INFOBOX
Genre(s): Contemporary Music, Electronic, Hip Hop, Jazz/Improvised MusicFrom: Vienna, Austria
Website: fudgesummer.com/
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Contact: fudgesummermusic@gmail.com
BIOGRAPHY
The Viennese duo Fudge Summer calls their music “Sample Free Jazz”: an improvised performance that blends hip-hop, R&B, techno, and avant-garde, in which songs, forms, and soundscapes emerge in real time. Drawing on the sonic ideals of popular music, the group develops its music in the moment. The material remains constantly malleable: harmonies are invented, song structures shift, and auditory worlds continually take on new forms. Fudge Summer operates within familiar pop aesthetics. It is precisely this familiarity that opens up a shared space of experience where expectations are confirmed, shattered, and reassembled.
The duo, consisting of Sara Filipova and Max Plattner, views their live performance not as a presentation of finished music, but as a collaborative process in which the immediacy of improvised music meets the directness and accessibility of club culture. In this process, the audience becomes not merely an observer but an essential part of the concert. From the interaction between musicians, listeners, and the space itself, musical moments emerge that defy repetition. To further this concept, Fudge Summer regularly invites artists from the respective region to help shape individual concerts. In this way, each performance is enhanced by new perspectives and continues to develop through interaction with the local scene.
Sara Filipova is a vocalist, pianist, and composer with roots in R&B, pop, jazz, and classical music. She has performed in Europe and the U.S., presented her music at the Wilson Abbey Theatre in Chicago and on Bulgarian television, and appeared as a guest on the national Austrian radio station Ö1’s “Kunstsonntag” series for a live session. Since 2024, she has been working with Wayne Horvitz’s Electric Circus, among others, realizing Karl Ritter’s concept “Merge” together with the Koehne Quartet, and developing her work at the intersection of songwriting and improvisation.
Max Plattner is a drummer, composer, and producer. His work has taken him to international stages and festivals such as the Jazzfest Berlin and Jazztopad Wrocław. In 2024, he was part of the international project “Melting Pot,” for which he was selected by the Jazzfestival Saalfelden. In addition to his work as a sideman and bandleader (Max Plattner Trio, Ploy, etc.), he regularly works in the fields of theater, performance, and film. He was nominated for the Austrian Jazz Award for his album “PLOY” and as Newcomer of the Year.