While in one reality a loud, raging final struggle to uphold the age-old patriarchy is being waged – burying any doubts beneath misogynistic crudeness – in another, a new space is emerging for a softer, more critical form of masculinity. As old, rigid boundaries begin to melt, fear dissolves, and the search for an individual definition begins.

What do my gender and sexuality mean? What responsibility do I carry as an individual within a social context?

The German-Romanian double bassist and composer Robert Lucaciu (1988) deconstructs his own (cis-)male self-understanding in his latest project Fallen Crooner and invites musicians Laura Totenhagen (vocals), Pascal Klewer (trumpet), Shannon Barnett (trombone), Sofía Salvo (bars), and Moritz Baumgärtner (drums) to engage in a joyful discourse on gender roles.

In a montage of Lucaciu's original compositions, well-known songs, and text sequences from various authors, free improvisation plays a central role—questioning the moment with an open outcome. This creates a musical discussion whose strength lies in living the questions in all their intensity and dissolving the urgency for quick answers with a sense of goodwill. Each musician is allowed to celebrate their own diversity and savour all the nuances their instrument has to offer. Individual narratives are reduced to their essence by the ensemble and reassembled in an intense dialogue.