide whether something is a hit or a flop.

“I’ve taken huge risks right from day one — and to be honest, that suits me just fine.” The risk of losing 10,000 francs in a single evening is nerve-wracking, but motivating. “I think that’s my recipe for success: to avoid going under, I have to keep pushing.”

“Pushing” means: when advance ticket sales stall, Brunner repeatedly stands outside the city’s regular concert venues and hands out flyers. Promoting his own cause — and, really, promoting the music. Word of mouth, handshake by handshake. Getting people to take a chance on something they don’t know.

The fact that he is a percussionist himself fits in with this. His events are not a programme, but rhythms: recurring, yet never identical. Sometimes dense, sometimes sparse, sometimes explosive. The city becomes an instrument in the process — at the Institut, the Walcheturm, the Photobastei, the Kaufleuten, the Rote Fabrik, community centres, churches, and the Kasheme.

The space must always be taken into account, he says. It must be filled with atmosphere and ‘held’. ‘As the host, I am the interface between artists, visitors, technicians and the venue.’ When Sebi organises an event, he is present. He greets, networks, connects, negotiates and talks shop until the last visitor has left.

Perhaps that is the very essence of his work: being a host in a city that increasingly organises its culture – but hosts it ever less often.