Already confirmed for this years awesome line-up are Ben Frost, Janek Schaefer, Richard Skelton, PITA, The Beautiful Schizophonic, Peter Broderick, Caro Mikalef & Stephan Mathieu, Simon Whetham & Hugo Olim, Max Tundra and there are more to be announced soon.

THE FESTIVAL HEADQUARTER | DESIGN HOTEL ESTALAGEM DA PONTA DE SOL

Only 5 months to go now until Digital in Berlin’s unique Festival – the MADEIRADIG. While it’s cold in the rest of Europe, experience some of the most formidable avant-garde musicians in the world and stay in a gorgeous Design Hotel located on a cliff in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

THE FESTIVAL VENUE | CASA DAS MUDAS ART CENTRE

This intimate festival on the mountainous volcanic island features a stunning and unsurpassable line-up, a landscape to match and attractive spring temperatures.

PONTA DO SOL | MADEIRA ISLAND / PORTUGAL

To get an idea what goes on there and why it is so unique have a look at the last year Pictures & Comments, watch the Documentary or visit the Website.

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THE MADEIRADIG FESTIVAL 2010

03-06.12.2010 | Madeira Island / Portugal

with Ben Frost, Janek Schaefer, Richard Skelton, PITA (aka. Peter Rehberg), The Beautiful Schizophonic, Peter Broderick, Caro Mikalef & Stephan Mathieu, Simon Whetham & Hugo Olim, Max Tundra and many more

http://www.madeiradig.net

Aloe Blacc is an American soul singer, rapper, and musician. His first album, entitled Shine Through, was released by Stones Throw Records in 2006.
He began his career in 1995 as an MC in and indie rap group called Emanon. By the end of the 1990s, Blacc was a “stow away” on a Lootpack tour in Europe. His music contains elements of jazz, soul and hip hop.

He recorded a cover version of the John Legend song “Ordinary People” entitled “Gente Ordinaria”. His song “I Need a Dollar” is the intro song for the HBO show How to Make it in America.

Aloe Blacc | Loving You Is Killing Me (Live in Studio)

He is also working on a new album titled “Good Things” set to be released on September 28th, 2010

Aloe Blacc | I Need A Dollar (Official Video)

Video for Aloe Blacc’s single “I Need A Dollar” from the forthcoming album Good Things. Director: Kahlil Joseph | Photography: Matthew J.Lloyd | Video Produced by WHat Matters Most and Funk Factory Films

Track list & snippets online: http://sthrow.com/aloe
Aloe Blacc “Femme Fatale” free MP3 download!
All Tour Dates Europe, Fall 2010: http://stonesthrow.com/link/aloeblacc/tour

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Aloe Blacc LIVE

Saturday 02th October 2010 | 22:00
Bohannon Club / Dircksenstr. 40 / 10178 Berlin

http://www.aloeblacc.com | http://www.stonesthrow.com

Arvo Pärt’s transcendent music is one of the defining soundworlds of the last 30 years. Through media, concerts and recordings his work has crossed boundaries of religion & culture and established itself as one of the most popular and recognisable features of the contemporary musical landscape.

This two day conference, to be held in celebration of Arvo Pärt’s 75th birthday, is presented in collaboration with the Royal Academy of Music.

Arvo Pärt (born 11 September 1935; Estonian pronunciation: [ˈɑrvo ˈpært]) is an Estonian classical composer and one of the most prominent living composers of sacred music.

Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs a self-made compositional technique called tintinnabuli. His music also finds its inspiration and influence from Gregorian chant.

Arvo Pärt | An den Wassern zu Babel

Pärt was born in Paide, Järva County, Estonia. A prolonged struggle with Soviet officials led him to emigrate with his wife and their two sons in 1980. He lived first in Vienna, Austria, where he took Austrian citizenship, and then re-located to Berlin, Germany. He returned to Estonia around the turn of the century and now lives in Tallinn.

