Ikeda has designed the white room and the black room as counterparts, not only physically (brightness, color), but also conceptually and perceptually.

The project is a composition in which time and space are shaped through the most minimal use of sound, light and visual elements. It is the artist’s first solo exhibition in Germany.

Since the mid-1990s, Ryoji Ikeda has been among the foremost international composers and artists in the realm of cutting-edge digital technologies and their integration into visual and acoustic presentations.

His works are based on spatiotemporal compositions in which the musical and visual material is reduced to a minimum: sine waves, sound pulses, pixels of light and numerical data.

He investigates sound, time and space on the basis of mathematical methods and transforms them in his concerts and installations into an intense experience for the audience.

Photos by courtesy of Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (Top / Foto: Ryuichi Maruo) & Freunde Guter Musik Berlin (Middle and bottom / Fotos: Uwe Walter).
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“Ryoji Ikeda – DB”  Exhibition
presented by Freunde Guter Musik

Saturday, 28 January 2012 – Monday, 09 April 2012
Hamburger Bahnhof | Invalidenstraße 50-51 | 10557 Berlin/Mitte

ryojiikeda.com | hamburgerbahnhof.de | freunde-guter-musik-berlin.de
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He is currently exploring new technologies such as wave field synthesis and ambisonics, and makes use of large-scale high-resolution projections to create situations of total immersion and either decouple the spatial experience from a given space or enhance its inherent properties.

Monolake | Internal Clock

Many of his works are defined as potentially endless and slowly evolving states, thus inviting the audience to immerse themselves completely for a freely defined amount of time. His sonic explorations are rooted in academic sound research and computer music as well as in contemporary club culture.

With his collaborative musical project, Monolake, he helped shaping what later became ‘the sound of Berlin techno music’, whilst his more conceptual works are frequently performed or exhibited at art galleries and festivals.

Henke’s interest in the combination of art and technology is further evident in his contributions to the development of the music software, Ableton Live’.

Since Ableton’s founding in 1999, he has been central to the development of Live, which became the standard tool for electronic music production and performance, and is currently used by more than 100.000 people world wide.

Currently, he is working on a laser based audio visual installation, on a commission for the Acousmonium, the INA/GRM multiple speaker system, and is preparing a world tour with his Monolake project.

His next album as Monolake, Ghosts, will be available in February 2012 on his own label, imablance computer music.
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Monolake  LIVE

Djs: Shackleton & Peverelist

Wednesday, 25 February 2012 | 20:00 CET
Berghain | Am Wriezener Bahnhof | 10243 Berlin/Friedrichshain

monolake.de | berghain.de
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Introducing MPC Fly

MPC Fly merges unmatched Akai Professional technology with the power of your iPad 2, embodying legendary capabilities that have made the MPC an industry standard like real MPC pads, MPC Note Repeat and MPC Swing. Its multifunctional, double-hinged design gives you the flexibility to produce tracks anywhere, while also acting as a protective case between sessions and giving you total access to your iPad 2 for normal uses.

Introducing MPC Studio

MPC Studio offers the most streamlined MPC experience yet. At under one-inch thin, with low-profile controls and a brushed aluminum body, it’s made to move. MPC Studio merges real MPC pads, iconic workflow, and the same MPC Software used by MPC Renaissance to give you a fully integrated portable production solution. Welcome to production anywhere. The world is now your studio.

Fusing Akai Professional’s legendary MPC layout and workflow with the power of your computer, MPC Renaissance is an unrivaled instrument for music production. The new flagship is a fully integrated hardware/software system: MPC Renaissance allows you to create using classic hardware controls and an integrated pop-up display, while its exclusive MPC Software empowers you with unprecedented, expandable production capabilities on your Mac or PC.
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Check out the website for more info on AKAI MPC Renaissance, Studio and Fly availability and pricing:

http://www.akaiprompc.com
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In their attempt to avoid the classical visual image, which would mean to “hang pictures on the wall”, the artists re-interpret this gesture in a new way. Even when their works do not produce something visual, an image appears to be their only possible form.

Sanela Jahić | Fire Painting

Both sound sculptures and performances that include many amenities, fire-spectacles or housefly-installations experimenting with controlled “randomness”, all these works deal with the movement of drawing, letting this technical spectacle become the ultimate image itself.

Within these subjects, the role of the artist gains more and more importance. The different interpretations of the observer not only provoke the question “Who is the artist?”, but also reiterate it over and over. In this constellation the image neither represents a result nor a starting point.

It appears to be much more a “porous membrane”, both present and obsolete; dominant and invisible at the same time. In this manner, the exhibition focuses on the artist and not primarily on the artworks, expatiating upon the whole system as machinery.

With works by Sanela Jahić (SI), Takahiro Yamaguchi (JP), Julius Stahl (DE), Daniel Franke (DE), David Bowen (US).

