PRESS RELEASE 10/2012 October 2012 15 – 18 November 2012 SOUND EXCHANGE FESTIVAL Chemnitz Experimental Music Cultures in Central Europe A project by Dock e.V. and the Goethe-Institut, funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation. Concerts, Performances, Exhibition, Sound Installation and Film in weltecho, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, Neue Sächsische Galerie, Atomino Improvised and experimental music, jazz and New Music all have a long tradition in Central and Eastern Europe. For decades, the protagonists of these very different and highly diverse music scenes worked under extremely difficult conditions. They were subject to repression by the authorities and were mostly compelled to practice their art in secret. Free spirits in the arts were eyed with no less suspicion than political dissidents. Following the upheavals in the late 80’s and early 90’s, many local music traditions in Central and Eastern Europe fell into complete oblivion. The appeal of the West was too strong, the new digital developments too interesting. Starting 2011, the festival project SOUND EXCHANGE sets out in search of the origins and the present of experimental music culture in Central Europe, to follow the trail of a vital and internationally interlinked scene of musicians, artists and festivals. SOUND EXCHANGE makes vanished traditions audible and visible, and situates them in relationship to current developments in local music scenes. The SOUND EXCHANGE FESTIVAL Chemnitz in mid-November 2012 is the concluding station of the project as a whole that was organised by DOCK e.V. Berlin and the Goethe- Institut in cooperation with weltecho in Chemnitz, and is funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation. Since autumn 2011, SOUND EXCHANGE DAYS has been held in a total of seven Central European cities with concerts, performances, workshops, and a documentary travelling exhibition on experimental music culture. In the course of the project, musicians and artists from the participating countries not only discovered and interpreted works by pioneers of experimental music, but also developed new projects in the spirit of the experimental underground of the Iron Curtain era. Through SOUND EXCHANGE, exchanges between generations and countries are being initiated, and history is being made audible and located in connection with the context of local music scenes. The public response to the seven one-day festivals in Cracow (18.11.11), Bratislava (2.12.11), Vilnius (14.4.12), Riga (8.9.12), Tallinn (28.9.12), Prague (5.10.12) and Budapest (13.10.12) has been overwhelming. SOUND EXCHANGE FESTIVAL Chemnitz, November 2012 At the conclusion of SOUND EXCHANGE, the most interesting concerts, performances and exhibitions that were developed and previously presented in Central Europe in the past months can be experienced one time only at the four-day SOUND EXCHANGE FESTIVAL in Chemnitz. 1 The projects developed by artistic directors Carsten Seiffarth and Carsten Stabenow together with co-curators from the respective countries present a wide spectrum of styles in experimental music culture: electronic sound experiments, dadaistic happenings, Minimal Music, Fluxus, experimental electro-acoustic music, Intermedia, graphic notations and real-time improvisations. This range of styles is now being presented in Chemnitz as well. The expansion of the project into the cultural area of the former GDR is a logical consequence of the festival’s concept. All countries where SOUND EXCHANGE was held share similarities in their socialist post-war histories. Prior to 1990, experimental music practice was consigned to a niche existence in East Germany, as well. And here, too a corresponding loss of tradition after 1990 was noted. Karl Marx City, Chemnitz today, was known as a venue for subversive and experimental movements, whether in the visual arts (artists’ group Clara Mosch, Carl Friedrich Claus et al.) or in music, the AG Geige is an example. After reunification, former members of this group founded the label raster-noton in Chemnitz and the open cultural house VOXXX, that has been active since 2008 in Chemnitz’ city centre under its new name weltecho. weltecho is the contract partner of the SOUND EXCHANGE FESTIVAL Chemnitz from 15 - 18 November 2012. Already in the run-up to the festival, the exhibition »Visible Music That Anybody Can Listen To« will open on 30 October 2012 in the Neue Sächsische Galerie. It combines the first German solo exhibition by Milan Adamčiak, one of the most significant contemporary Slovakian artists, a presentation of a selection of the most interesting graphic scores by visual artists and composers from Central Europe from the 1960’s through the 1980’s. This exhibition (until 2.12.2012) is curated by Jozef Cseres (Brno) and Michal Murin (Bratislava). The FESTIVAL: 15-18 11. 