The Level 5 Function Room is situated on the fifth floor of the Royal Festival Hall and has floor-to-ceiling windows, overlooking the London Eye, Big Ben and Westminster.
The Level 5 Function Room

With its own food preparation area it is an ideal location for receptions and dinners, but can also be set for conferences, meetings and workshops. The Level 5 Function Room also has a sizeable foyer area that can be used as a registration or cloakroom area.

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Arvo Pärt Conference Soundtrack of an Age

Royal Festival Hall / Southbank | Belvedere Road | London
@ The Level 5 Function Room

Friday 24 September 2010 -- Saturday 25 September 2010
Prices: £7

http://www.arvopart.info | http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk

Separado!, the new film starring Super Furry Animals frontman GRUFF RHYS is an odyssey to a Parallel Universe.  It’s a rockumenrary, road movie, action, adventure film and much more besides.

Star Trek meets Buena Vista Social Club in this psychedelic western musical as Welsh pop legend Rhys takes us on a pan continental road trip in search of his long lost Patagonian uncle, the poncho wearing guitarist RENE GRIFFITHS.

Separado! Trailer

In 1880, following a controversial horse race that led to an unresolved death, Gruff Rhys’ family split as Dafydd Jones took his young family to join the burgeoning Welsh community in Patagonia, South America. There was to be no contact between the families for almost a century when in 1974 Rene Griffiths arrived in Wales with his Latin infused Welsh love songs and became an over night sensation.

Director Dylan Goch follows Gruff Rhys on a tour that takes in the theatres, nightclubs and desert teahouses of Wales, Brazil and the Argentine Andes as he discovers what became of his family, the Welsh Diaspora and its musical legacy.

http://www.separado.co.uk

3 years ago the first Birthday Party Berlin tip-toed on the scene with a barely-legal party in a basement and enough people for the police to come a-calling 3 times in 4 hours.
Since then they’ve been your #1 source for confetti-fueled party action! They’ve brought in awesome live acts, inflatables, freaky kids masks and enough glow-sticks to re-create the Berlin wall! 

What is a Birthday Party? A Birthday Party is usually in a really dirty club and it is always more fun than going to a nice club. It’s cheap and sleazy. A Birthday Party is like that part in your favorite 80′s song you sing at karaoke mixed with that moment when you went to your first rave.

A Birthday Party is just a bit of fun trash that keeps you alive. The Birthday Party happens in Berlin once a month at various locations and it’s free or very cheap and people usually bring their friends because it’s more fun that way. We usually play a wide range of extatic up-beat party-jamz, from blog-electro to old-school rave, to Baltimore house, to techno to hip-hop to mashup-rock jamz.

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3 Years Birthday Party

Saturday, 31.07.2010 | 23:00 h
Jacki Terrasse / Maria | An der Schillingbrücke| 10243 Berlin

Live:
Party Catani (Supra Catanism)
Duranx3 (Cockrockdisco)
Breezy Nix (San Fransisco)
Plus: Special Surprise Guest!

And Birthday Party residents:
Uncle T, Mr. Ouzo, Lil’Jean, Sly1, OhBoyGeorgeMichelJacksonPolloc k & DJ Donna Summer

www.jackiterrasse.com | www.birthdaypartyberlin.com

Innen Stadt Außen is the first solo exhibition by the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson in a Berlin institution.

The exhibition’s central theme stems from Olafur Eliasson’s close relationship with Berlin, the city in which he has lived and worked for many years. It is also where he has set up his multi-faceted studio, combining the functions of research, production and teaching.

Since 2009 he has held a chair at Berlin’s University of the Arts, where he heads the Institute for Spatial Experiments.

After numerous international surveys and projects among others in London, New York, Kanazawa and Sydney, this exhibition will profit from the fact that Berlin, as a site of constant change, is still open to experiments with architecture and urban structure. Through various new installations especially made for the exhibition the Martin-Gropius-Bau will develop an examination of Olafur Eliasson’s practice.

