"I am a worker", double bassist and improviser Joëlle Leándre often emphasizes. On Sunday evening in Leipzig's Liebfrauenkirche, the French artist devoted herself to her musical craft with the utmost concentration and calm. With the help of percussive elements and various vocal techniques, the 73-year-old created radical and impressive soundscapes that expressed her disproportion to the world.

She was born a rebel, she would die a rebel, is how she sums up her attitude. This unyielding attitude also manifested itself during her Leipzig concert in her conscious rejection of musical conventions. The freedom of improvisation that Léandre masters thrives on daring, the need for artistic liberation and the urge to position herself in what she calls a "terrible world".

Her music is the result of an ongoing process of negotiation, whose formations seem spontaneous but never arbitrary. In a narrative manner, whisper-light passages alternate with explosive bursts of sound. She draws her eyebrows together almost accusingly and lets the sound flow through her. With the deep, full sounds of the bowed strings, she creates an image of anger, which in the next moment is transformed into mistrust and fragile calm by gently stroking a string or delicately tapping. From time to time, Léandre nods to her music or shakes her head vehemently, while the dance-like interplay between her and her instrument creates a captivating intimacy.

The audience sat upright and spellbound as they followed the hour-long performance, which did not present itself to them as conciliatory entertainment, but also demanded work from them during and afterwards. Not a second of relaxation, no dissociative elements - this concert demanded the audience's undivided attention and presence. With her angry sound and an urgent appeal to bring love into this world, Léandre released the agitated audience into an evening that will resonate for a long time to come.

TEXT: LUCA AMELIE SOPHIE KROPP