In Christy & Emilys music, we find unconventional rockers with Brazilian baiao rhythms seated in a psychedelic netherworld, suicide ballads invoking the sordid tales in the Harry Smith Anthology and chords borrowed from Schumann and Liszt with a chorus that nods to Brian Wilson.

Christy & Emily | Kings & Monsters

Christy learned to play guitar from a “Metallica – Ride The Lightning” tablature book, and started playing in bands during her stay at the Rhode Island School of Design. She got exposed to a lot of good and noisy bands going to shows at the now extinct Fort Thunder.

Christy also plays guitar and sings in a punk band called the Totallys that gigs regularly in NYC. In addition she was the drummer for a psych rock band called the Sumerians.

Emily is a classically trained pianist who has studied at the New England Conservatory, the Oberlin Conservatory and Columbia University. In September 2009 her recording of the entire works of Anton Webern for soprano and piano with Jody Pou was released on the Shsk’h label to international acclaim.

She has contributed to the recordings and liveperformances of Brooklyn rock bands Oneida (Jagjaguar) and Oakley Hall (Merge) and has premiered the music of Elliott Sharp, Susie Ibarra, Matt Welch and many others.

Digital in Berlin recommended! We are giving away 2 x 2 tickets for “Christy & Emily”. Just send a mail to win@digitalinberlin.de with “Christy & Emily” as the subject.

You can read our 11+3 interview with Christy & Emily here.
________________________________________________________________

Christy & Emily  LIVE

Sunday, 12 February 2012 | 19:00 CET
Privatclub | Pücklerstr. 34 | 10997 Berlin/Kreuzberg

christyandemily.com | privatclub-berlin.de
________________________________________________________________

Born on April 5, 1990, in Gnas, Austria, and raised on a pig farm, Plaschg began writing and performing music on piano as a teenager and ultimately went on to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.

Soap&Skin | Marche Funèbre

She made her commercial recording debut as Soap & Skin in 2008 with an eponymous four-track EP. The following year at age 18 she released her debut album. Comparisons were often drawing between Plaschg and celebrated female singer/songwriters such as Cat Power, Nico, Kate Bush, and Björk.

Now 21, her new album features a cover of Desireless’ Europop hit ‘Voyage Voyage’, and was also apparently inspired by the sudden death of her father in 2009.
________________________________________________________________

Soap&Skin  LIVE
with Ensemble

Dj: Falko Teichmann

Sunday, 12 February 2012 | 19:00 CET
Volksbühne | Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz | 10178 Berlin/Mitte

soapandskin.com | volksbuehne-berlin.de
________________________________________________________________

Pierce Warnecke’s work stems from his interest in the effects of time on matter: modification, deterioration and disappearance. Via an almost scientific process of collecting, filtering and combining phenomena (objects, data, sounds, images), he distills the subject via repetitive processes until it approaches true abstraction.

Pierce Warnecke| The Machine Regrets (teaser)

Whether focus is on the purity of digital forms or the chaotic grit of natural objects, large scales of time and space or microscopic detail, the goal of Pierce’s work is to readapt existing materials into a parallel context where their signified meanings, symbols and cultural connections have become residual ghosts.

Sound works explore combinations of pure synthetic sounds, electronic interferences, field recordings and manipulations of found objects. Textural, drone, noise, electronic and improvised music are areas of interest, explored through solo works and collaborations.

Video is created in real-time, recorded, or generated and uses found items and moments: data sets, organic matter and microscopic textures to create dense patterns and contrasting forms.

________________________________________________________________

Pierce Warnecke LIVE
+ Pierre Borel, Paul Roth

Monday, 13 February 2012 | 20:00 CET
wndl | Schlesische Str. 42 | 10997 Berlin/Kreuzberg

piercewarnecke.com| nstp.de
________________________________________________________________

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).
________________________________________________________________

“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
________________________________________________________________

He has released numerous albums on labels from around the world & has authored several books of prose and poetry. Even though he likes to keep the arts well seperated, both his poems as well as his music share the same freeness of approach and can either represent a “stream of consciousness”, “spontaneous composition” or a carefully edited and fully composed work.