Innen Stadt Außen concerns itself closely with the relationship between museum and city, architecture and landscape, as well as between space, body and time. The site-specific investigations within the museum are amplified and commented on through ephemeral projects in public space, thus linking the Martin-Gropius-Bau to various places within the city.

The exhibition is curated by Daniel Birnbaum, art critic, curator and rector of the Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main, and the contemporary exhibition space Portikus attached to it.

In 2009 he was in charge of the 53. International Art Exhibition Venice Biennale. Artist and curator have been engaged in a longstanding collaboration in the fields of book publications, exhibitions and projects in public space, which goes back to the 90s.

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Olafur Eliasson: Innen Stadt Außen in Berlin
28 April to 9 August 2010
Tickets: € 11.00 / € 8.00 reduced

Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin | Niederkirchnerstraße 7 | 10963 Berlin

http://www.berlinerfestspiele.de | http://www.olafureliasson.net

Anne Rolfs (alias Allroh, ex-Wuhling) and Kevin Shea (Drummer of TALIBAM!, “Mostly Other People Do The Killing”, “Band of the year” Downbeat and other bands) are the duo “ANONYM”.

Both have worked with with Steve Albini (Pixies, PJ Harvey, Shellac, John Spencer, The Stooges) and together as ANONYM they form a mighty improv duo!

“Anne Rolfs is a young German woman who sings with a rare self-assuredness – an antidote to the nymphic whispiness of others working similar territory.

She also spends a large portion of HAG DEC shredding her guitar to splinters in a bloody fingered blizzard more Darkthrone than Joan Baez. Chord sequenzes erupt in jagged solos, or ringing harmonics, or bouts of possessed caterwauling, with a startling intuitive geometry that suggests the whole record was composed on the fly in a state of grace. Imagin Bill Orcutt and Joni Mitchell busking World of Echo.” WIRE

“One thing I am absolutely convinced: There is no one quite like Allroh nor will there ever be if the world exists another thousand years from now.” Radio Free Chicago

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ANONYM LIVE
Tuesday, 27.07.2010
Doors 20:00 | Entry: 12 Euro

Bang Bang Club | Neue Promenade 10 | Berlin/Mitte

http://www.allroh.com | http://www.bangbangclub.net

Ever since 2002 Shorts Attack has been screening specially curated short film programs every month. An undertaking that’s not only unique to Europe, but probably the world!
The 100th edition will be going off with a bang: 22 films in just 85 minutes! D/B highly Recommended!

Month after month Shorts Attack keeps on conjuring up new themes, researching films and celebrating with international guests and adventurous, discerning audiences. They have succeeded at boosting the image of short film and helped established its ongoing presence in Berlin’s cinema landscape.

HOT SHOTS is a summery collection of punch-lines and compelling gems, like the premiere of the animated series “Jam Log”. There’ll be Shorts Attack audience favourites and internationally celebrated works, where high-end meets pure fun.

Shorts Attack! Trailer

Don’t miss the after-show ghetto blaster party with DJ Rumsbums on the square osubtitlesside Babylon!

[GERMAN] Seit 2002 Monat für Monat ein Kurzfilmprogramm! Dies ist europaweit, ja vielleicht weltweit einzigartig. Zum 100. gönnt shorts attack! den geneigten Fans einen bunten Strauß kurzer Knaller: 22 Filme in 85 Minuten!

HOT SHOTS lädt zu sommerverträglichen Pointen und kurzweiligen Perlen, wie die animierte Serie “Jam Log”. Mit dabei sind Publikumslieblinge aus der Geschichte von Shorts Attack und international gefeierte Werke. Und nach dem Programm gibt es eine Ghettoblaster-Party auf dem Platz vor dem Babylon!

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Hot Shots | Shorts Attack

Wednesday, 28.07.2010
Babylon Kino | Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße 30 | 10178 Berlin, Germany

http://www.interfilm.de

Aidan Baker is a musician and writer alternately based in Toronto and Berlin.

