The 4th edition of SET, Tehran’s annual experimental music festival, is dedicated entirely to artistic dialogue with Berlin. The 5-day SET X CTM event takes place 26-30 July 2018 in Tehran, and has been conceived and organized in close collaboration with CTM.

The collaboration between SET and CTM started in 2016, when support from Goethe-Institut enabled the two partners to commission Sacred Horror in Design, a pioneering collaboration between Tehran-based artist Sote, and Berlin-based artist and Thom Yorke/Nicolas Jaar collaborator Tarik Barri, which subsequently led to the first showcase of Iranian electronic music at CTM 2017 in Berlin.

With SET X CTM, the two festivals intensify their efforts to foster cultural dialogue and to strengthen the growing network between Tehran and Berlin. Co-funded by the Goethe-Institut’s International Coproduction Fund, the festival will see the premiere of two new commissions that bring together artists from the two cities alongside a range of performances from Berlin-based and Iranian artists.

SET Experimental Art Events is an artist-run festival founded in 2015 with a specific focus on experimental music and audio/visual performance. The festival’s main emphasis is on styles of music or visuals which cannot be contained by mainstream culture’s established boundaries. SET aims to bring together individuals who, up until recent years, have found themselves out of place in the dominant music and arts canon. The festival allows them to congregate in a DIY and collective atmosphere that can help bring their ideas to fruition. In the long run, SET hopes to contribute in building a solid network of experimental artists and audiences that will act as backbone for an ever-expanding scene in Tehran.

By bringing together established and emerging experimental artists from Iran and Europe, SET aims to increase dialogue between not-so-distant cultures. These efforts contribute to the development of a more inclusive worldwide scene, and encourage the sharing and exchange of artistic practices and ideas.

DAY 2 Programme

Concert | Azadi Hall
Temp-Illusion + Amir B. Ash (AV)
9T Antiope + Rainer Kohlberger (AV)
Monolake live

Temp-Illusion is an Experimental/Electronic duo based in Tehran. Consisting of Shaahin Entezaami (Tegh) and Behrang Najafi (Bescolour ). They started working together since 2011 and are mainly known as a live band. They have performed in various shows and festivals in Tehran such as Tadaex, SET Festival and Paraffin Tehran.

9T Antiope is a contemporary duo whose members combine acoustic instrumentation with voice and atmospheric electronics to bring alien and often-contradictory cultural worlds to light. Formed in 2014 by vocalist and lyricist Sara Bigdeli Shamloo and composer, producer and engineer Nima Aghiani (both formerly of the trio Migrain Sq.), 9T Antiope grew out of Iran’s burgeoning experimental music and arts scene. In 2015, the pair released their debut full-length, Syzygys, on Unperceived Records. On the quietly revelatory album, Shamloo’s graceful vocals wing their way through soundscapes that combine traditional instruments like strings with rumbling drones, staticky techno patterns and uneasy industrials. The LP was followed by "Brobdingnagian," an evocative single released as part of UK label Flaming Pines' Tiny Portraits series in the form of a three-inch CD-R. Their newest album, Isthmus, arrived in March 2017 via France's Eilean Records. The duo will be performing with Berlin-based visual artist and designer Rainer Kohlberger, who focuses his work on algorithmically generated graphics and is keenly interested in the potential for interactivity in generative design. Brimming with geometric shapes and evolving patters, his images are reminiscent of Gameboy interfaces and the frantic manoeuvres of Tetris blocks.

Although perhaps best known for his peerless, timeless Monolake releases on Chain Reaction, Robert Henke is also widely renowned for the music, surround-sound performances, audiovisual installations, sound art, and photography he has been creating under his own name since the early nineties, and additionally as a co-creator of Ableton Live, a program that has redefined the electronic music industry. His latest album, VLSI, examines and makes use of sound worlds that predate the fateful innovations of the microprocessor and personal computer, thereby honoring “what could be done,” old-school style, “with a handful of chips and a good idea.”

Workshop | Emkan Gallery
Tarik Barri

Celebrated audiovisual composer Tarik Barri uses tools like Max/MSP, Java, and Supercollider to develop software for audiovisual performance and composition, searching for new synergies and aesthetics in the combination of image and sound. His works span audiovisual performances, installations and videos, and he also creates live visuals for such esteemed artists as Thom Yorke, Monolake, and Nicolas Jaar.

In this workshop, Tarik Barri will speak about some of his creative strategies, concepts, and working methods, giving audiovisual examples of his work. The workshop will then open into an active discussion with participants, who are invited to bring their own specific artistic and/or technical questions to the session.

This workshop is limited to 20 participants. Registration information is available via the SET Festival website.