Nearly a month after the first CTM.13 program elements were unveiled, we’re pleased to announce a second list of artists and projects confirmed for the festival’s 14th edition, which will take place January 28 - February 3, 2013 in Berlin:
︻╦╤─ ƱZ ─╤╦︻ (INT) / Pantha du Prince & The Bell Laboratory (DE/NO) / AtomTM presents Alpha txtfeat. Material Object (CL/DE/AU) / AtomTM & Marc Behrens (CL/DE) / Simian Mobile Disco (UK) / Skream feat Sgt Pokes (UK) / Xiu Xiu + Eugene S. Robinson:Sal Mineo (US) / Dean Blunt presents The Narcissist (UK) / Terre Thaemlitz (US) / Demdike Stare (UK) / d’Eon (CA) / Holly Herndon (US) / Forest Swords (UK) / Set Mosaic (US/IT) / Ghédalia Tazartès (FR) / Pete Swanson (US) / People Like Us (UK) / Boris Hegenbart (DE) / Gatekeeper (US) / EAN (UK) / Necro Deathmort (UK) / Sun Worship (DE) / xorzyzt (US/DE) / BlackBlackGold (US/DE) / Tom Ass (US/DE) / reliq (DE) / Wife (IE) / Lucas Abela (AU)
With this second batch of artists, CTM ventures further into its theme – The Golden Age – exploring the radically diverse yet interconnected niches of today’s musically (over)-abundant landscape via a range of approaches that span an arc from abstract sound research all the way to the latest developments in bass culture.
The highlights are many. Joining Matmos for CTM’s Opening Concert at the HAU1 on Monday January 20 , AtomTM & Marc Behrens give the stage premiere of "Bauteile", a work commissioned by Deutschlandradio Kultur that sees the musicians postulate “that any musical structure exists in a kind of historical and stylistic weightlessness and therefore basically can drift through all styles a epochs.” Directly following the Opening Concert, festivalgoers are invited to a free performance of AtomTM presents Alpha txt feat. Material Object at the nearby HAU2. A mixture of improvisation and sequences taken from AtomTM album classics, the project attempts to rewrite AtomTM's personal music archive. Additional sound inputs and passages will come from Material Object, who also worked as the graphic designer for the prominent ambient label FAX +49-69/450464 run by recently deceased pioneer Pete Namlook.
AtomTM's opening night performances set the tone for the festival’s program at HAU this year, which highlights a series of artists as ideosyncratic vectors, uncompromisingly forging their very own way of doing things while constantly negotiating between subjective and common idioms. For instance, Pantha du Prince, one of the leading proponents of an aesthetically sophisticated Shoegaze-Techno, together with The Bell Laboratory, an ensemble of classically trained percussionists, will perform a symphony for electronics and percussion instruments on January 30 at HAU1. Co-presented with HAU, the sonic center of this symphony is formed by a heavy bell carillon with 64 bronze bells.
Friday February 1st at the HAU1, Hype Williams’ Dean Blunt presents The Narcissist as a world premiere, part two of which was recently released on Hippos in Tanks. Blunt is joined by another world premiere by Sal Mineo, a new collaborative project by Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu) and Eugene S. Robinson (Oxbow) – which will see its debut album release in April 2013 on Important Records. Both create tense, narrative-driven atmospheres charged with an undercurrent of latent aggression built up from the repeated accretion of failure, via samples of familiar sounds, free roaming experimentation and arresting lyrics that conjure troubled characters from daily life.
Dean Blunt - 'The Narcissist ft. Inga Copeland' by BOILER ROOM
At the HAU2, on Wednesday January 30, artist and activist Terre Thaemlitz gives an extended performance plus discussion of his latest concept album, named Soulnessless, that assembles a body of works created in different mediums ranging from music to film. A critique of the role of spiritualism and religion in fomenting inescapable identity politics, the project equally denounces the socio-economic condition of the music market place and its rigid formats. Listen to samples of Soulnessless here.