Classically trained in flute, he is self-taught on guitar, drums, and various other instruments. As a solo artist, Baker explores the deconstructive sonic possibilities of the electric guitar as a primary sound source, creating music that ranges from experimental to post-rock to contemporary classical.

He also performs in the experimental collective ARC and the ambient/doom metal project Nadja.

Aidan Baker & Tim Hecker | Hymn to the idea of night

He has toured in both North America and Europe, and has made appearances at the OM Festival, MUTEK, South by Southwest, and the Distillery Jazz Festival.

Embryo are considered one of the most important German Krautrock bands of the 1970s.

The musical collective from Munich has been active since 1969, although its story started in the mid-1950s in Hof where Christian Burchard and Dieter Serfas met for the first time at the age of 10.

In 1969 the band was founded by multi instrumentalist Christian Burchard (drums, vibraphone, santur, keyboard) and Edgar Hoffmann (saxophone, flutes).

To date more than 400 musicians have played with the collective, some, such as Charlie Mariano, Trilok Gurtu, Ramesh Shotham, Marty Cook, Yuri Parfenov, Allan Praskin, X.Nie, Nick McCarthy, Monty Waters and Mal Waldron, have played on multiple occasions. Longtime members are Edgar Hoffmann (sax,violin) ,Dieter Serfas (drums), Roman Bunka (guitar, oud), Uve Müllrich (bass), Michael Wehmeyer (keyboard), Chris Karrer (guitar, oud, violin, sax), Lothar Stahl (marimba, drums), and Jens Polheide (bass, flute).

With Ton Steine Scherben a. o. founder of the first German independent label Schneeball in 1976.

In 1979 the band started a nine month tour to India by bus, which was documented by the movie “Vagabunden Karawane”.[1] Embryo developed from jazzy Krautrock to a world music band, which is able to merge different styles and trends.

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Embryo LIVE
Monday, 30.08.2010

Madame Claude | Bar for common people
Lübbenerstr. 19 | 10997 Berlin/Kreuzberg

http://www.embryo.de | http://www.myspace.com/madame_claude

Sónar presents the first Sónar Chicago on the 9th, 10th and 11th of September 2010. With this new small-format festival Sonar returns to the United States.
Some of the artists confirmed to date are The Slew, Oval, Ben Frost, Nosaj Thing, Martyn, Nicolas Bernier + Martin Messier: La Chambre des Machines, The Flashbulb feat. the New Millennium Orchestra and many more.

Sonar Chicago will present a multidisciplinary line-up with an experimental slant that is consistent with the distinguishing feature of the Barcelona festival, and which on this occasion will focus on emerging talent and local scenes, in both North America and Catalonia.

Chicago Cultural Center

As well as all that, Sónar Chicago expands its line-up with its collaboration with Adventures In Modern Music  (AIMM), the five-day festival organised by the renowned British magazine The Wire and the promoters at the Empty Bottle, one of the city’s most important venues.

Millennium Park

In its eighth outing this year, it presents shows byThe Rhys Chatham Trio, Sleep and Efterklang, among others.

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Sónar 2010 in Chicago
9th, 10th and 11th of September 2010

http://www.sonarchicago.com

11+3 is designed to give you an insight into the motivations and aspirations of the best creative minds in the world.
This time with L.A. based visual artist & painter Teebs. Each artist is asked 11 set questions and to contribute 3 “facts” which can be any statement from them on absolutely anything: their own views on politics, religion, the environment, sport…or just something they read in the paper or saw on TV.

FACTS:
1: real name means peace
2: sitting at an airport listen to guys talk about ninjas
3:my sp404 got bomb checked. again.

QUESTIONS:

1. What is the biggest inspiration for your music?
New places new food, new games and overall people who have their own voices

2. How and when did you get into making music?
I got hurt and couldn’t skateboard for almost half a year and sort of fell into. I started around 2007.

