In the fourth edition of the Month of Contemporary Music (28 Aug. – 30 Sept. 2020) the Berlin contemporary music scene presents itself with a dynamic and modular program of performances and presentations. Ensembles, venues and artists respond to the need to step beyond the usual and adapt to new circumstances with creative and experimental formats that enable active participation in music and its discourses – while observing distance and hygiene requirements. The Month of Contemporary Music invites you to discover concerts, performances and sound installations in established concert halls as well as in independent venues.
Zafraan Ensemble and singer Sirje Viise open the Month of Contemporary Music with the multimedia performance »Two Faced« on 28 August 2020 at the Musikbrauerei (Greifswalder Straße 23A, 10405 Berlin). Fausto Romitelli’s »Professor Bad Trip Lesson 1« hypnotises with »obsessive, repetitive and visionary« poetics – as he himself said – made up of electronic and acoustic sounds, flowing surfaces and distorted loops. Sarah Nemtsov’s »Seven Colours« (2018) creates a rich, almost synaesthetic world in a magma of sounds, shapes and colours. The young Serbian composer Misha Cvijovic then manipulates the complex group dynamics of a collective in a fluid arrangement of composition, improvisation and live electronics in her new piece »Emotional Logic« (UA).
The »Corona concert formats« range from installations to outdoor concerts to digital offerings: »Hubraum« by Antje Vowinckel uses four cars with powerful bass speakers as the central motif of a musical intervention in a public space. The trio Zinc & Copper plays a concert in Neukölln’s green oasis the Körnerpark. Sonar Quartet transfers the opening concert of its new concert series Evolution into virtual space, addressing the current situation in an essay concert film. To realise concerts in accordance with safe distancing, other concert formats are planned with limited audiences. Our hot tip for a sound September is to book tickets in advance!
The on- and offline symposium ‘Curating Diversity in Europe – Decolonizing Contemporary Music’ (25 Sep. 2020, 10.30am – 8pm ) offers a platform for keeping discourse on diversity in contemporary music in Europe alive during this time of limited international encounters and a swelling of nationalistic currents. The focus is on curatorial processes and profiles that critically question and creatively break down power structures and Eurocentrism. Keynotes by Du Yun and Sandeep Bhagwati will be followed by panels on emancipation, decolonisation and “looted music”. The symposium is part of the European network project “Sounds Now”. (www.sounds-now.eu, Akademie der Künste Berlin, Pariser Platz, Plenarsaal)
Background knowledge into the creative processes that fuel the contemporary music scene is presented with open rehearsals, artist talks and concert introductions. With the »Kissa« Listening Bars the Month of Contemporary Music features Berlin’s most exciting labels for experimental music at Tor Bar, Rhinoçéros, Arkaoda and Kupfer Bar each Tuesday in September. … and get Mazen Kerbaj’s ringtone for the Month of Contemporary Music! To shape the sonorities of everyday life, the Lebanese musician, writer and illustrator was commissioned for a composition for mobile phone.
Month of Contemporary Music (various venues) / September 2020
28.8.2020 | Doors 17:30 CET | Starts 18:00 CET
various venues | Berlin
https://www.field-notes.berlin | Event @ Facebook