Aidan Baker | Twentyfour Hours

On his various recordings, he has explored many different sounds, structures and sources, but he is mostly associated with the minimal guitar patterns, delicately treated to create tender drones, which have become his trademark.

Time slowly looses its meaning, but if you listen carefully, you will hear a distant beat, a rhytmical recital and themes locking into each other like rhymes.

Baker shares the stage of the West Germany club with A-sun Amissa. The trio produces a dense, drone-like atmosphere accompanying evocative, melodic string sections and intertwining guitars.

The live show features sections of the recorded output combined with improvisation to unlock new movements and progressions in the music.
________________________________________________________________

Aidan Baker & A-Sun Amissa  LIVE

Wednesday, 15 January 2012 | 20:00 CET
West Germany | Skalitzer Str. 133 | 10999 Berlin/Kreuzberg

brokenspineprods.wordpress.com | slowsecret.com/a-sun-amissa | West Germany at lastfm
________________________________________________________________

Being the first Domino French signing, Fránçois and The Atlas Mountains are ready to spread their wings over indie pop’s vast international landscape. With vivid looks and a slender body, Fránçois builds up castles in Saintonge with Moroccan mountains, British phlegm and sturdy friendships.

Francois & the Atlas Mountains | Royan

After seven years of passionate gigs and road trips across Europe, Fránçois & The Atlas Mountains convey a magnetic presence on stage. A deep sense of lightness and sincerity sets in as voices, keyboards and African percussion blend in an instant pop.

Written between Bristol, Bordeaux and Saintes and weathered on the road and polished in Dakar, the songs on the new album reflect a strong bond between the band’s members and their relatives. Recorded live in an old wooden dance hall of Saintonge, the backbone of these tracks stresses the instinctive nature of the recording.
________________________________________________________________

Francois & the Atlas Mountains  LIVE

Thursday, 16 February 2012 | 20:00 CET
Festsaal Kreuzberg | Skalitzer Str. 130 | 10999 Berlin/Kreuzberg

myspace.com/francoisinbristol | festsaal-kreuzberg.de
________________________________________________________________

Later he turned towards modern jazz in Vestbirk Noiz Ensemble, a 13-man piece headed by Niels Præstholm, and known for playing anything from pipes, table tennis balls, washing machines, samplers, antique radios and a thundering bass.

Monolog | Ecule Drift

His activities in Berlin have often been rooted at wndl as well as the stage at ZR with its improvised music and modern jazz aesthetics. He soon bonded with EPY from Trust in Austria through a series of live shows in Berlin, while also playing doom jazz with Anders Holst Jensen of Danish stages.

Later playing a number of other Berlin-venues indulging in more functional aesthetic delivering break core sets including the Berghain Kantine. Recently also in a duo project with Karsten Pflum aka A Dying User. Or solo launching drum and bass and skewed wreckstep sets at raumklang, m.i.k.z, subland or other bass dungeons.

Monolog | Vertigo

Currently finishing up the Aerodymanic vinyl summing up recent steps in a harder, more dense and direct form, new to the monolog alias. The Monolog project is constantly changing, aiming for extremities and seeking them musically, technically and emotionally.

Whether it is hammering the drums or creating soothing harmonies, these musical poles are given life by Monolog’s binding of contrasts.
________________________________________________________________

monolog  LIVE
Support: Voidnoise, The Buddy System, Subheim + Kartsen Pflum DJ

Saturday, 18 February 2012 | 20:00 CET
wndl | Schlesische Str 42 | 10997 Berlin/Kreuzberg

bitreactor.dk | uhrlaut.com| nstp.de
________________________________________________________________

Since the 1990s Lambchop has evolved into an accomplished ensemble, adding palpable depth and substance to Wagner’s songs — and the band sounds as commanding as ever on its 11th album, Mr. M, a collection of meditations on love and loss and the detritus of everyday existence.

