Among this years Swingfest acts are Tom Hecker, Sunn O)), Zu, Hidden Orchestra, Boren und Der Club of Gore and September  Malevolence. Each act will play headline-length sets.

Tim Hecker | Dungeoneering

All concerts will take place in Essen’s beautiful new concert hall, the Weststadehalle. With its impressive glass facade, this venue provides an atmosphere which lends itself well to the sound and sights of Denovali’s 2011 Swingfest.

Sunn o)) | Big Church

Tickets for Swingfest 2011 are modestly priced at 27 euros per day or 70 euros for the entire festival. These are attainable from the Festival website. Don’t miss this opportunity to witness this unprecedented lineup!

________________________________________________________________

Swingfest
presented by Denovali Records

With Tom Hecker, Sunn O)), Zu, Hidden Orchestra, Boren und Der Club of Gore, September  Malevolence, Thomas Köner, Bersarin Quartett and many more…

Friday, 30 September – 2 October 2011
Weststadhalle | Thea-Leymann-Straße 23 | 45127 Essen

http://www.denovali.com/swingfest | Weststadhalle
________________________________________________________________

Whether illustration, animation, graphic design, urban vinyl, street or fine art – this year, it’s all about character-driven aesthetics in contemporary visual culture.
An international line-up of established and up-coming artists, directors, animators and designers will present their character-centric work in concentrated lectures and talks. Attendees have the chance to learn more about the inspiration, production process and personal approach of some of today’s most outstanding creators.

Beyond that, a  vast program of animation screenings and special programs showcases the very best of today’s characters in motion, with selected work ranging from music visuals, motion graphics, narrative shorts and experimental animation. Screenings of Characters in Motion, Narration and Rhythm present the latest visual tendencies in contemporary character design.

The festival will be rounded off with the big Pictoplasma party on Saturday night – CharacterScope panoramas, Festival speakers DJing to their own visuals and live performances included.

Pictoplasma Berlin 9.+10.04.2010

Kino Babylon Mitte
Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. 30
10178 Berlin / Germany
http://berlin.festival.pictoplasma.com

http://www.klangbadfestival-scheer.de/

They point out up-to-date trends, present upcoming musicians and bands, make new musical experiences and discoveries possible. The Klangbad festival at Scheer near Sigmaringen, South Germany, certainly belongs to this category and is the real festival insider’s tip for open ears. For 3 years now, the small village of Scheer has been experiencing a 3-day metamorphosis every summer.

The sleepy, pittoresque appearing village invites you to a musical provocative, avantgardistic-innovative journey, packed with surprises, crossing various genres.

Far away from the nowadays usual chart monotony and the artistic mainstreams, international artists meet local bands, which indeed differ in style, popularity and stage experience, but comply anyhow in one concise criterion: The love to authentic, expressive music.

Klangbad Festival 2008

Audience and artists become parts of a musical biosphere, and it is hard to find anything comparable in today’s profit-oriented event area. Within shortest time, a network of volunteers interested in culture and music, has formed. Only through the enthusiastic work of artists and workers, who are committed to the idea, such an individual and independent project is able to arise and to take place for the fourth time in the meantime.

The festival is small and straightforward, but is growing constantly from year to year. Despite this fact, we abandon commercial sponsoring funds unlike normal open air festivals. But the aid through institutions and people who identify with the Klangbad idea is surely indispensable for the continuity of the festival. So we are always happy about money donations, equipment and above all, active support!

MARCH TO MAY, the art institution will transform into a character biotope and the meeting point for an international scene of designers, artists, producers and an interested public.

At the heart of the festivalis an exhibition which explores the huge diversity of the character universe, where artists remix and sample, condense the surreal and uncanny, inflate all proportions and stage bizarre rituals to introduce their characters into contemporary culture.

