“I love listening to music, sounds, and language as colorful musical forms.”

This is how Ficht Tanner has always loved to introduce himself. A musician, poet, draftsman, and embroiderer from Appenzell, Ficht was born Urs Tanner on June 19, 1952, in Trogen —an idyllic Swiss village nestled in the mountains of eastern Switzerland.

He grew up in the Rhine Valley, in the village of Balgach, then a thriving center of the textile industry. In April 1972, he earned his diploma as a compositor-typographer and soon moved to Bern, the Swiss capital. There, in the nearby village of Kirchlindach, he settled with his artist wife Esther Rüdlinger and became the assistant to renowned Bernese painter Rudolf Mumprecht for six years. Around this time, he also began to teach himself the double bass.

It was during these years that his artistic journey truly took shape — exploring drawing, music, and embroidery, all self-taught. He also met textile artist Therese Hächler, his future life partner, and in 1981 co-founded with musician Töbi Tobler the group Appenzeller Space Schöttl — a boundary-free fusion of folk improvisation, free jazz, and rock.

In 1984, Ficht and Therese brought their artistic and emotional worlds together under one roof, in one half of an 18th-century mansion in his hometown of Trogen. Transformed into a vibrant space of life, encounters, and creativity, their home has remained an enduring center of artistic expression for over forty years.