GEZA COTARD combines precise electronics, complex rhythms, and shimmering arpeggios into a driving sound that the duo affectionately calls “Angstpop.” “SOUND OF LEIPZIGER” is a collaboration with the Leipzig-based group, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and brings in submitted sounds from the city that the duo incorporates into their concert.

GEZA COTARD has been considered an insider’s tip for years—a duo without a discography, yet with a remarkably long career. What in the music industry might quickly be seen as stagnation appears, in the case of Friederike Bernhardt and Johannes Cotta, to be an aesthetic strategy. The lack of releases has not prevented GEZA COTARD from performing at venues such as the Thalia Theater in Hamburg or the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. They also have a performance at the Leipzig Jazz Festival under their belt: as part of the 44th edition of the festival, the duo made a guest appearance at the Schauspiel Leipzig in 2020.

Now, six years later, GEZA COTARD are returning to the festival. This time, however, they won’t be performing on a traditional concert stage, but in the Old Dining Hall of Leipzig’s municipal utilities—a venue not typically available for public events. There, the duo will present their new project, “Energy is a Terrible Thing to Waste,” for the first time in two consecutive shows; the project was created to mark the tenth anniversary of the L-Group. Drawing on numerous audio submissions from employees and the city’s residents, the duo has crafted a program that brings to life—and simultaneously transforms—the hidden soundscapes of the Leipzig group: sounds of trains, electricity, water, and other infrastructure come together to create a soundscape that oscillates between urban noise, rhythmic organization, and a state of emergency.

For Bernhardt, this form of material is familiar territory. In her work for theater, radio plays, and electroacoustic music, she has for many years consistently transformed sounds into dramaturgy, technical processes into atmosphere, and glitches into musical events. A concert, then, about that energy which is usually only noticed when it’s missing.