Pictoplasma Conference on contemporary character design and art returns for its 3rd edition to bring together makers from around the world. Presentations by 18 outstanding designers, artists and animation film makers, such as Klaus Haapaniemi (FIN), James Jarvis (UK), Boris Hoppek (DE/ES), Faiyaz Jafri (NL/USA) and W+KTokyoLab (JP). Animation screenings show focussed selections of motion graphics, short films and music videos and open workshops actively integrate the attendees and call for participation.
A series of performances, VJ-parties, installations and interventions will further add to the programme.

http://pictoplasma.com

JUNGES RUSSLAND · AMERIKANISCHE AVANTGARDE | MUSIK AUS ARMENIEN UND ZENTRALASIEN
The complete programme as PDF (514 kb)

D/B Recommendation:

Mittwoch 25. 3. 2009 | 19.00 Uhr | Kammermusiksaal der Philharmonie
Steve Reich / Drumming für acht kleine Trommeln, drei Marimbas, drei Glockenspiele,
Männer- und Frauenstimmen, Pfeifen und Piccoloflöte (1971) /
Gesamtaufführung / Ictus Ensemble Brüssel / Heather Cairncross /
Micaela Haslam, Stimme (Synergy Vocals)

Donnerstag 26. 3. 2009 | 22.00 Uhr | Haus der Berliner Festspiele
alva noto + michael nyman
S ONIC A RT S LOUNGE
pretty talk for george brecht – sparkie the opera [1978 revisited]
Multimedia Performance (2009) UA /AW
Carsten Nicolai / Michael Nyman Performer

Freitag 27. 3. 2009 | 22.00 Uhr | Haus der Berliner Festspiele
ALVIN LUCIE R | PORTRAIT
S ONIC A RT S LOUNGE
Alvin Lucier / Coda Variations für Tuba (2005) – kurze Fassung
Twonings – für Violoncello und Klavier (2006) DE
Opera with Objects – für einen oder mehrere Performer (1997)
Trio für Klarinette, Tuba und Violoncello (2009) UA /AW
In Memoriam Jon Higgins für A-Klarinette und Sinus-Generator (1984/1987)
Robin Hayward – Tuba, Charles Curtis – Violoncello, Anthony Burr – Klarinette/Klavier, Alvin Lucier – Performance

Or c h e s t e rmus i k • K a m m e rmus i k • Mu s i k t h e at e r
P e r f o r m a n c e s • I n t e r m e d i a • S o n i c Ar t s L o u n g e
Q u e r k l a n g : S c h ü l e r k o m p o n i e r e n

Karten+Infos (030) 254 89 100 | www.maerzmusik.de

D/B Recommended! A very special musical treat: 7 Women No Cry presents seven musicians from the compilation series 4 Women No Cry on Gudrun Gut’s Monika-Label. www.monika-enterprise.de

with: Tusia Beridze (aka tba) (Georgien) www.lastfm.de/music/Tusia+Beridze
Dorit Chrysler (Österreich/USA) www.myspace.com/doritchrysler
Rosario Blefari (Argentinien) www.myspace.com/rosarioblefari
Mico (Japan/GB) www.myspace.com/micouk
The Sound of Lucrecia (Columbia/Spain) www.myspace.com/thesoundoflucrecia
Manekinekod (Griechenland) www.myspace.com/manekinekod
Julia Holter (USA) www.myspace.com/juliaholter

at 23:00 h Party with DJane Gudrun Gut

Lineup: Gudrun Gut / www.myspace.com/monikaenterprise

Madeira Dig will feature this year the first retrospective exhibition and multimedia installations on Madeira Video artist Carlos Caires, live performances by Cluster, Oval, Scanner, Ryoichi Kurokawa, Philip Jeck and Portuguese artists Nuno Rebelo, Vitor Joaquim & Hugo Olim, and also music workshops for young artists, besides other activities.

Madeira Dig was created in 2004, filling a gap in Madeira’s cultural events in the field of multimedia and digital arts. The Festival aimed to bring to Madeira international top level artists from music, film, video, computer art and photography and also to motivate Madeiran artists to create new works in these fields.

Since 2004, artists like Fennesz, Gustav Deutsch, Marius Watz, Alog, Rafael Toral, Mocky, Jamie Lidell, Burnt Friedman, Vladislav Delay, AGF, Lia, Radian, Kevin Blechdom, Frank Bretschneider, were invited to present their works at the festival.

