OPENLESS is the form of Berlin Atonal in 2024.
Situated performance nights in Kraftwerk. All new works. + Tresor/Globus + OHM.
23 24 25 AUGUST
Each night unfolds operatically around a thematic core, combining some of the world’s most exciting musical and visual artists for three days of concert program in Kraftwerk Berlin. Related afterparties ignite Tresor/Globus and OHM on Friday and Saturday nights.
The first night of OPENLESS entitled The Less Deceived plays out theatrically in the spaces between music and sound design, research and journalism, art and site-specific performance. It hosts the premiere of a major new project by Forensis (Forensic Architecture) in collaboration with Bill Kouligas of PAN. Entitled The Drum and The Bird, the new piece transposes the investigative group’s famous research techniques into the key of large-scale public performance. A Forbidden Distance is another world premiere work to be revealed on the opening night. It is jointly produced by Iranian-Canadian brothers Mohammad and Mehdi (Saint Abdullah), Irish sound-designer and musician Ian McDonnell (Eomac), and London-based Italo-Australian video artist and filmmaker Rebecca Salvadori. A new piece created by the legendary field recordist Chris Watson, who is working with Izabela Dluzyk, a blind Polish sound recordist celebrated for her expertise in bird sound recording will be played back in multichannel and in total darkness. Finally Lord Spikeheart will bring an auditory assault, layering singing, rapping, and screaming over drumlines that pulse like a colossal heartbeat. The massive afterparty line-up in Tresor/Globus features LYDO, Nawaz b2b Woody92, Laurel Halo, the mindmelting live show from Datashader, and a notable Special Request DJ set.
Transcriptions on the second night focuses on the rhythmic tradition of the sabar drumming culture and in particular the immaterial musical legacy of the late, great Doudou N’diaye Rose. Unfolding operatically according to the logic of the Senegalese traditional Tannebier (the street-based celebration which has the sabar at its center), the concert involves family members of N’diaye Rose as well as luminaries of the electronic music world who take the percussive grammar of this tradition as a starting point for their own experimentations in sound. Taken as a whole, this evening explores a new form of homage, in reverence and enthusiasm, wherein a celebration of death is a celebration of life. Participating artists in the performance are Birame N’diaye Rose, Molamine N’diaye Rose, Wadane N’diaye Rose, Buoyo N’diaye, Yoro M’baye, Berlin based Studio LABOUR, sonic alchemist Nkisi (who delves into her personal connection with Cheikh Anta Diop’s proto-Afrofuturist legacy through the lens of Doudou N’Diaye Rose’s 1992 composition named after the Pan-African scientist), New York based musician and artist Lamin Fofana (premiering a brand new live show), videographer Hiroo Tanaka as well as Holy Tongue performing with Shackleton live for the first time. A stacked aftershow program in Tresor/Globus contains Animistic Beliefs, Lee Gamble, Zohar as well a live set from Carrier and a special DJ set by Demdike Stare.
The Clearing on the final Sunday offers a profound auditory journey harking back to renowned formats like The Long Now or previous Berlin Atonal nights that utilise the vast Kraftwerk interior for deeply engaging and transformative musical experiences. Each concert reconfigures the space into a dynamic canvas for sonic exploration and creativity. Demdike Stare’s unveil their newest project Baselines – an audio-visual journey into the bastard children of tape culture. A new collaboration unites the multi-disciplinary artists Kelman Duran and Franziska Aigner for the first time, while Grand River teams up with Abul Mogard to present their transformative new live show. The same night Sara Persico and Mika Oki premiere a new work entitled Sphaîra and cult Australian act CS + Kreme perform their own kind of ‘horizontal’ music while poet-musicians Canzonieri invite Lara Damaso and Lord Spikeheart to join them for a one-off live show.
The massive club events across Friday 23.08 and Saturday 24.08 are both held in the adjacent Tresor/Globus club complex. Tickets will be sold separately, although a Combo ticket provides access to both the Kraftwerk and the Tresor/Globus programs as well as the right to enter the capacity limited OHM.