Lambchop | Gar

Even so, something of that playful boast from long ago remains at the heart of everything the group has done since then. Lambchop may not sound in any conventional way like a country band, and yet the essential spirit of country music — the sound of someone just trying to make sense of life’s little ups and downs — remains present in its music.

As on past Lambchop records, many of the songs on Mr. M are framed with lush strings, and there’s a restrained undercurrent of distortion and discord. The core of the music remains the cyclical picking of Wagner’s guitar and the soft, warm croaking of his voice.

Mr. M is dedicated to the late musician Vic Chesnutt, a friend, fan and collaborator, and a prodigiously gifted musician in his own right.

Chesnutt’s influence looms large in Lambchop’s music: in particular, his way with words, and his uncanny ability to wrap them in music that says even more than the lyrics alone can.
________________________________________________________________

Lambchop  LIVE

Thursday, 23 February 2012 | 20:00 CET
Babylon | Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. 30| 10178 Berlin/Mitte

lambchop.net | babylonberlin.de
________________________________________________________________

The man behind Dirty Beaches is Alex Zhang Hungtai; solo performer, sound-smith, and trans-Pacific nomad. Born in Taiwan, Hungtai has made Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver his homes.

Dirty Beaches | Lord Knows Best

Like Bo Didley or minimalist synth provocateurs Suicide, Dirty Beaches’ compositions are not so much stripped down as refined to their essence. Drum loops entrance, Hungtai’s croon enchants, and the yearning melodies draped overtop belie as much a sense of haunting mystery as they do romanticism and wry humour.

Some of his influences as mentioned on his myspace account are: Wong Kar-Wai, Vincent Gallo, Tsai Ming-Liang, David Lynch, Solid State Technology, Link Wray, Henry Chinaski, Alan Vega, Martin Rev, skylines, landscapes, trains, abandoned architecture, coffee, cigarettes, flowers, harbors and getting his face broken.

________________________________________________________________

Dirty Beaches  LIVE

Djs: Joe Le Taxi & Betty Pop

Saturday, 25 Februar 2012 | 20:00 CET
Kater Holzig | Michaelkirchstr. 23 | 10179 Berlin/Mitte

dirtybeaches.blogspot.com | katerholzig.de
________________________________________________________________

That spring, they played the MtyMx festival in Mexico as part of a block of bands curated by Denver venue Rhinocerpolis.

Gauntlet Hair | Keep Time

One of their songs, “I Was Thinking…,” was featured on a mixtape by local producer Pictureplane, increasing the buzz around Gauntlet Hair on indie rock blogs. One such blog, Gorilla vs. Bear, released the band’s debut 7″, I Was Thinking…/Our Scenery, on its Forest Family imprint as a limited edition of 500 copies in summer 2010.

After several other short releases, including the Mexican Summer single Out, Don’t/Heave, Gauntlet Hair released their self-titled debut album on Dead Oceans in October 2011. Gauntlet Hair are supported by Berlin based trio Skiing.
________________________________________________________________

Gauntlet Hair & Skiing  LIVE

Saturday, 25 February 2012 | 20:00 CET
Marie Antoinette | Holzmarktstr. 15-18 | 10179 Berlin/Mitte

gauntlethair.net
________________________________________________________________

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.
________________________________________________________________

Monolake  LIVE

Djs: Shackleton & Peverelist

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

monolake.de | berghain.de
________________________________________________________________

Where their contemporaries were often direct and to the point, Tindersticks were obtuse and leisurely, crafting dense, difficult songs layered with literary lyrics, intertwining melodies, mumbling vocals, and gently melancholy orchestrations.

Essentially, the group filtered the dark romanticism of Leonard Cohen, Ian Curtis, and Scott Walker as filtered through the bizarre pop songcraft of Lee Hazlewood and the aesthetics of indie rock.

Tindersticks | Medicine

Tindersticks return this year with The Something Rain, out on February 21 via Constellation in North America, City Slang in Europe, and the band’s own Lucky Dog imprint in the UK.

