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ThuThis evening showcases a number of young artists working at the forefront of experimental club music.
For Washington D.C. native Reba Fay, the project Swan Meat acts as a platform via which to give voice to inner turmoil – she has experienced body dysmorphia and chronic illness first-hand. Fay uses spoken word, dancefloor-friendly moments, harsher, noisy sonics, and eerie processed vocals to externalise a hard-edged, inspired world of feeling in which "only music and text matter."
Mykki Blanco and NON Worldwide collaborator VIOLENCE is known for their ferocious spoken word and caustic fusion of black metal, punk, and sweeping industrial. With lyrical themes that resonate from earlier experiences growing up in Baltimore and from meditations on the intersections between cultures, their live shows are all-consuming, deeply personal, campy, and visionary in their stylistic hybridity.
Bliss Signal entwines the mutating electronic rhythms of Jack Adams aka Mumdance with powerful washes of haunted guitar melodies from ex Altar of Plagues frontman James Kelly. Adams has become a mainstay of the UK club scene with techno, grime and noise collaborations with the like of Novelist, Logos, and Pinch. Kelly meanwhile has been recently focused on his solo experimental pop under the WIFE pseudonym.
Berlin “techno body music” source Schwefelgelb will play a home game at Berghain to mark the third pressing of their recent release, Dahinter Das Gesicht, on [aufnahme + wiedergabe]. The duo deliver militant, rousing, tumultuous neo-EBM refracted through the equally dark lens of techno. Their tracks have appeared in DJ sets by Silent Servant and Helena Hauff – now hear them live.
Zoya Bassi will warm up the floor with a dark, narrative collage, and Olivia’s dark techno and starry futurist leanings round out the night.
Also included in the night is access to the impressive Halle am Berghain, which will be the site of "Physical Rhythm Machine_Boem Boem", an immersive, playful installation by Dutch artist Philip Vermeulen. With the visceral acoustic instrument, the Physical Rhythm Machine (PRM), Vermeulen shoots balls at speeds of up to 150 km/h into large resonant boxes. Because the shots can be fired at precise intervals, the machine can generate intricate rhythmic patterns. Various artists will be invited to create short rhythmic compositions to be brought to life via the momentum of the balls. Alternatively, the machine itself can also create non-metric, free rhythmic structures on its own using pre-programmed algorithms. The PRM visualises violent compositions while resonating the space and the bodies of the audience.
Swan Meat, Olivia, and Schwefelgelb are presented by the SHAPE platform, which is co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union. "Physical Rhythm Machine_Boem Boem" at CTM 2018 is kindly supported by the Embassy of the Netherlands. Philip Vermeulen is also supported by the Creative Industries Fund NL.
Philip Vermeulen is a young and upcoming artist from The Hague. He studied at the ArtScience Interfaculty at the Royal Conservatory & The Royal Academy of the Arts in The Hague, NL.
Soweto, South Africa native Lerato Khathi, or Lakuti, was influenced by her mother’s soul & funk music collection as well as her grandfather’s affinity for jazz. She developed an interest in early Chicago house and has since become a prominent house DJ.
Bliss Signal is the collaborative creative effort of hazy grime-metal between Mumdance and WIFE, two established producers from dramatically different aesthetic backgrounds.
Zoya Bassi is the moniker of the multi-faceted, Munich-based Zoe Kahlert.
Olivia is a Kraków-based DJ, promoter, and producer, and forms a key part of the city’s underground scene. She is a resident DJ at Unsound Festival and Szpitalna 1, and is also part of the Chrono Bross collective.
VIOLENCE (sometimes stylized VILENCE, V†LENCE, or V†L£://CE) began as an art-house project by Los Angeles -based Olin "Palmtrees Caprisun" Caprison in 2010. A multi-instrumentalist, Caprison composes, produces, and performs for all of VIOLENCE's output. Their compositions are known for their complexity, often shifting between and combining multiple styles in single songs.
As a musician, DJ and co-founder of the Leisure System label, Sam Barker has helped push the boundaries of dance music in Berlin, looking beyond the realm of 4/4 techno to explore left-field sound design and rhythmic complexity. His musical approach – both solo and in the duo Barker & Baumecker with longtime Panorama Bar resident nd_baumecker – combines bass music tropes, breakbeat, dub and ambient elements while still maintaining a strong connection to the dance floor.
Schwefelgelb return to their hometown for their Berghain performance at CTM 2018. The German techno body music duo have released music on aufnahme + wiedergabe and Fleisch, and have performed everywhere from London to Tokyo.