This weekend edition of Kiezsalon returns to our familiar stomping grounds, the Musikbrauerei. Following Friday’s lineup of Svitlana Nianio, Romarna Campbell and Atsuko Hatano, it continues Saturday with a focus on Irish music. Traversing the nation’s diverse artistic landscape, we will present the Berlin premieres of shapeshifting synth-pop musician Henry Earnest, blues revivalist Muireann Bradley and electronic music newcomer producer Conor.
Dublin-based producer Henry Earnest is celebrated for their dreamy, experimental pop. Their 2022 album Dream River reviewed by Pitchfork was praised as “spacious, shapeshifting synth pop that submerges acoustic strums and babbling streams into a tender exploration of life’s inherent chaos.” This month Henry released their new album Big Blue, which contrasts the vibrant, pop-oriented production of Dream River with acoustic, country-inspired sound.
Muireann Bradley is a 17-year-old fingerpicking guitarist and singer from County Donegal, Ireland, specialising in country, ragtime, and Piedmont blues from the 1920s and 1930s. During the 2020 lockdowns, she began uploading videos to YouTube and quickly gained attention with her rendition of Blind Blake’s “Police Dog Blues”, leading to an album offer from Tompkins Square. Her album I Kept These Old Blues was released in late 2023, featuring live studio recordings that echo the classic country blues artists of the early 20th century. The Irish Times gave the “impressive and hugely promising” debut four stars.
In his latest musical endeavour, Berlin-based Irish artist Conor is driven by an exploration of dancefloor sounds that juxtapose functionality and abstraction. From ambient and downtempo to industrial and glitch, his eclectic taste converges into a singular, forward-thinking sound that defies easy categorisation.
Utilising pulsating and morphing rhythms, his productions are tied together by sparse melodic ideas complemented by melancholic timbres. With the premiere of his live set, Conor is also celebrating the upcoming release of his debut album on Digital in Berlin.
For this special Kiezsalon Irish Edition, we invite you to move through the Musikbrauerei’s eerie and usually closed bunkers to encounter site-specific installations from visual artists Ireland 3000 and Helena Hamilton.
Ireland 3000’s striking woodcut prints reflect and challenge the profound influence of Christianity on our society, how it has shaped our perceptions of morality and spirituality. By reinterpreting iconic Catholic imagery from artists like Caravaggio, Rubens, and Gentileschi, he confronts the stereotypes of originality while drawing parallels between religious devotion and the faith required in the creative process.
Belfast-based artist Helena Hamilton works both visually and sonically. She draws on aesthetics of simplicity – and this is expressed in minimalist forms in her work. Influenced by sonic compositional techniques such as phasing and repetition, Hamilton explores the visual through the sonic and vice versa.
We are always happy to be back at the 120-year-old building of the Musikbrauerei in Prenzlauer Berg. Tucked away between Greifswalder Straße and Volkspark Friedrichshain, the former Schneider brewery is a rare building in former East Berlin for having survived, unspoiled, the creeping tide of gentrification. As we usually sell out, we recommend booking tickets in advance.