Imaginary ethnographies and primal ritual music assembled from a plethora of sources that are drawn together from the archaic through the present, from the remote to the proximal, from the exotic to the familiar, characterize the performances of French outsider musician and sonic traveller Ghédalia Tazartès, as well as of Set Mosaic, the new project by Francesco Cavaliere and Christopher Kline. Interweaving visual art and sound, Kline and Cavaliere’s performance takes place within an environment of objects, that will also set the stage for Tazartès.
d'Eon (Hippos in Tanks) appears on Saturday February 2 in support of his Music for Keyboards project, an ongoing series of synth-only compositions, that tie together the blissfull soundworlds of Tangerine Dream, reinterpretations of hokey pop songs, and symphonic forms coloured by the problematic presence of nationalism and patriotism. An obvious nod to classical works for piano, d’Eon’s 4-hour performance cycles through different “movements” to explore the world of the synthesizer, leaving a vast complex of freedom for listeners to submerge themselves into. d’Eon will also perform his swirling, twisted pop explorations as part of a separate lineup at Berghain.
d'Eon - Music For Keyboards Vol. 1 by Hippos In Tanks
With the complete program still in the works, the festival’s Saturday night at Stattbad (2 February) gains shape with headliners Skream, who will perform an extended DJ set with Sgt Pokes that travels through Skream's vast musical influences, and Simian Mobile Disco, who will perform an analogue set in support of their latest album, Unpatterns. Pairing-up with Berlin promoters PURGE and #gHashtag, the evening features even more death defying bass and aural evil, including mysterious act ︻╦╤─ ƱZ ─╤╦︻, whose tunes are described by Diplo as "drunken energy sub bass and cartoon horn stabs that make my stomach feel weird and my feet shuffle," EAN of groundbreaking British non-dubstep duo Various Production, who dives deep into low-end juke and footwork, and the thrashing guitar-heavy sound of locals Sun Worship. Supported by PURGE/#gHashtag DJs xorzyzt, BlackBlackGold, and Tom Ass, the night also includes Necro Deathmort, a London-based duo that “veer seamlessly between dub-infused electronica, pounding sludge and experimental noise – often within the space of just one song” (The Quietus), and New York based duo Gatekeeper (Hippos in Tanks), who with their muscular dystopian synth thrills send listeners off into hyperreal consumer nightmares.
On a separate evening, Gatekeeper will also present their latest album, EXO, as a glossy IMAX fantasy AV set conceived with New York artist Tabor Robak, known for his work with artists such as Ford & Lopatin and Fatima al Qadiri. Gatekeeper are joined by Demdike Stare as part of this sci-fi oriented audiovisual showcase at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt produced in collaboration with CTM's sister festival transmediale – festival for digital art and culture. transmediale and CTM will also co-present world premieres of new performances by People Like Us and Vanessa Ramos-Velasquez feat. A Guy Called Gerald, as well as the second edition of Boris Hegenbart's latest project “Instrumenatrium II” with Felix Kubin performing on everyone's favourite dwarf planet.
Other festival performances include Pete Swanson of Yellow Swans, new Tri-Angle act and singer of black metal band Altar of Plagues, Wife, transcendent post-metal progeny reliq, the long-awaited Berlin premiere of Forest Swords, and Holly Herndon, who combines avant-garde abstractions with visceral beats.
Finally, CTM’s Exhibition begins to take shape with audio activist Lucas Abela, who will present his “Vinyl Rally”, a work where gamers are invited to mess around in reengineered, old-school racing consoles and operate remote control cars equipped with cameras and styli that send back audio and video signals as the cars drive over a track constructed from disused vinyl records.
This fresh wave of acts comes on top of an already diverse line-up that includes: Matmos, Diamond Version & Atsuhiro Ito, Myrninerest, Mark Fell, Florian HEcker, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Lee Gamble, Jar Moff, Heatsick, Emptyset with Joanie Lemercier, Oneirogen, IceAge, Ernstalbrecht Stiebler with Agnieszka Dziubak, Werner Dafeldecker, and ensemble l'Art pour l'Art.
Stay tuned as we launch a brand-new website as well as more program elements right before Christmas.
TICKETS, EARLY-BIRD PASSES, AND ACCREDITATION
A range of CTM.13 and transmediale 2013 Early Bird Festival Passes are available at discounted prices between 70 – 150 EUR until December 17, 2012. Festivalgoers can choose between CTM.13 Passes and Kombi Passports that grant access to both CTM.13 and transmediale 2013.
Individual tickets go on sale early December for select showcases, and will be available for all events by Christmas.
Professional visitors and press representatives are invited to apply for special discounted passes at 100 €.
