ICAS Festival 2015
27.04. - 03.05.2015 / Dresden, Germany
From 27 April to 3 May 2015, Dresden became a hotspot for advanced music and related arts as the ICAS – International Cities of Advanced Sound network
reunited over 20 music and media art festivals into a Festival of Festivals. Assembling a mix of club concerts, outdoor interventions, a multi-day conference
programme, a film series, lab formats, as well as an exhibition, the festival adopted the theme of “Tools for an Unknown Future” in an attempt to
examine how to cope with increasing uncertainty using the tools that had been developed so far. In times with no illusions of utopia, the urge to find methods
of self-empowerment – a back-up for the unknown – is more urgently needed than ever before. ECAS supported events during the festival:
»Nine Futures: Sounds Fragmenting«28. - 29.05.2015
| Date | 28. - 29.05.2015 |
| Action | movie premiere |
| Participants | Nathan Budzinski & Theo Cook |
| Location | Thalia Kino Dresden |
| Sponsoring Partners | TMA / CYNETART |
| Online References | http://icasfestival.net/icasfestival/SCREENING.php http://icasfestival.net/icasfestival/ARTIST-Nathan_Budzinski_and_Theo_Cook.php |
| Description | The final ECAS documentary film »Nine Futures: Sounds Fragmenting« will have its international premiere screening in Dresden. Its directors, Nathan Budzinski and Theo Cook, were guests at all nine of the ECAS partner festivals and collected audiovisual impressions from the festivals’ home cities, and their various protagonists and artists’ projects. |
»High on Hope«30.05.2015
| Date | 30.05.2015 |
| Action | Screening, Q&A |
| Participants | Movie by Piers Sanderson, Q&A between Thomas Smith & Nadine Bors |
| Location | Thalia Kino Dresden |
| Sponsoring Partners | TMA / CYNETART |
| Online References | http://icasfestival.net/icasfestival/SCREENING.php http://icasfestival.net/icasfestival/ARTIST-Piers_Sanderson.php |
| Description | »High on Hope« uses original footage from warehouse parties and and alternates it with interviews, news archives, and animation to portray what took place when Chicago’s acid house music scene arrived in Northern England at the time of the recession under Margaret Thatcher in 1980. |
TANZ IN DEN MAI30.05.2015
| Date | 30.05.2015 |
| Action | clubbing night |
| Participants | QRG, Cooptrol |
| Location | LAB 15, Meschwitzstrasse |
| Sponsoring Partners | TMA / CYNETART |
| Online References | http://icasfestival.net/icasfestival/PROGRAMME.php |
| Description | In LAB 15’s basement room, ICAS is happy to present 12z,a collective from Budapest devoted to using free electroacoustic improvisation to construct soundtracks and sonic landscapes. Bálint Szabó (guitar) and Márton Kristóf (electronics) often alternate jagged rhythmic passages with plateaus of harmonic tension, but always, as they describe it, "chisel structure out of chaos." Next, QRG, a Brazilian-born, New York City- educated analogue-head will wreak havoc with massive sounds, glitch, and processing errors. Cooptrol is a drummer-turned producer whose output might be seen as an experiment in shape shifting; a self-proclaimed “electronic music purist,” Hernan Gonzales’s various albums have tipped their hats to genres from dubstep to postindustrial to techno without fusing them. His special attention to polyrhythm and syncopation acts a unifying thread. Following Cooptrol is Jesse Osborne Lanthier, a Montreal-born, Berlin-based conceptual electronic musician and visual artist focused on inciting alternative cognitive responses via mixed sonic material. His work, in its range from dub-influenced techno to static waves of noise, is always textural and resists references to simplified, predictable formats. About all of his work Osborne Lanthier writes, "instead of using a platform or mold of dance music in order to make people move, I might use it to prompt a