Impakt e.V. (Improvisation & aktuelle Musik Köln)

Impakt e.V. (Improvisation & aktuelle Musik Köln) is a collective made up of young musicians in Köln whose musical activities intersect via improvisation. Music which grows out of contemporary stylistic and sonic diversity; music which reflects spontaneous and constructive interactions created together.

In 2013, a group of 10 improvisers in Köln, representatives of a younger generation who were already active in various constellations and bands together, performing regularly in Köln’s Loft and elsewhere, decided to pool their energy together in order to improve the visibility of improvised music in their city. The original manifestation of this goal was a newsletter and an online calendar both of which continue to provide monthly concert listings within the improvised and contemporary music scenes in Köln.

Impakt properly entered the world in 2014 during their Auftaktfestival at Köln’s Stadtgarten. Since then, Impakt continues to organize concert series and festivals in Loft, Stadtgarten, King Georg and in the public spaces of the Ebertplatzpassage all of which has considerably added to the colorfulness of Köln’s cultural landscape.

2016 saw the beginning of Impakt Records, an in-house record label. At first conceived of purely as an online platform, a relaunch in 2019 now incorporates physical CDs for purchase as well.

In addition, and in cooperation with the Kölner Jazzhausschule, 2019 featured the first workshop for amature players wth a focus on improvisation.

Impakt has 13 members and is currently funded by Rheinergiestiftung Kultur, Kulturamt der Stadt Köln and Kunststiftung NRW.