Cannibal ox – cold vein
Madlib records.
Manitoba- up in flames
Broadcast- haha sound

4. What do you associate with Berlin?
The wall, and a culture I still need to explore

5. What’s your favourite place in your town?
My house

6. If there was no music in the world, what would you do instead?
probably painting and skating around…maybe even cooking

7. What was the last record you bought?
An Astrud Gilberto record

8. Who would you most like to collaborate with?
Samiyam

9. What was your best gig (as performer or spectator)?
Performing wise it was opening up for Rasg at lowend for his record release. First live set ever and the energy was incredible

10. How important is technology to your creative process?
Pretty important, I feel comfortable with it…definitely eases work flow

http://www.myspace.com/teeeb

The concert on the occasion of Terry Riley’s 75th birthday: California Kirana.

Terry Riley, born June 24, 1935, is an American composer associated with the minimalist school of Western classical music. Riley began his long-lasting association with the Kronos Quartet by meeting its founder, David Harrington, while at Mills.

Over the course of his career, Riley composed 13 string quartets for the ensemble, in addition to other works. He wrote his first orchestral piece, Jade Palace, in 1991, and has continued to pursue that avenue, with several commissioned orchestral compositions following. Riley is also currently performing and teaching both as an Indian raga vocalist and as a solo pianist.

His music is usually based on improvising through a series of modal figures of different lengths, such as in In C and the Keyboard Studies. In C  (1964) is probably Riley’s best-known work and one that brought the minimalist music movement to prominence.

Terry Riley’s In C with 124 musicians (Excerpt)

Its first performance was given by Steve Reich, Jon Gibson, Pauline Oliveros, and Morton Subotnick, among others, and it has influenced their work and that of many others, including John Adams, Roberto Carnevale, and Philip Glass. Its form was an innovation: the piece consists of 53 separate modules of roughly one measure apiece, each containing a different musical pattern but each, as the title implies, in the key of C.

One performer beats a steady pulse of Cs on the piano to keep tempo. The others, in any number and on any instrument, perform these musical modules following a few loose guidelines, with the different musical modules interlocking in various ways as time goes on.

Talvin Singh Matharu is a producer and composer and tabla player, known for creating an innovative fusion of classical Indian music and drum and bass. Singh is generally considered involved with an electronica sub genre called Asian Underground.

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TERRY RILEY / TALVIN SINGH / GEORGE BROOKS LIVE
HKW Royal | Haus der Kulturen der Welt | John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10 | 10557 Berlin

Sunday, 24.10.2010 | 20:00 h
Enrty: 25 € / 30 € / 35 €

http://www.hkw.de

BBE has been putting out quality vibes for the last two decades and is one of the most influential and respected independent labels in the business.

From the legendary Beat Generation series to the critically acclaimed Disco/Rare Groove/Funk Comps by the most influential taste-makers in the business, BBE has always put quality first.

Expect a rare treat of Disco, Electro, Funk, Hip Hop and Soul.

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BBE SOUNDSYSTEM night with PETE & JON

Saturday, 31. Juli 2010 / 22:00 CET

KLEINE REISE /Spreewaldplatz 8 / Berlin
http://www.bbemusic.com | http://www.kr-club.com

Stermann & Grissemann sind ein deutsch-österreichisches Satiriker-Duo, bestehend aus Dirk Stermann und Christoph Grissemann.
Beide begannen ihre Karriere beim ORF, in dessen Rundfunkprogramm sie seit 1991 gemeinsam die Radiosendung Salon Helga betreiben. 1997 folgten erste Fernsehspiele, die im Rahmen der kunst-stücke ausgestrahlt wurden und seit 1998 betreiben sie auch bei Radio Eins eine Satiresendung.

Stermann & Grissemann auf der grünen Skipiste

1998 erschien das erste Buch des Duos und seit 1999 sind sie in eigenen Kabarettprogrammen auf der Bühne zu sehen. Seit 2007 verfügen Stermann und Grissemann über eine eigene Fernsehshow: Willkommen Österreich, die im Rahmen der Donnerstag Nacht im ORF ausgestrahlt wird.

