Dis Connect at CTM 2014 presents the mutable range of vintage and contemporary techno.

Owen Roberts’ Recycled Hyperprism Plastik for Amplified Chamber Ensemble is inspired by Edgard Varese’s 1922/23 Hyperprism. Without the ability to compose with “machines”, the composer wrote groundbreaking instrumental music for an imagined – though rapidly materializing – electronic soundworld by acoustic means. As part of an eight-piece ensemble, Roberts aims to extend Varese’s groundbreaking musical language into 2014 by embracing the outer limits of acoustic instruments’ percussive, timbral and textural possibilities to create a relevant form of physical, instrumental techno – opening a dialogue between modern electronic music and its Western musical influences. The project is one of two commissioned by the Berlin Current Call for Works.

CM von Hausswolff makes use of wide-ranging recording media (camera, tape deck, radar, sonar) to explore and manipulate streams of information, energy fields, and visual and acoustic phenomena, and to produce drones with monumental crescendos. His conceptual rigor and tonal intensity has led him to become a leading representative of electronic drone music.

Samuel Kerridge is a prime example of the recent resurgence of industrial-influenced, noisy, and deconstructed techno debut full-length, A Fallen Empire, was recently released to wide critical acclaim on notorious techno baluster Downwards. For CTM 2014, he funnels decimating kick drums, feedback, and unholy degrees of distortion into his own blend of toxic techno.

Porter Ricks is the groundbreaking project of media artist and ambient composer Thomas Köner and techno producer and mastering engineer at Berlin’s legendary Dubplates & Mastering studio, Andy Mellwig, returning to the stage with a revived live show and new material from their upcoming album. Their 1996 debut album Biokinetics is widely considered a touchstone of experimental techno that liquefied divisions between sound art and industrial-inspired electronics.

Hypnobeat is the longstanding project of James Dean Brown, in its current form as an improvisational partnership with Hamburg native Helena Hauff. Hyponobeat’s early stated manifesto was to push the boundaries of electronic music by enhancing textural complexity via polyrhythmic structures, overdubs, syncopations, interferences, and fusion noise, ultimately producing a proto-acid sound using a range of analogue equipment and reducing electronics to an emotional, hypnotic, rhythmic core.

Rounding out the programme is Berlin native Felix K., who designs structural techno to run at a drum and bass bpm rate. He is closely affiliated with Berlin-based techno collective Dystopian, and co-captains the Hidden Hawaii label.

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Berlin Current is a collaborative initiative from CTM Festival, Berghain, Boiler Room Berlin, De: Bug, and BLN.FM, made possible by support from the Musicboard Berlin.