The exhibition DRAWING IN THE AGE OF ELECTRONIC EXPRESSIONS is part of the Transmediale & CTM’s Vorspiel, January 26-29.
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Exhibition Opening: Drawing In The Age Of Electronic Expression
presented by LEAP & CTM.12

Saturday, 28 January 2012 | 20:00 CET
LEAP | (Berlin Carré, 1. Floor) Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 13 | 10178 Berlin/Mitte

drawing in the age … at transmediale.de  |  leapknecht.de
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In addition to a comprehensive music program at HAU, Berghain, Passionskirche, Gretchen, Kater Holzig and Horst Krzbrg, a discourse series developed in collaboration with the philosopher, psycho-historian and author Andreas L. Hofbauer will address the festival’s theme by pursuing questions concerning art, theory, and music.

Jana Winderen | Isolation/Measurement

A few of the many highlights are:
30 years of Touch: a birthday celebration of experimental music’s most forward-thinking imprint with Eleh, Jana Winderen, Hildur Gudnadottir (photo below), Charles Matthews, Marcus Davidson and The Eternal Chord.

A revisitation of the Zodiak Free Arts Lab with Works by Conrad Schnitzler, Wolfgang Seidel and his Free Arts Lab project, Qluster (Hans-Joachim Roedelius + Onnen Bock; photo below), Borngräber & Strüver and Köhn.

Nurturing open experimentation between music, art, and performance in the late 1960s, the Zodiak Free Arts Lab provided one of the crucial focal points for the musical awakening of artists and bands such as Kluster, Ash-Ra Temple, Tangerine Dream, Human Being, and more.

The multi-day program will begin by highlighting several of the Zodiak’s key figures and includes Wolfgang Seidel performing Conrad Schnitzler’s “Cassette Concert”, as well as Schnitzler’s rarely presented automated performance on disklavier, the “Piano Works”.

Later on in the week, other contemporary artists with a similar experimental rigour will transform the HAU 2 venue into a special listening environment: Grouper & Jefre Cantu Ledesma; Catherine Christer Hennix and the Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage, Pre-Cert Home Entertainment (photo below).

Also performing: Mouse on Mars, Mohn (Wolfgang Voigt aka GAS & Jörg Burger aka The Modernist), Ben Frost with Borgar Magnason and Shazad Ismaily, Sendai (Peter van Hoesen + Yves de Mey), Éliane Radigue, Balam Acab, Tim Hecker and many many more. Check out the whole program on the CTM2012 website.
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Club Transmediale 2012 – CTM.12 – Festival

Monday, 30.01.2012 to Sunday, 05.01.2012
Different Venues | Berlin

ctm-festival.de
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If any of this seems appealing to you, it might be worth checking out Network Awesome, a virtual TV station with four to six hours of old TV programming each day that’s nostalgic, entertaining, informative — and thrown together by a team of dedicated curators.

Pulgasari | Trailer

The site launched in early January 2011 as the brainchild of Berlin-based electronic musician Jason Forrest aka Donna Summer and his partner Greg Sadetsky, who does most of the coding for the site.

Since launch it has mostly relied on word-of-mouth to grow its daily viewer base, but viewers are catching on, with the site posting record traffic last Friday.

All the broadcasting is curated from YouTube. The Netwpork Awesome system stitches the various links together and presents it linearly to the viewer.N-A’s intent is to show something about TV culture as a whole.

This can manifest itself in a classic kids cartoon from the 30′s, an interview from the 60′s or a undiscovered movie from the 80′s. The main purpose of Network Awesome is to surface content that is otherwise difficult for nostalgic fans to find online.

Now, we want to celebrate NETWORK AWESOME’s first anniversary with an incredible party in the beautiful Sophiensaele in Berlin, with a “Greatest Hits” video screening, a Chuckamuck live performance and a DJ set by Monsieur Bonaparte. It’s gonna be incredible, don’t miss it!

We are giving away 2 x 2 tickets for NETWORK AWESOME First Anniversary Party. Just send a mail to win@digitalinberlin.de with “NETWORK AWESOME” as the subject.
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Network Awesome Birthday Party with Chuckamuck  LIVE
Dj: Monsieur Bonaparte

Friday, 20 January 2012 | 20:00 CET
Sophiensäle | Sophienstr. 18 | 10178 Berlin/Mitte

networkawesome.com | myspace.com/therealchuckamuck | sophiensaele.com
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“Faux Images” is organised by Andreas Fischer & Mate Steinforth in cooperation with the Lab for Electronic Arts and Performance (LEAP) and WeAreChopChop.

Faux Images | Trailer #3

“Faux Images” will take place quarterly in LEAP at Alexanderplatz in Berlin.
Admission is free.

