The International Nothing was first played on NTS on 23 November 2018. Songs played include Beat 'Em All.

kai and michael started working together as a clarinet duo in 2000. after improvising for some time in a mainly quiet and noise-based style, they became somehow bored with that and turned their thoughts in new directions to find the delicate pleasures one might not associate with clarinet duos. so some years ago (2002) they shifted the project towards the composition of pieces that are focused on tone material in a kind of pipe-organ style, making it sound like one instrument, or more than two, through the comforts that multiphonics offer. the pieces have a warm quality and sometimes a slightly song-like flavor. to further extend the potential of the music, the next step they took was working with guest musicians with different instruments to develop collective compositions. their way of composing can be described as "empirical" as the music isn't developed in the head of one musician; it relies more on the ears of both, and those of their guests, and a process of trying, failing, changing and developing ideas during numerous rehearsals. now they have completed recordings for an album. as well as five duo pieces, there are two pieces with guests: one song with margareth kammerer (voice & guitar) and one quartet piece with christian weber and derek shirley (both on double bass). another track is a remix with additional vocals by christof kurzmann. their cd mainstream has been released on october 29, 2006 by yoshiyuki suzuki's new label ftarri (tokyo). in autumn 2007 the duo played its first concerts after 5 1/2 years of withdrawn work. michael and kai presented their pieces in germany (a.o. at the donaueschinger musiktage 2007), the netherlands and switzerland.

developed out of the fruitful collaborations with margareth kammerer and christof kurzmann an independent and mainly song-based quartet has been formed surfacing under the name the magic i.d..

the t.i.n. cosmos is constantly growing. in summer 2006 michael & kai teamed up with christian weber (double bass) and eric schaefer (drums). during their initial conclave the first three pieces have been done and this new sub-project goes on for more … hopefully soon.