Tickets can be reserved using a simple email to mmarques@almasud.com indicating name, email, number of tickets and dates. All reservations must be cleared 1 hour before the venue. Each ticket costs 10 euros but there is available a global 3-day ticket for all venues only for 15 euros. Tickets for youngsters, students and adults over 65 will be 5 euros per day, 10 euros for a 3-day ticket.

http://www.madeiradig.net

This year the Design Hotel Estalagem da Ponta do Sol is a main sponsor of the Madeira DIG, and, as such, is hosting the afterhours sessions during the event which mixes public and artists in a relaxed and party atmosphere. Check www.designhotels.com/madeiradig for special rates for arrivals from 4 through 7 December.

ESTALAGEM DA PONTA DO SOL | Quinta da Rochinha | 9360 Ponta do Sol

The Artists in Madeira Dig 2008

SCANNER [UK]
British artist Robin Rimbaud traverses the experimental terrain between sound, space, image and form, creating absorbing, multi-layered sound pieces that twist technology in unconventional ways. From his early controversial work using found mobile phone conversations, through to his focus on trawling the hidden noise of the modern metropolis as the symbol of the place where hidden meanings and missed contacts emerge, his restless explorations of the experimental terrain have won him international admiration from amongst others, Bjork, Aphex Twin and Stockhausen. www.myspace.com/scanner

CLUSTER [DE]
The most important and consistently underrated space-rock unit of the ’70s Cluster (originally Kluster) was formed by Dieter Moebius, Hans-loachim Roedelius and Conrad Schnitzler as an improv group that used everything from synthesizers to alarm clocks and kitchen utensils in their performance. Continuing on as a duo, Moebius and Roedelius eventually recorded many landmark albums – separately, as a duo, and with all manner of guest artists from Brian Eno to Conny Plank to Neu’s Michael Rother – in the field of German space music often termed kosmische. www.myspace.com/theonlyclusterthatmatters

OVAL [DE]
Oval is Markus Popp, one of the most prolific and influential producers in contemporary electronic music, a laptop legend, a pioneer, visionary, trailblazer of the radical & beautiful – ready to reaffirm his relevance for the digital music of today. His groundbreaking, now legendary ‘Oval’ releases sent shockwaves through the electronic music landscape and laid the foundations for an entire new class of digital sound aesthetics. By boldly thinking outside the box and with an undeniable instinct for the drastic and dreamy, Popp single-handedly explored “glitch”, “clicks & cuts” and “microsound” years before the fad, spawning legions of soundalikes worldwide, who rarely reached the level of intensity and sophistication of Popp’s original compositions. www.myspace.com/markuspopp

RYOICHI KUROKAWA [JP]
Japanese audiovisual artist. His works take on multiple forms such as screening works, recordings, installation and live performance. Kurokawa composes time based sculpture with digital generated materials and field recorded sources, and the minimal and the complexities coexist there. Kurokawa accepts sound and imagery as a unit not as separately, and constructs very exquisite and precise computer based works with the audiovisual language.

PHILIP JECK [UK]
Philip Jeck works with old records and record players salvaged from junk shops turning them to his own purposes. He really does play them as musical instruments, creating an intensely personal language that evolves with each added part of a record. Philip Jeck makes geniunely moving and transfixing music, where we hear the art not the gimmick.

NUNO REBELO & VITOR JOAQUIM [PT]
Nuno Rebelo is a Portuguese guitar player, sound explorer, improviser and composer. Coming from a background of playing in pop-rock bands in the 80′s (he was the leader of Mler ife Dada, one of the most innovative portuguese bands of that time), he has composed a lot of music for contemporary dance, theatre, cinema, etc, since the 90′s.

Vitor Joaquim, laptop experimentalist, sound and visual artist, studied sound and direction for film. He started performing improvised music in 1982 and got involved in composing for dance in 1989 with Mark Haim at the CDLisbon and Coogan Dancers in Munich. Since then, he composed for dance, theatre, cinema, video, installations and multimedia, having worked with a  large number of collectives and individual creators.