With contributions and talks by ROBERT SEIDEL, FONS SCHIEDON and BEN & JULIA.
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FAUX IMAGES IV
with talks by Robert Seidel, Fons Schiedon and Ben & Julia

Tuesday, 13 December 2011 | 20:00 CET
LEAP | Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 13, Berlin Carree, 1st floor | 10178 Berlin/Mitte

fauximages.de | robertseidel.com | fonsschiedon.com | benandjulia.com | leapknecht.de
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The monome developers seek less complex, more versatile tools: accessible, yet fundamentally adaptable. They believe these parameters are most directly achieved through minimalistic design, enabling users to more quickly discover new ways to work, play, and connect. flexibility not as a feature, but the foundation.

monome | sixty four

Monome strive for economic and ecological sustainability. careful design practice allows the contribution to culture and preserve the environment by choosing domestic, high-quality, and responsible providers and production facilities. there is an acknowledgement that our future will depend on our ability to support and maintain a local,regenerative economy.

monome | two fifty six

Monome believes that open source is commercially viable and mutually beneficial for our collective and the consumer. in opening our software we eliminate wasteful, redundant coding for ourselves by incorporating proven libraries and frameworks. we in turn provide these same benefits to others who wish to incorporate our development efforts into their projects. distributed development leads to more stable software and more creative application design. open applications provide more flexibility for users to adapt tools to their specific needs, encourage creative use of software and hardware, and produce a greater diversity output from users.
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MONOME controllers are available through http://monome.org
Price: from $500 for finished devices. DIY kits also available
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Tom’s work tries to mix the worlds of music, art and science by opening up technological ideas to new controls and areas of chance or controlled chaos. His recent work is almost entirely with analogue electronics, with his ideas often taking existing designs, twisting them a bit and then combining and presenting them in new ways. Alongside his solo music and design projects, Tom builds very sought-after devices for musicians, setting installations and collaborating in technical arts and musical projects.

Tom Bugs vs Ivor Cutler | I believe in bugs

Tom Bugs also knows how to write a simple song. One surely wouldn’t connect such an ability to an electronics nerd in the first place, as songs usually talk about stories, and those might find broader food … beyond circuit boards.
In Kamine und Wein, Tom will perform solo and in collaboration with Berlin-based sound experimentalists Jayrope and Olaf Hilgenfeld , and will also discuss after the concert the unique ethos and approaches behind his instruments.
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Tom Bugs with Jayrope and Olaf Hilgenfeld  LIVE
presented by Miracle Research

Dj: Samtbody (Goldmund)

Saturday, 08 October 2011 | 20:30 CET
Kamine und Wein | Prinzenallee 58 | 13359 Berlin/Wedding

www.bugbrand.co.uk | www.kliklak.net/jayrope | www.kamineundwein.de
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Since the mid-20th Century it is called sampling, when digitized sound samples of existing musical works are edited, rearranged and used in modern music productions.

An interactive installation offers possibilities to explore sampling as a production technology of contemporary music. While modified turntables are used to navigate dynamic data visualizations, information graphics as well as auditory contributions are helping to understand complex contents and relations.

Besides the history of sampling or technical backgrounds of the digitization of analog audio signals, visitors can also obtain information on the dissociation of sample-based productions and other musicological phenomena such as remixes, mashups or covers.

As a highlight of the exhibition the visitor can slip into the role of a producer and goes on a fascinating search for suitable samples, which will be found on soul, funk and jazz records of the 70s and 80s.

Depending on user interests, Digging in the Crates offers different approaches to the topic. The visitor acts in a totally free interaction-space, which allows him to consider sampling from completely different perspectives.

The straight interaction with information is just as important as the possibility to deal with “sampling” in a passive way. This means the user can slip into an active role in which he has full control over the visualized information as well as taking a rather passive attitude to get inspired by the interactions of others.

Digging in the Crates aims to describe the sampling culture in all its aspects, characteristics, and influences. Not only the understanding of the creative process as a craft but also the effort and creative processes associated with sampling should be communicated authentically.

Digging in the Crates is the diploma thesis of Roland Loesslein.

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Digging In The Crates INSTALLATION OPENING

Saturday, 01 October 2011 | 20:00 CET
Letters Are My Friends | Boppstr. 7 | 10967 Berlin/Kreuzberg

www.weaintplastic.com | ditc.weaintplastic.com | http://lettersaremyfriends.com

That’s how the project got it’s name. Starting and ending in pure C-major the progression through tensed or even dissonant chords can be felt bodily as organ pipes make the air inside the towering steel cylinder resonate. As the planet revolves, seemingly making the pendulum change its orientation in space the harmonies follow their tracks hidden in time.

The soundscape is generated by 58 organ pipes arranged around the central visitors’ platform. They are built in ten groups anchored in every second sector of the steel framework on the top of the gasometer’s former piston.

