Ancient Trance

The passion for playing instruments ourselves and the fascination with the mouth harp is what makes DAN MOI unique as a musical instrument trader. On top of the usual daily working tasks, all the DAN MOIs are engaged with the subject mouth harp even in their free time. Clemens and Roxi, together with other musicians, have been trying out the possibilities with these instruments by playing in the band Little Tongue Vibration Orchestra. The two are also members of the International Jew’s Harp Society, and as contributors and musicians they visit conferences and meetings of mouth harp players.

To foster the jaw harp playing, the DAN MOIs together with musician friends from Leipzig founded the association Maultrommel e.V. which today hosts the annual Ancient Trance Festival in August in Taucha near Leipzig. The festival arose in 2007 from the desire to provide traders, customers, musicians, and friends with an occasion to meet and exchange ideas. The title Ancient Trance refers to the centuries-long history of the jaw harp as trance and dance instrument on one side. On the other side it points out the bridge building to contemporary trance music. First starting off as an evening event the festival had the potential for a weekend filling program. It presented the opportunity to demonstrate what nowadays is musically possible with the mouth harp. Therefore the festival has become an international platform for traditional and contemporary concepts of jaw harp and overtone music. One of the festival’s highlights so far has been the congress of the International Jew’s Harp Society in 2014 in Taucha. There all key personalities of the mouth harp scene, from musicians to experts through to academics, met and exchanged views about current trends in the field of jaw harp in workshops, presentations, and concerts.

We love Jaw Harps and Jaw Harp Music. We are involved in it in our leisure time, too. And we would like to contribute to the Jaw Harp "community". Therefore some of us and some Jaw Harp friends founded the Maultrommel e. V. (www.maultrommel.org). The main objectives of the Maultrommel e. V. are the advancement and promotion of "Jaw Harp culture" in general and the organization of the Ancient Trance Jaw Harp Festival in particular. Of course there are other projects planned in future, too.

If you are interested in contributing as a member of the Maultrommel e. V., just have a look at the Maultrommel e. V. website.