2012 The SOUND EXCHANGE FESTIVAL Chemnitz will start on 15 November with the opening of the sound installation »Symbolistica« by Raul Keller from Tallinn. The next day begins with a tribute to the almost forgotten Hungarian avant-garde composer Ernö Király in the gallery of the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz. For starters, the legendary DJ and radio founder Pál Tóth a.k.a. én from Budapest will dedicate to Király a four-channel sound collage of audio documents by the composer. Following this, The Positive Noise Trio (Hungary) will play excerpts from their cycle of works »FLORA« in part on some of Király’s original instruments. The second concert (weltecho) begins with experimental music from Poland. Following the performance of the major composition »Synthistory« by Bogusław Schaeffer from 1973, the musician Łukasz Szałankiewicz will approach the tradition of electro-acoustic music in Poland in his performance »Signalstory – Electronic Sounds«. The evening concludes with the legendary East Berlin formation Ornament & Verbrechen of the brothers Robert und Ronald Lippok with »Béton Brute«, their first joint concert in 18 years. On Saturday afternoon, Raul Keller & Hello Upan from Tallinn will present their radio show»LokaalRaadio – Symbolistica« in the gallery in weltecho. In this performance in the sound installation »Symbolistica«, both recorded sounds as well as improvisations in radio- show format will be presented. The evening programme in Weltecho begins with the audio-visual performance »Dein Bart in Zeit und Raum – Für Hardijs Lediņš« (i.e. your beard in time and space – for Hardijs Lediņš), dedicated to the artist, architect and pioneer of electronic music in Latvia, as well as the founder of the legendary »Werkstatt zur Restaurierung nie da gewesener Gefühle« (i.e. workshop for the restoration of unprecedented feelings / NSRD). This group of musicians, who are appearing together for the first time, is made up of key figures from the current underground scene in Riga. In conclusion, the DIISSC Orchestra from Vilnius will perform the group composition »Venta«, a concert with electric organs and analogue synthesizers built in Vilnius during the Soviet era. 2 To conclude the evening, the artist Frank Bretschneider (raster-music), who was born in Chemnitz when it was still Karl Marx City, will present his audiovisual project »KIPPSCHWINGUNG«. For this piece, Bretschneider worked intensively with the Subharchord, the first analogue electronic synthesizer, built in the GDR in the 1960’s. Bretschneider was co-founder of the equally legendary AG Geige, and the evening in the Atomino will end with the film documentary of the same name by Carsten Gebhardt. Together with the ensemble 01 from Chemnitz, the Prague MoEns Ensemble will perform graphic and concept scores by Milan Grygar, Wolfgang Heisig and Marian Palla in a large- format matinée concert on Sunday in the exhibition »Visible Music That Anybody Can Listen To« in the Neue Sächsische Galerie. The second half of the programme is dedicated to Milan Adamčiak, the legendary pioneer of experimental music in Slovakia. For »TRANS music [VARIATIONS]«, the nine-member Ensemble Mi-65 , which has been specially assembled for the performance, will interpret graphic notations by Adamčiak with musicians from Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, concluding the SOUND EXCHANGE FESTIVAL Chemnitz. SOUND EXCHANGE ANTHOLOGY (internet/ programme book) Since the beginning of the project, under the title »Anthologie experimenteller Musik Mittelosteuropas« (i.e. anthology of Central European experimental music), the continually expanding multilingual web documentation has been collecting texts by local authors commissioned by the Goethe-Institut and DOCK e.V., and supplemented by photos and music samples. This information on the participating countries’ local music cultures, which until now has been difficult to access, is now completely available online in German, English and the respective country’s language. The entire anthology will appear in print format as programme book in German / English for the SOUNG EXCHANGE FESTIVAL in Chemnitz. The anthology is available online here: http://www.soundexchange.eu/#anthology_de The SOUNG EXCHANGE BLOG also offers up-to-date project documentation here: http://www.soundexchange.eu/blog/ Exhibitions of the SOUND EXCHANGE FESTIVAL Chemnitz Exhibition in the Neue Sächsische Galerie: »Visible Music That Anybody Can Listen To« Curators: Jozef Cseres (CZ) / Michal Murin (SK) »Sound Exchange – Experimental Music in Central Europe« Curators: Melanie Uerlings, Carsten Seiffarth, Golo Föllmer (D) Exhibition duration: 31.10. – 2.12.2012 Exhibition opening: 30.10.2012 at 19.00 Open: 11.00 – 17.00, Tuesdays until