certain feeling, state, understanding, or aesthetic. I aim to use the tools which are available to me through contemporary music in order to reach a different and individualized end." Finally, fellow Berliners Brandon Rosenbluth and Nicolas Lefort will appear as Shaddah Tuum. The duo employs avant-garde compositional techniques such as serialism, microtonality, sample-based production, synthetic vocal manipulation, spring reverb, and feedback loops generated by sound sources like guitar, percussion, voice, and field recordings and then processed through a complex array of digital effects and generative modules to create gasping, charry techno hybrids. On stage, they aim to integrate physicality and abstract sound while leaving space for the channeling of volatile creative impulses. |
MNM @ ICAS CONCERT NIGHT C - Advanced Sounds02.05.2015
| Date | 02.05.2015 |
| Action | MNM Stage Version |
| Participants | HUMATIC aka Christian Graupner, Mieko Suzuki |
| Location | Festspielhaus Hellerau |
| Sponsoring Partners | TMA / CYNETART |
| Online References | >http://icasfestival.net/icasfestival/ARTIST-HUMATIC_feat_Mieko_Suzuki.php |
| Description | Meanwhile in the Oberlichtsaal, MNM, a triple-channel audiovisual system designed as part of HUMATIC aka Christian Graupner’s H.RP (Humatic Re-Performing) series, will be presented in its stage version. The system’s body is a stack of speakers and buttons, and its golden arms are a shoutout to the traditional Japanese mojo figure, Maneki Neko. In this live version, the operator controls sounds and visuals on a triptych screen by becoming physically involved with the media catapult, and synchronizes vinyl records and digital music devices to the activity on the screen. The audience follows the 'humatic' recreation of a unique, post-techno soundtrack. The performance features sound artist and DJ Mieko Suzuki and movement performer Ming Poon. |
Environmental Auditors03.05.2015
| Date | 03.05.2015 |
| Action | soundwalk, environmental concert |
| Participants | Environmental Auditors |
| Location | Hellerau Garden City |
| Sponsoring Partners | ORF / musikprotokoll im steirischen herbst, Insomnia |
| Online References | http://icasfestival.net/icasfestival/PROGRAMME.php http://icasfestival.net/icasfestival/CONCERTS.php http://icasfestival.net/icasfestival/ARTIST-Environmental_Auditors.php |
| Description | In 2013 the Environmental Auditors gave rise to an active exchange between the Austrian and Norwegian improvisation scenes. This collaboration is still nourished via a cooperation between the ORF Musikprotokoll im Steirischen Herbst and Norway’s Insomnia Festival. Eight environmental auditors from Austria and Norway recommend that the visitors listen especially carefully when the orchestral instruments overlap and interact with environmental sounds, thereby significantly enhancing the auditive experience. |
El Silbo @ Advanced Sounds - ICAS Concert Night C01.05.2015
| Date | 01.05.2015 |
| Action | Lecture-Performance |
| Participants | Heimo Lattner & Judith Laub |
| Location | Festpielhaus Hellerau |
| Sponsoring Partners | DISK / CTM Festival |
| Online References | http://icasfestival.net/icasfestival/PROGRAMME.php http://icasfestival.net/icasfestival/ARTIST-Heimo_Lattner_and_Judith_Laub.php |
| Description | |
THE SILBADORES (Teil 1-5)30.04 - 02.05.2015
| Date | 30.04 - 02.05.2015 |
| Action | sound installation |
| Participants | Heimo Lattner, Judith Laub |
| Location | site around Festspielhaus Hellerau |
| Sponsoring Partners | DISK / CTM Festival |
| Online References | |
| Description | |
BUQS29.04. - 02.05.2015
| Date | 29.04. - 02.05.2015 |
| Action | outdoor installation |
| Participants | Teun Verkerk & Joris Hoogeboom |
| Location | Kunsthofpassage & Festspielhaus Hellerau |
| Sponsoring Partners | The Generator / TodaysArt, |