Stermann & Grissemann | Auf den Partner kommt es an

Gemeinsam machen sie unter anderem seit 1991 im ORF die Radiosendung Salon Helga, zuerst auf Ö3 und dann auf FM4. Seit 1997 haben sie im ORF auch verschiedene Fernsehsendungen wie z. B. Suite 16, Blech oder Blume (gab es zuvor auch schon als Radio-Version Radio Blume), Kulturkiste oder Frau Pepi und die Buben produziert.

Im deutschen Hörfunk sind sie – hier als Grissemann & Stermann – seit 1998 jeden Sonntag auf Radio Eins (RBB) mit ihren Sendungen Show Royale und Blech oder Blume (Slogan Gute Frau sucht guten Mann und Damenwahl bei Show Royale) vertreten.

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STERMANN & GRISSEMANN live

Friday 24th Septmber 2010
Festsaal Kreuzberg | Skalitzerstr. 130 | 10999 Berlin/Kreuzberg

http://www.stermann-grissemann.at

11+3 is designed to give you an insight into the motivations and aspirations of the best creative minds in the world.
This time with Proximal Records artist and label co-head Sahy Uhns from L.A. Each artist is asked 11 set questions and to contribute 3 “facts” which can be any statement from them on absolutely anything: their own views on politics, religion, the environment, sport…or just something they read in the paper or saw on TV.

FACTS:

1. Nacho Libre
2. Your mistake is my detail.
3. Trying to get over my intolerant disdain for underlings.

QUESTIONS:

1. What is the biggest inspiration for your music?
Probably the need to focus my energy and ease my anxiety :)

2. How and when did you get into making music?
I started make music when I was around 10 years old.  I started out playing guitar mainly because my Uncle was country western guitarist and I looked up to him a lot.  Around that same time I was interested in DJs and Turntablism.  I ended up stealing my sisters crappy belt drive turntable off of her stereo and tried to start scratching some rock records my guitar teacher gave me.  It only took a few days before I busted up the table and the records but it was a start :)

3. What are your 5 favourite albums of all time?
Oh man.  This is a super hard one.  The only one that I’m positive of is Body Riddle By Clark.  I know that is my favorite record.  After that they are, in no particular order:
- The Chronic By Dr. Dre is HUGE.
- I can’t decide between Confield, EP7, or LP5 by Autechre, they have all meant so much to me.
- Call me a dork but I love Eutaw by Old Crow Medicine Show.
- And maybe Los Angeles by Flying Lotus.

But really, that question is impossible.  Those are just the things that come to my head right now and I know that I’m gonna think of a million others.  Ok and maybe Discovery by Daft Punk.

4. What do you associate with Berlin?
Haha. Well, It one of the top two cities that I want to live in besides L.A. – Berlin and Tokyo.  I think of awesome techno of all kinds and beautiful architecture and design in general.  In terms of music, the first thing that comes to mine is Raster-Noton and all its artists.  One of the close friends of Proximal, David Scadron is about to study abroad in Berlin his next quarter.

5. What’s your favourite place in your town?
That one is pretty hard too.  Not to be a loser but probably my room or my lady friend, Jane’s hot tub.  I have wonderful, relaxing memories of those places.  In terms of the city, I love downtown L.A. It is a super weird downtown compared to most cities but every time I’m there I always feel great. I also love the taco truck called Taco Zone near Sunset and Alvarado.

6. If there was no music in the world, what would you do instead?
Well, if music just all of the sudden ended, I would probably do photography and graphic design. But if music never had existed I would probably would be doing something in industrial design.

7. What was the last record you bought?
The last new record I bought was “Move of Ten” by Autechre but the last old record I bought was “West Costra Nostra” By the Boo Yaa Tribe, some G-Funk west coast shit :)

8. Who would you most like to collaborate with?
Clark. If that can’t happen, then maybe MF Doom.

9. What was your best gig (as performer or spectator)?
The first two that come to mind are Daft Punk on their Alive tour at the L.A. Sports Arena and the other was Knobgoblin at Khalija Records’ Decay Fest II in a tiny gallery in Echo park.

