Since fifteen years the Berlin based CTM festival unites multimedia art and advanced music.

Long before it became fashionable to melt art and music the Club Transmediale (short CTM) festival started to present things differently. Originally launched as a musical addition to the Transmediale media art festival in 1999, CTM tries to unify two cultural fields under one roof to shed some light on artistic expressions that belong to a more underground sphere of action. The anniversary edition features a very special program under the theme Dis Continuity that connects past CTM experiments with the practice of contemporary music. The festival takes place in venues all over the town such as HAU, Berghain, Stadtbad, Haus der Kulturen Der Welt, or Künstlerhaus Bethanien. On the bill is a new incarnation of the Moritz Von Oswald Trio that will perform for the first time in Berlin. Instead of original drummer Vladislav Delay, pioneering Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen will play alongside Max Loderbauer and Moritz von Oswald. Furthermore some world-famed Berliners like Marcel Dettmann, Recondite, or Mark Ernestus who will present the Ndagga group Jeri-Jeri, play, too. Highlights from abroad are the shows of DJ and producer Boddika from London, Tokyo based experimental musician Jim O’Rourke, Hamburg’s latest thrilling dance music export Helena Hauff, and Border Community head-honcho James Holden who will perform his new album The Inheritors live. As very special guest the Dub-Techno project Porter Ricks plays again after years of deep sleep and Robert Henke aka Monolake presents his freshest audio-visual project Lumière. In addition to music lots of lectures and art exihibitions around and about sound complete the program. For tickets and detailed information check the festival’s website.

01/24/2014 – 02/02/2014 - CTM - Berlin – DE

CTM brings its Closing Concert to the Haus der Kulturen der Welt to celebrate its anniversary together with longtime partner transmediale, with whom CTM has worked to present one of the world’s largest annual platforms for reflection on the cultural significance of new technologies and digital culture. Also the last of three collaborative CTM / transmediale concerts, the evening features frequent CTM collaborator Robert Henke, known for his peerless Monolake productions. Henke will close CTM’s 15th edition with the German premiere of his stunning new sound and laser show, Lumière. An exploration of the syncronicity and divergence of light and darkness and of slow movements and sudden bursts of motion and noise, Lumière elevates Henke’s expertise as he commands three powerful lasers to draw repeating shapes, ephemeral objects, and ultra short pulses of light in an improvised dialogue where shapes create sonic events and vice versa.

American minimalist composer Phill Niblock has been active in multimedia endeavours since the mid-60s. While often associated with American Minimal Music and its protagonists, such as La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass, Niblock has remained a maverick presence on the fringes of the avant-garde, who has ventured further into profound reductionism than his contemporaries. This celebrated composer, who turned 80 this year, will present a selection of recent works that have not yet premiered in Berlin. Performing together with Niblock will be the 4-piece experimental brass ensemble Zinc & Copper Works, founded by microtonal tuba player Robin Hayward, who has collaborated with other notable pioneers such as Catherine Christer Hennix. Niblock will also perform with New York drummer and installation artist Eli Keszler.

The previously-announced exploration of Finnish composer, designer, artist, scientist, and experimental filmmaker Erkki Kurenniemi, who in the 1970s developed revolutionary electronic music and the first digital synthesizers ever made, will be supplemented with a series of films by the artist himself, or that include soundtracks or other contributions by the idiosyncratic artist and inventor. A collaboration with the KIASMA Museum for Contemporary Art in Helsinki, the programme includes works by Erkki Kurenniemi, Finnish experimental filmmaker Eino Ruutsalo and Swedish composer and artist Ralph Lundsten, and is curated by Finnish film artist Mika Taanila, whose acclaimed Kurenniemi documentary “The Future is Not What it Used to Be” will also be shown.

A major influence on the European free improv scene, drummer Sven-Åke Johansson has collaborated with musicians such as Alexander von Schlippenbach and Peter Brötzmann, with whom he forged a European variant of free jazz in the 60s. Johansson may also be considered a godfather of Berlin’s echtzeitmusik scene, a community of musicians that continue to fashion their own unique variant of improvisational music and that includes Thomas Ankersmit, previously-announced to perform that same evening alongside Rashad Becker.

Six months after the release of his acclaimed debut album, Dinos Chapman returns with a new EP, Luv2h8, showcasing three brand new tracks that mark a clear progression for the artist-turned-musician.

Clocking in at nearly 10-minutes each, these new compositions encompass the throbbing, dancefloor-orientated title track, the bucolic and unnerving ‘The Combine’ and the snaking, hypnotic ‘Samourai’. Also included is a monstrous proto-techno style remix of Luftbobler’s title track by producer Trevor Jackson, who will be supporting Chapman at his live AV show at Fabric on October 17.

The vinyl EP features two 180-gram heavyweight records housed in a bespoke full colour sleeve with artwork by Chapmanand was released on the 14th of October 2013.

DINOS CHAPMAN

via ctm-festival.de