The wooden pipes have a rectangular cross section. Painted white, they become a prominent part of the massive metal scaffolding dominating the space. The longest pipe stands almost five meters tall. Filling the whole volume of the gasometer with sound the sound sources also have a commanding physical presence.

The ten windchests supplying air to the pipes are linked by plastic tubing connecting the groups to a central blower unit. The tubing refers to the former use of the gasometer, and, incidentally, the pressure needed to operate the organ pipes is very similar to the gas pressure the building used to hold.

Sound installation Bach_10K

Every pipe is operated by its own electro-pneumatic valve which is connected to a central control unit. The pipe controller is synchronized by signals transmitted from the pendulum driver unit needed to feed kinetic energy to the pendulum by electromagnetic fields. This way, the pendulum becomes a giant metronome.

Augbsurg is a dozy German city which is 7 hours away from Berlin by train.

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Bach_10K

3. April – 31. Oktober 2011 // Sunday 13.00h – 17.00h

August-Wessels-Straße 30
86156 Augsburg-Oberhausen / Germany

http://www.bach10k.net | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foucault_pendulum | www.augsburg.de
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MASCHINE MIKRO is the perfect entry into the world of MASCHINE, giving you tactile, hands-on control for beat production, sampling and performance. This latest addition to the family has the same powerful software and 6 GB+ sample library as its big brother, as well as the same responsive pads on a more compact and portable controller.

Jeremy Ellis on Maschine Mikro

MASCHINE MIKRO makes a perfect addition for any production setup – get hands-on with your rhythms and grooves both in the studio and on the stage. Besides the seemless integration of Maschine’s hardware and software components, the “MaMi” is a fully functional midi controller in its own right, so all 16 pads can bee freely assigned to a programme of your choice.

Introducing Maschine Mikro

MASCHINE MIKRO is a professional music production tool, combining the flexibility of software with the immediacy of hardware. Create rhythms, bass lines, chords and melodies, and build tracks on-the-fly with the intuitive, clip-based sequencer. MASCHINE MIKRO also gives you a high-performance sampler, professional effects and full support for VST® and Audio Units™ plug-ins. What’s more, you can also run MASCHINE MIKRO as a plug-in in your DAW.
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MASCHINE MIKRO will be available worldwide from October 1st, 2011
Price: $399/ 349 €

www.native-instruments.com
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In an assignment unlike any he’s ever known, he learns he’s part of a government experiment called the Source Code, a program that enables him to cross over into another man’s identity in the last 8 minutes of his life.

Source Code by Duncan Jones Trailer

With a second, much larger target threatening to kill millions in downtown Chicago, Colter re-lives the incident over and over again, gathering clues each time, until he can solve the mystery of who is behind the bombs and prevent the next attack.

The film had its world premiere on March 11, 2011 at SXSW and was released by Summit Entertainment on April 1, in North America and Europe. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright. Digital in Berlin highly Recommended!

Official website
Source Code at the Internet Movie Database
Source Code at Rotten Tomatoes
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Korg has once again raised the analog banner with the amazing monotribe Analog Ribbon Station; a new form of synthesizer that packs an amazing array of features and technology into its compact body. Korg’s monotribe shares the monotron’s analog DNA, yet quickly delves deeper into the rich, organic, and often chaotic world of analog synthesis.

Korg | Monotribe

In addition to analog synthesis, monotribe brings together intuitive ease of use and a three-part discrete analog rhythm section, plus the proven appeal of Electribe-style sequencing. Complete with a built-in speaker and battery power, monotribe is self-contained and highly portable.
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Korg Monotribe is out soon and forecast to retail around the 250€ mark.

www.korg.com
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The second version of the Digital Harinezumi came out last year, and recently has been updated with a Triple Plus model.

This model adds ten colour modes (maybe a slightly overwhelming choice, but some of these modes are very cool) to the already known features: colour, black and white, video mode, etc. The video feature is worth mentioning because it’s like having a pocket-sized Super 8, and the audio input quality is a welcome addition (which can be disabled).

Just talking of the connection between the Harinezumi and video artists all over the world, cities like New York, Paris and Tokyo have recently hosted Harinezumi no Mori (The Forest of Harinezumi). It’s a video installation (with more than 150 DVD players and video monitors) that “mutates and transforms as it moves around different cities all over the world, like a forest, it merges with foreign substances, roots deep in the earth, and in the end embraces everything”.

Unfortunately, it looks like the Triple Plus will also be the last model for this series. Due to the discontinuation of monitor screens, Digital Harinezumi series has been forced to shut down its production, so this could be your last chance to get your hands on this cool item before it’s too late.

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Price: 150 euro (approx.)

www.superheadz.com

Fab is a musician and Editor-in-Chief for AudioNewsRoom (ANR), a music technology online magazine.
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