When bassist André Nendza’s On Canvas project was first performed at LOFT on March 19th 2020, we were at a historic tipping point: just a few days earlier, the coronavirus pandemic had gone from being an abstract threat to a concrete reality. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s speech on March 12th 2020, left no doubt about the scope of the measures to come: public events were banned from March 16th 2020, and the complete (first) lockdown came into effect on March 22, 2020.
On the evening of March 12th 2020, I was supervising the concert by the Sicker·Askari·Kahlenborn trio feat. Jonas Engel. I was sitting in the control room with our sound engineer Stefan Deistler when the breaking news came in. I immediately realized that these decisions would radically change our entire field of work.
That same evening, I spoke on the phone with my son Benedikt, who immediately informed the musicians who would be affected, starting with André Nendza, whose concert was scheduled for Thursday, March 19th 2020. The next day, he raised the question of whether the concert could be livestreamed instead. The central question now was: should we close completely, or find a way to continue working via streaming? Benedikt decided not to cancel André Nendza’s quintet concert completely, but to try to livestream it.

Some of the technical requirements were already in place, as we have a professional recording studio and had already put our first permanently installed camera into operation in November 2019—actually with the ulterior motive of providing images to accompany the countless audio documentaries and live productions from the LOFT. We also had friends who were willing to improvise and break new ground with us. This left us with just under a week to purchase or organize the missing equipment and to rethink and implement the technical processes. With the active support of Mischa Salevic and Falk Grieffenhagen, among others, we were ready to go within a few days, and so On Canvas became the first pandemic-related livestream from the LOFT on March 19th 2020 – at that time still with a single, static camera, but with the professional sound quality tha the LOFT is known for. There was also a donation option that enabled the musicians to earn real income, and this was actively used on this first evening. This form of concert was also a new challenge for the musicians: music without an audience in the room, but with an invisible audience in front of their screens.

Looking back, this evening marked not only a turning point, but also a new beginning. As far as we know, LOFT was the first (jazz) club in Germany to livestream during the pandemic. Many more were to follow, with the active support and expertise of Tobias Haucke, among others, in the first few months. The experiences of this time have left their mark to this day: concerts are now professionally recorded in sound and image as a matter of course, using infrastructure that was created out of necessity at the time.
Six years later, On Canvas returns to the LOFT on February 28th 2026. The concert is thus not only a musical reunion, but also a reminder of a time of upheaval—and of the power of improvisation, solidarity, and artistic presence under extraordinary conditions.

Hans Martin Müller