This evening features two acts that build layered, fecund sonic ecosystems informed by a humility before landscape, wildlife, and locality, and by a consideration of sound as the “bone marrow of the universe” (FIS). The two duos understand the zoological and indigenous musical cultures whose geographies they respectively navigate as no less intrinsically ‘experimental’ in nature than contemporary avant-garde practices.

Hybrid constellations between the experience of nature and the creative possibilities of technology form the basis for a performance by Native Instrument, a Berlin-based duo featuring Australian field recording archivist/ sound artist Felicity Mangan and Norwegian vocal acrobat Stine Janvin Motland. Their music is built from electronic and vocal adaptations of animal and insect recordings, originating mainly from Australian and North European fauna. The organic mix of bug beats and atmospheric soundscapes uncovers a sonic ambiguity between rural nature, electronics, and the human voice, creating a peculiar, mellow insect techno.

The New Zealand-born, Berlin-based producer Ollie Peryman a.k.a. FIS, who has recently garnered significant attention for his esoteric, rhythmically idiosyncratic bass-driven music, will give a concert together with Rob Thorne, a New Zealand-based musician and anthropologist whose compositions and performances fuse digital experimentation and traditional Maori instrumentation, or taonga pūoro, and are respected as 21st century naturalistic sound worlds. The two artists share a broad theoretical and critical background and both teach or have taught about indigenous musical traditions. They apply their own practices to the reimagining of indigenous musical traditions and the bridging of a gap between long-established and experimental approaches. Together, FIS and Rob Thorne present a new collaborative work merging acoustic and electronic sounds. They will also give a joint artist talk on a separate day of the festival.

Supported by Music Norway.