Litty vs. Stephan is an improvising music duo based in Berlin with Joachim Litty on altosaxophone/bassclarinet and Peter Stephan on piano/electronics. In their programs they feature originals and compositions by Karl Berger, Ornette Coleman, Carla Bley, Keith Jarrett, Sun Ra and Paul Hindemith. In addition to their acoustic setup they also use electronics like loopers, drum boxes, electric keyboards and Ableton.
Peter and Joachim met in 1983 at the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, New York. They were inspired by the visiting musicians and the freedom of expression that they found there. Decades later they started the MusicMindLab where they give workshops to share these ideas. Karl Berger‘s approach »Music Mind« is a constant reminder to develop everybody‘s individual voice following the motto: »The more personal you are the more universal you are.«
Litty and Stephan translated Karl‘s book »Music Mind« into German togehter with Charles Petersohn. Peter and Joachim also performed on Charles‘ recent album »Children Of Zu Zu« (Compost Records).

 

Here are some tunes you can listen to at Soundcloud.

Peter Stephan
Peter plays piano and electronics. From 1980 to 1983 he studied at the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock/NY, USA. In the 1980s and 1990s Peter was a co-founder of punk-jazz group ZATOPEK in Berlin and noise band MINT with releases on Polydor, Constrictor, Überschall, and Vielklang.
As a keyboard player, he became familiar with synthesizers early on and combined design and sound in multimedia productions. Peter studied design at the Berlin University of the Arts and was a professor at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (1997–2026). His piano heroes are Thelonious Monk and Sun Ra.
Peter produced two features about the Creative Music Studio for German radio station NDR Info, listen on Soundcloud CMS in the 1980ties, and a CMS workshop in 2013. His back catalogue is on Discogs, selected tunes are on Soundcloud.

Joachim Litty
Joachim plays altosaxophone and bassclarinet. From 1975 to 1979 he studied music education at the Berlin University of the Arts followed by studies in German Literature at the Free University in Berlin. In 1982/83 he spent a year as a senior student at the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock/NY, USA working with musicians like Karl Berger, Ingrid Sertso, Ken McIntyre, Walter Thompson, Nick Didkovsky, Paolo Moura and Naná Vasconcelos.
Back in Berlin Joachim recorded with Die Elefanten, uTeKa Band, Tibetian Dixie and Ta Lam 11, taught clarinet and saxophones and led jazz ensembles for kids and adults.
From 1995 to 2021 he was head of Landesmusikakademie Berlin (Academy of Music Berlin). Today he contributes his expertise to the board of advisors of Landesmusikrat Berlin and is a band coach and jazz musician.

upcoming

04.06. 8 pm, Exploratorium Berlin

07.06,  5pm, Strandkultur Munich

 

past dates

2026
26.01.             Salon Rote Insel, Berlin

2025
24.05.2025     private even open air, Bälow

2024
20.-22.06.      Workshop Kukuna, Wuppertal
20.06.            »Ort«, Peter Kowald‘s performance space in Wuppertal