10 years after its re-launch, Berlin Atonal continues to pioneer experimental culture in all forms and this upcoming edition represents its most varied and ambitious project to date. The boundary pushing festival (hosted in the legendary Kraftwerk complex) has recently revealed the bulk of names who will be exhibiting their respective art forms, including 60 new musical acts and 20 visual artists.
Festival passes, day tickets and exhibition tickets are now available.
Final schedule information will be released on 15 August.
Read below for an insight into what to expect from the festival…
Concert Programme – First Weekend
THU 7/9
The opening night of Berlin Atonal promises a morphing of material, where dynamism constantly permeates the a cts. Laurel Halo leads the Kraftwerk through a trip into noir fog atmospherics, smudging particles by way of modal expression, the world premiere of her new live show. This is followed by Holy Tongue , the live trio of Valentina Magaletti, Al Wooton and Sus umu Makai, whose mystical and heavyweight dub – dance strikes an ineffable heft, not least bookended by the first in the three presentations of Études For Church from Florentina Holzinger.
Wondrous searching within and without our physicalities leads us to Rainy Miller ’s one – off A Fugue State, with a volatile experience of human spirituality. A special commissioned collaboration of Caterina Barbieri , Space Afrika and visual designer MFO closes the main stage, exploring transcendence through the inwardness of auditory experience and draws mutable meshes out from a dialogue between their cybernetic and fleshy sound worlds. Eros , the project of Regis, Einstürzende Neubauten engineer Boris Wilsdorf and Liam Andrews from My Disco, beckons into a night world of den se bodily mutation for the aftershow.
FRI 8/9
The first Friday of Berlin Atonal brings the exciting debut live A/V performance from legendary techno collective Sandwell District. For long this faceless organism has revelled in opaqueness, but now it steps out from the shadows for the very first time. It bellows with a rhythmic core that is found throughout the evening, from the dismantling of time with protopian electronics from London – based Venus Ex Machina, to the genre form and rules breaking of Par Grindvik and Peder Mannerfelt’s Aasthma (both world premieres). In The Cell Of Dreams, from Shackleton, Waclaw Zimpel and Indian carnatic vocalist Siddhartha Belmannu, runs parallel threads to transcendence, mortality and the joys of living.
The second site – specific intervention from Florentina Holzinger in her Études for Church series will take place, striking a reconfiguration of ecclesiastical gestures. An extensive after show follows, with performances from among others DJ Holographic, DJ Stingray 313, Rrose, Sigha, Simo Cell and Haruka b2b Wata Igarashi.
SAT 9/9
The last night of the first weekend commences on Stage Null with TLF Trio revealing sculptures of baroque meets jazz, combined with doleful cinematics. Florentina Holzinger rings a two tonne iron bell as part of her third and final iteration of Études For Church. The solo electronics of Aho Ssan and visuals of Sevi Iko Dømochevsky fuse together under Rhizomes AV, a new performance which explores the connections made between roots, drawing an organic, mutating universe of language exploration and emotional responses. Immersing further in emotional dynamism is Honour ’s THE BLOOD (2TEARS & A$UCKET), plunging into equally unsettling and captivating realms, reminiscent of the apocalyptic visions and spiritual depths described in the Bible’s final chapter.
A world premiere from Loraine James brings her new album Gentle Confrontation t o the stage, as she twists between the diverse sound worlds of her past and present. Nkisi presents another world premiere. Entitled NTI – MA, it mobilises a heavily performative sensorial experimentation, where music and dance are used as codified science, decoding and recoding ancestral musical traditions and spiritual technologies for a contemporary music experience.
Head to the Berlin Atonal website for more information on the 2nd weekend of the festival and to secure your tickets for this landmark event.
