Kiezsalon w/ Susanna and N.M.O. at Musikbrauerei / Wednesday, 27.05.2015

From April until October 2015 the Kiezsalon offers a forum for innovative musical activity beyond genre boundaries and is a meeting point for friends as well as loners, conversations and party, lovers and those who are just curious. As an interface between pop music and avantgarde the series presents compact performances by artists from diverse genres, origin and popularity – initiated by Digital in Berlin and taking place at one of the last authentic locations in Prenzlauer Berg, the 120 year old Schneider Brewery.

Norwegian Artist Susanna is the woman behind Susanna and the Magical Orchestra // Susanna // Susanna Wallumrød, releasing music for over a decade through independent labels like Rune Grammofon and Grappa Musikkforlag, and through her own label SusannaSonata since 2011. She is known for her transforming of songs by AC/DC, Dolly Parton, Thin Lizzy and ABBA amongst others, but also for her strong originals and her work with making music for and singing poetry by Gunvor Hofmo.

10 albums so far- all highly acclaimed and the ones released in 2013 and 2014 both won a Norwegian Grammy in Open Category. Susanna has composed music on commission for Ladyfest, the Telemark Festival and Henie Onstad Arts Centre exhibition ‘We Live On A Star’, and collaborated with among others Tuva L. Syvertsen, Stian Westerhus, Jenny Hval, dutch Jessica Sligter, american Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and british John Paul Jones. She received the Gammleng-award in 2012 in Open Category for rewarding participation in album releases.

The Berlin duo N.M.O. (Naturkunde Museum Ostkreuz), Morten J Olsen and Ruben Patiño, is an exceptional, pan-European, duo deploying SuperCollider software and stripped-down, roiling drums under the mantra, As Strict As Possible. For their Death Of Rave debut the Berlin duo presents a unique trio of ‘Tropocaliptic Excursions’ to follow their two releases for Barcelona’s Anòmia label, including 2014’s critically acclaimed and standout 12″, ‘Nederlandse Maatschappij Ontwikkeling’.

Like all the other oddbods on The Death Of Rave, N.M.O.’s semi-organic creations occupy a distinct space in the frequency spectrum; all amorphous bottom end thump ‘n roll coupled with crunching mids and uncannily bright, pervasive highs. Between the tension of elastic bass, brittle drums and psychoacoustic gremlins in the title track, thru the bashy grind and torn-metal tones of ‘Talkingabouttalking’, to the whooping industrial razz-out, ‘Zaragoza Variations’, they’ve coined a visceral, effectively unprecedented sound that’s hard to ignore.

Lucrecia Dalt dove into music full-time after working briefly as a civil engineer in Colombia – her pursuit of avant-garde sound brought her to Spain and then to Germany, where she currently resides. While highly technical, Dalt’s music maintains a profound emotionality, merging accessible, traditional songwriting with experimental electronics, handcrafted effects and sampling.