| Online References | http://icasfestival.net/icasfestival/PROGRAMME.php http://icasfestival.net/icasfestival/ARTIST-Teun_Verkerk_and_Joris_Hoogeboom.php |
| Description | BUQS are small electronic life forms that live all over the city and invite interaction and relocation. Each one has unique tools and senses and has to find its own niche in the constructed environment around it. The distributed ecology of BUQS converts the public space into a soundscape that invites active exploration, experimentation and reconfiguration. The BUQS provide a transparent, straightforward alternative to the private, often invisible technologies that infiltrate our daily modern life. |
Evian Christ live02.05.2015
| Date | 02.05.2015 |
| Action | concert, performance |
| Participants | Evian Christ |
| Location | Festspielhaus Hellerau |
| Sponsoring Partners | FutureEverything |
| Online References | http://icasfestival.net/icasfestival/PROGRAMME.php http://icasfestival.net/icasfestival/ARTIST-Evian_Christ.php |
| Description | Young British Tri Angle-signed producer Evian Christ is internationally lauded both for his independent work and for his collaboration with Kanye West. Joshua Leary's sweeping sonic statements provide drenched, epic backing tracks for the proverbial MC or hold their own as poster children for the adventurous new melding of hip hop, hardstyle, trap, and R&B influences. |
MUSICMAKERS HACKLAB - A Score for Uncertainty27.04 - 03.05.2015
| Date | 27.04 - 03.05.2015 |
| Action | Hacklab, Concert |
| Participants | Interspecifics Collective and Alberto de Campo |
| Location | Hole of Fame, Festspielhaus Hellerau (Performance) |
| Sponsoring Partners | Cimatics |
| Online References | http://icasfestival.net/icasfestival/PROGRAMME.php http://icasfestival.net/icasfestival/HACKLAB.php |
| Description | Hosted by the Interspecifics Collective and Alberto de Campo, »A Score for Uncertainty« is a 7-day long collaborative laboratory focused on the creation of a sound composition from an unknown future, using existing but novel instruments and sound catalogues. |
Mini-DJs Mini-Workshop01.05.2015
| Date | 01.05.2015 |
| Action | Workshop |
| Participants | Charlotte Bendiks |
| Location | LAB 15 |
| Sponsoring Partners | Insomnia |
| Online References | http://icasfestival.net/icasfestival/PROGRAMME.php http://icasfestival.net/icasfestival/WORKSHOPS.php |
| Description | Norwegian DJ/producer Charlotte Bendiks offers a fun way of approaching music and to start understanding rhythms. In this short introduction to rhythm and music using the DJ's tools, kids learn how to count the beats in a track and how to mix two beatmatched tracks together on a DJ mixer. While a library of tracks will be prepared by Charlotte and gear will be provided, each participant should imagine their own stage name and be prepared to give a brief introduction of themselves to the group. During this introduction, participants get the change to try their voice on the mic with some special surprise effects. |
Charlotte Bendiks DJ @ ICAS CLUBBING NIGHT02.05.2015
| Date | 02.05.2015 |
| Action | DJ set |
| Participants | Charlotte Bendiks |
| Location | LAB 15 |
| Sponsoring Partners | Insomnia |
| Online References | http://icasfestival.net/icasfestival/PROGRAMME.php http://icasfestival.net/icasfestival/CONCERTS.php |
| Description | About the clubbing night: Opened by DJ and producer Charlotte Bendiks, a native of Tromsø, Norway. Bendiks’s sets exhibit primarily classic house but also incorporate disco, African groove, and Latin. |
Networking Tomorrow's Art for an Unknown Futurespan class="stagedate">02.05.2015
| Date | 02.05.2015 |
| Action | ECAS Symposium |
| Participants | ECAS members |
| Location | Festspielhaus Hellerau |
| Sponsoring Partners | ORF / musikprotokoll im steirischen herbst & DISK / CTM Festival |
| Online References | http://icasfestival.net/icasfestival/PROGRAMME.php |
| Description | |