In terms of things that I’ve played, I think the best are yet to come :)

10. How important is technology to your creative process?
Hugely important. I work a lot in a software called Reaktor, which is graphical programming environment.  When I’m bored, I’m usually thinking about some new patch I wanna make or trying to figure out how different synthesis techniques work.  Then as soon as I have the opportunity for me to sit at my computer I’ll make it.  That’s how a lot of my tracks get started.  Melody and harmony are definitely not the first things I think about when making music.  It is almost always some sound or rhythm.

11. Do you have siblings and are they proud or jealous of you?
I have one older sister, Carrie Nelle and she is proud :)  She actually helps me a lot because she is a graphic designer, so I’ll do all of the design for Proximal and then I’ll send it over to her to review and edit.

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Within the laboratory of his Los Angeles studio, Sahy Uhns (pronounced Science) has been producing hip-hop and electronic music since his early teenage years, creating concoctions that could only be attributed to a scientist who has simply gone mad. Born Carl Madison Burgin, the LA native draws inspiration from west coast hip-hop culture and channels his musical energy into generating new and unique sounds – recording everywhere he goes.

Sahy Uhns’s use of custom designed software, hardware, modified instruments and found sounds, contributes to his unique approach to composition and production. As a compulsive music-maker, Sahy Uhns’s dedication and attention to detail are evident in the production of his studio tracks. His live performances brim with focused energy as he constantly engages the audience with live electronic drumming, scratching, and improvised audio manipulation through his custom-built computer interfaces.

As a student at the California Institute of the Arts’ Music Technology department, Sahy Uhns has incorporated his studies of synthesis and musical robotics with the ideas and influences of his surroundings to formulate a fusion of music so inventive that it can only be defined by science.

http://www.myspace.com/sahyuhns

11+3 is designed to give you an insight into the motivations and aspirations of the best creative minds in the world.

This time with Chris Bryan – singer and guitarist with Manchester band ‘Irk The River’. Each artist is asked 11 set questions and to contribute 3 “facts” which can be any statement from them on absolutely anything: their own views on politics, religion, the environment, sport…or just something they read in the paper or saw on TV.

FACTS:

1: Original Modern. Peter Saville’s motto for Manchester is something I want to strive for when writing. Is it original and is it modern? It should be a checklist for any true creative.

2: I hanker for some of that underground arts culture that you’ve got in Berlin. Everything in 21st century Britain is regulated, licensed and risk assessed to death. There’s nothing remotely risky going on.

3: I think you are going to see more commentary about the issue of overpopulation in the next few years. We simply have too many people all competing for dwindling resources. There’s trouble brewing.

QUESTIONS:
1. What is the biggest inspiration for your music?
For me it’s just the urge to produce. To produce art that has a relevance to a particular time and place.

2. How and when did you get into making music?
I was at college and saw one of my friends rehearse in a group he had going at the time. I was sixteen and I thought it seemed cool and so I saved up all my Christmas money and I bought a guitar. Irk The River have been going for about a year. I knew Andy from when we both first moved to Manchester and I met Barnaby at a house party a few years ago

3. What are your 5 favourite albums of all time?
I don’t even know. I don’t really rate things like that. I expect Love’s Forever Changes would have to be in there, Terry Callier’s What Colour is love? too. I reckon that Roots Manuva’s Brand New Second Hand would be up there too. Stop Making Sense as well - belting album.

4. What do you associate with Berlin?
Volcanic ash. The group were meant to go over a month or two ago and it all got cancelled. If you can’t look after a volcano properly I don’t think you should be allowed to keep one.

