The legendary Berlin Atonal festival returns to the capital of innovative music after a thirteen year hiatus, in a long-abandoned power station in Berlin Mitte.
A mazy industrial complex that will host 6 days of world-class musical events and large scale audio-visual installations. Berlin Atonal 2013 also presents a full catalogue of seminars, lectures, master-classes and screenings.
The theme for the first edition of the relaunched festival is « Forming Space », paying homage not only to the darkly majestic architecture of Atonal’s singular new home and its public re-emergence after years of abandonment, but also to that basic and vital impulse of all art, namely, the desire to give form to the void.
Kurt Schwitters | Ursonate Excerpt
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=6X7E2i0KMqM
On thursday, July 25th, 13 years after it last powered down, Berlin Atonal returns with a wallop. Kurt Schwitter’s dadaist masterpiece the URSONATE (sung by FRIEDER BUTZMANN) will relaunch the festival as well as the disused and never-before-made-public powerplant which will be its new home.
Then avant-garde legend GLENN BRANCA, with his celebrated guitar orchestra, will be performing the German premiere of TWISTING IN SPACE – described by the Boston Globe as “like an act of God” and by the New York Times as “unlike anything else in music”.
Glenn Branca | The Ascension
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=wERU4NiAtlE
Finally, Bristol label SUBTEXT RECORDINGS will turn the powerplant into a cathedral of sound with specially devised live shows by ROLY PORTER, ERIC HOLM, LUCY BENSON & MARCEL WEBER and the World premiere live performance of label head PAUL JEBANASAM.
The second night of Berlin Atonal 2013, friday july 26th, sees a feature concert by a seventy-six year old legend of the experimental music tradition, a European premiere, and two specially devised audio-visual shows, all at our exclusive new home on Köpenicker Strasse.
Jon Hassell | Amsterdam Blue
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=dz40YrNBje4
JON HASSELL – originator and unrivalled proponent of the unique musical tradition dubbed “fourth world” – brings to Berlin Atonal 2013’s second concert night a new live project entitled SUMMERTHRILL.
Two of the most respected names in electronic music – JUAN ATKINS and MORITZ VON OSWALD – will then team up for the European premiere of their ground-breaking collaborative project BORDERLAND.
Juan Atkins & Moritz von Oswald | Electric Dub
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=RyPNyIf3uCk
Finnish artist Sasu Ripatti aka VLADISLAV DELAY will deliver a special audio-visual performance whose multi-layered, immersive sound and light offering promises to add to his already sizable reputation as a sonic innovator of the first degree.
Augmenting and enveloping these sound-spatial experimentations will be KANGDING RAY who will perform an exclusive audio-visual show based around improvisations on analogue synthesisers, providing a unique opportunity to experience his deeper, less dancefloor oriented work.
Kangding Ray | OR
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=w84PKh8DyOU
Berlin Atonal 2013’s Saturday night concert promises to be an immersive audio/visual experience – enlightening, enlarging and exploring the singular venue using sound and light through four specially devised performances.
DADUB will follow longtime collaborator GRÜN in opening Berlin Atonal 2013’s third nightly concert with their characteristic version of shamanic electronica, bringing it to life on the main stage with video accompaniment and sound essays which make full use of Atonal’s specially installed soundsystem.
Voices from the Lake | Iyo
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=ooxO0VaZt9M
Then Italian duo VOICES FROM THE LAKE will present their celebrated live show – which makes heavy use of analog hardware – for a special performance perfected for Atonal and its unique setting. Mexican legend MURCOF will then team up with renowned video/projection artist SIMON GEILFUS for a multi-screen, multi-projector, multi-sensory live show.
On Sunday, Berlin Atonal changes things up. Starting early in the afternoon, Atonal brings in renowned Berlin night CONTORT to curate a special extended live show which acts as a tour through terrain mapped out by some of Europe’s most innovative live performers including ANCIENT METHODS, RUSSELL HASWELL, RASHAD BECKER, SAMUEL KERRIDGE and many more.
Ancient Methods | Dämmerung der Parhelia
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=xnzg-YK2U20
This crescendo of adventuring in sound will grow and develop throughout the day, building up to a massive BLACKEST EVER BLACK SHOWCASE featuring three of the most innovative and explosive artists working today.
VATICAN SHADOW’s characteristic take on impending doom begins an evening show of immense sonic proportions, to be continued by CUT HANDS and his multi-rhythmic and relentless take on organic percussion, before English duo RAIME feature their crafted, gather-and-release sequences of incarnated sound in a physical and immense live show with video accompaniment.
Vatican Shadow | Cairo is a haunted city
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=ighTUfL4KcU
For a special Tuesday show Berlin Atonal 2013 turns its attention toward the dancefloor. This unique club-oriented night preserves Atonal’s insistence on the innovative, the unusual and the audacious, but brings these characteristics to the party. Four very talented producers will present four exclusive live shows dedicated to the adventurous side of dance music.
ANSTAM will kick things off on the main stage of the powerplant, with a live show that combines dubstep, electronica and jungle into a disciplined techno-savvy framework.
Anstam | Baldwin
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=en3Pjgkbx4A
KASSEM MOSSE continues the party with a sound that sits somewhere between Detroit and Berlin, between techno and house, between noisy and punishing beats and blissful melodic transitions.
FRANCESCO TRISTANO, one of the most exceptional and eclectic talents of his generation, will then pick up the reins with an experimental, dance-floor targeted live set, before British beatmaster ACTRESS delivers a show dominated by the broken textures, driving basslines and supernatural moods for which he has already become legendary.
Francesco Tristano | Strings Of Life
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=srjzW4ec8mc
For its closing night concert Berlin Atonal 2013 bids farewell with a show based around live instrumentation and experimentation. Nineteen years after his first appearance at Berlin Atonal the master of experimental percussion Z’EV returns for a unique live show at its new home.
Polish electro-accoustic pioneer JACASZEK will be joined on stage by Andrzej Wojciechowski (Bass Clarinet) and Ignacy Wiśniewski (Harpsichord) for an improvised experiment in soundscaping before the full 10-piece BRANDT BRAUER FRICK ENSEMBLE rounds out the festival with a dynamic and boisterous closing show.
Jacaszek | Lament
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=KchQU4NBfKA
For more detailed information on the artists and ensembles, visit the festival website: berlin-atonal.com.
This event is highly recommended by Digital in Berlin! We are giving away 3 x 2 tickets for each day/night. Just send a mail to win@digitalinberlin.de with “Berlin Atonal 2013 + [here: the preferred date]” as the subject.
________________________________________________________________
Berlin Atonal 2013 Festival
Thursday, 25 July – Wednesday, 31 July 2013
Kraftwerk Berlin | Köpenicker Strasse 70 | 10179 Berlin/Mitte
berlin-atonal.com
________________________________________________________________