The Something Rain follows 2010′s Falling Down a Mountain, as well as a collection of Claire Denis film scores the band released as a box set earlier last year.
________________________________________________________________

Tindersticks  LIVE

Wednesday, 07 March 2012 | 20:00 CET
Volksbühne | Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz | 10178 Berlin/Mitte

tindersticks.co.uk | volksbuehne-berlin.de
________________________________________________________________

Well-versed in the art of rhythm at this point, it seemed a natural process to make beats based on complex time signatures and wild syncopated fills. Sandwiched by singles and EPs, A Choir of Empty Beds and Welcome Tourist were among his most notable releases.

B. Fleischmann | 02/00

And there is “The Humbucking Coil”, Bernhard Fleischmann’s third solo record released in February 2006 – euphoric pop in slow motion, rustling rhythm patterns, songs that linger and indulge.

Bernhard Fleischmann is the composer for different film scopes, so for für Bady Mincks “Am Anfang war der Blick”, Jörg Kalts “Crash Test Dummies” and Marc Bauders and Dörte Frankes “Jeder schweigt von etwas anderem”.
________________________________________________________________

B. Fleischmann  LIVE

Thursday, 15 March 2012 | 21:00 CET
Gretchen | Obentrautstr. 19-21 | 10963 Berlin – Kreuzberg

bfleischmann.com | gretchen-club.de
________________________________________________________________

The recording writing process this time out took Baldwin to a remote cabin in Maine. That sort of setting may sound familiar, and, like Bon Iver’s debut splash, this is a record with a wonderful ambiance.

Nat Baldwin | A little lost

Unlike most of 2008′s Most Valuable Player, People Changes finds Baldwin largely on his own: just his voice and bass, with help from a few friends.

Baldwin sings in a lovely melisma, the same slippery style used by his Dirty Projectors bandmate Dave Longstreth. But while Longstreth’s voice will often crunch itself up into grotesque shapes, Baldwin keeps his airborne.

It serves as a terrific juxtaposition to the spare arrangements of People Changes. The earthen tones of his double-bass act as both anchor and trampoline for Baldwin’s voice, an instrument that flutters and swoops as it pleases.

Whether Baldwin is singing with his throat or his bow, there’s a thrilling feeling of freedom to it all.
________________________________________________________________

Nat Baldwin  LIVE
presented by Kometenmelodien

Thursday, 09 February 2012 | 20:00 CET
Berghain | Am Wriezener Bahnhof | 10243 Berlin/Friedrichshain

myspace.com/natbaldwin | berghain.de
________________________________________________________________

Like One Club, which twisted field recordings from the Frankfurt nightclub Robert Johnson into splayed-apart dance music, One Pig is an overwhelming, inscrutably political electronic record culled from an unlikely source.

Matthew Herbert | September

In this case, it consists of manipulated recordings Herbert made of a pig’s life, “from birth to plate.” This certainly isn’t the exploitation record PETA assumed it was gonna be, and it’s not a slab of musical vegan didacticism that presumably, many more, who prefer their music to be good first, and message-oriented second, feared either.

No matter how visceral Herbert’s mix of animal grunts and menacing electronics feel, the message is never something simple like, “it sure is sad that we kill animals.” Rather, it moves listeners to be more mindful of consumption and waste, while acknowledging just how strangely disconnected we are from the animals killed to put food on our table.

Herbert notes in the making-of video that, for legal reasons, he could not record the actual death of the pig. And that says a great deal more about government-sanctioned ignorance and the bizarre regulations on food manufacturing than One Pig really ever could.

What Herbert has put together is a witty, difficult, touching testament to making something lasting out of one of the world’s many cruel inevitabilities.
________________________________________________________________

Matthew Herbert presents “One Pig”  LIVE

Tuesday, 07 February 2012 | 20:00 CET
HAU 1 | Stresemannstr. 29 | 10963 Berlin/Kreuzberg

matthewherbert.com | hebbel-am-ufer.de
________________________________________________________________