5. What’s your favorite place in your town?
Manchester has many merits. It’s been going through a cultural renaissance in the last ten years and it’s been great to see it develop first hand. My favourite spot would have to be these steps that lead down from Oxford Road Train Station. They haven’t changed since the 70s and they are absolutely filthy, quite salubrious and they lead down to a cobbled street under the railway arches. It’s just a nice reminder that not all of Manchester has to be gleaming, new and made of glass and steel. It’s a little nod to Manchester pre-New Labour

6. If there was no music in the world, what would you do instead?
I’d just be even more disappointed that I have very big ears, without any of the advantages

7. What was the last record you bought?
I got a couple off a flea market in Chorley which is where I was born (25 miles north west of Manchester). I got the opera ‘Porgy and Bess’ recorded in the 40′s I think in New York, which is ace. I got an Edith Piaf record too. Both on vinyl.

8. Who would you most like to collaborate with?
I’d be interested in doing some collaboration with different types of artists. Like film makers, theatre directors, visual artists. But at the minute it’s hard enough getting enough time to work just as Irk The River.

9. What was your best gig (as performer or spectator)?
We supported a group called ‘Young Knives’ on their last tour. They are Mercury Music Prize nominated and are really good. We did a great show in Crewe that was very busy and we went down well and I expect that’s my gig highlight so far

10. How important is technology to your creative process?
Electricity helps a lot because we’ve got electric instruments. Microwaves too so we can eat while we’re at the studio. Nah, we write just as the three of us with our instruments. We don’t mess around with effects or synths until we get into the studio. It’s pretty lo-fi at the minute.

11. Do you have siblings and are they proud or jealous of you?
I’ve got a real sister, a step sister and a half brother. The full complement. I’ve never really thought about them being proud or jealous of me. Probably both though…

http://www.myspace.com/irktheriver

Besides his activities as frontman of the cult German band F.S.K., Thomas Meinecke is also known as an author and Disk Jockey. Many of his books have appeared on Edition Suhrkamp where he will give a presentation this weekend.

Billed this time as a an a capella recitital rather than a reading, one might be unsure what to expect from Thomas Meinecke sings Thomas Meinecke. The musician will give a DJ set too the next day where fine records are guaranteed.

Thomas Meinecke was born in Hamburg, Germany, and lives south of Munich in pre-alpine rural Bavaria. He is a novelist, a musician, and a DJ. Thomas has been publishing books on Suhrkamp since 1986. The newest one being “Jungfrau”, released 2008.

F.S.K. | Nokturn

Thomas has been recording with his Munich-based band F.S.K. since 1980 in Germany, England, and the U.S.A. From the mid 1980’s until the very evening before John Peel’s funeral F.S.K. have recorded more John Peel BBC 1 Sessions than any other non-British band.

They have been touring Europe and the U.S.A. since the 1980′s. Starting as an art school band on Hamburg’s ZickZack label, the group later branched out into club music and recorded for Munich’s Disko B Records from 1996 on. In 2004 they produced the much-acclaimed album “First Take then Shake – The F.S.K. Band meets Anthony ‘Shake’ Shakir in the Studio” with Anthony Shakir flying in from Detroit.

In 2008 F.S.K. signed with Hamburg-based and Daniel Richter-owned Buback Records. Germany’s renowned music magazine Spex voted F.S.K.’s “Nokturn” as Best Song of the Year 2008.

Thomas Meinecke ist ein deutscher Musiker, Autor und DJ. 1977 ging der in Hamburg aufgewachsene Meinecke zum Studium der Theaterwissenschaft, Neueren Deutschen Literatur und Kommunikationswissenschaft an die München. In seiner Magisterarbeit befasste er sich 1982 mit Karl Philipp Moritz.

1978 gründete er mit Kommilitonen die Literaturzeitschrift Mode und Verzweiflung. 1980 entstand daraus die Band F.S.K. (Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle), die bis heute in fast gleicher Besetzung aktiv ist.
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Thomas Meinecke sings Thomas Meinecke
Friday 23rd July 2010 | 20:00 CET | FOR FREE

Suhrkamp Shop | Linienstrasse 127 | 10115 Berlin

http://www.suhrkamp.de |  http://www.myspace.com/thomasmeinecke