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.
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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
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To Lucky Dragons, process seems at least as important as results, and their process is heavily indebted to Pauline Oliveros’ methods of turning spectators into actors. Lucky Dragons ask audiences to grab wires and hold hands and dance, and for each person at the show to whisper a pretty secret into her neighbor’s ears. Lucky Dragons’ music is inextricably bound to their other pursuits, so the album format presents obvious challenges and even seems to contradict the essentially participatory nature of their projects.

Lucky Dragons | Honeycombhouse

A large part of what makes Lucky Dragons’ music engaging is Fischbeck’s use of the techniques of heterophony, and organic, almost accidental, polyrhythm. Heterophony is a term sometimes used to describe music in which the melodies are intuitively or instinctively varied and embellished, as is common in folk songs, for example, or, on the other side of the spectrum, Brian Eno’s Discreet Music.

Skeletons drink from a similar pool of inspiration as fellow New Yorkers Dirty Projectors and Animal Collective, although as with both these bands, they don’t strictly resemble any one thing, exactly. People reveals them to be a peculiar chimera of influence, blending Afro-pop, Krautrock and jazz fusion with unlikely ease.
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Lucky Dragons & Skeletons  LIVE

Sunday, 16 October 2011 | 20:00 CET
HAU 2 | Hallesches Ufer 32 | 10963 Berlin/Kreuzberg

www.luckydragons.org | www.myspace.com/luckydragons | skeletonstv.tumblr.com |  www.hebbel-am-ufer.de
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SOLO is performed by Katharina Schrade. Composition by Ari Benjamin Meyers.
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SOLO during “Testing Stage – A Window to Performa New York”
presented by Soundfair

Saturday, 01 October 2011 | 19:00 – 22:00 CET
HAU 2 | Hallesches Ufer 32 | 10963 Berlin/Kreuzberg

soundfair.net | www.hebbel-am-ufer.de
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Tied & Tickled Trio is a German electronica/dub/jazz musical collective. It was founded in 1994 by Markus Acher and Christoph Brandner in Weilheim, Bavaria as a polyrythmic duo playing drums only. After the joining of sculptor Andreas Gerth (electronics) and Markus’ brother Micha (bass), the core of “Tied & Tickled Trio” was formed and their style had become turning to the jazz. This trend later was fixed with new member coming – Johannes Enders, a studied jazz sax player.

Tied & Tickled Trio | Revolution

The Tied & Tickled Trio play jazz music from an indie perspective and so are by definition not afraid of contact. Its amazing that a project which practically has a new approach for every composition can still have a unified sound. And the guys from Weilheim have an instantly recognisable sound – regardless whether their playing crazy free jazz, static drones or complex patterns. The collective shares members with The Notwist, Lali Puna and other bands from the Morr Music label.

For their latest album La Place Demon, theyve teamed up with acclaimed jazz drummer Billy Hart. The drummer Billy Hart is among one of the most accomplished contemporary jazz drummers in the world. Along with his recordings as band leader Hart, who celebrated his 70th birthday in 2010, can be heard drumming on more than 600 albums. Among other groups he was a long running member of the Herbie Hancock and Stan Getz bands.
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Tied & Tickled Trio LIVE
& Billy Hart

Thursday, 2nd June 2011 | 20:00 CET
HEBBEL AM UFER – HAU | Stresemannstr. 29 | 10963 Berlin/Kreuzberg

http://www.hebbel-am-ufer.de | Map | http://www.tiedandtickledtrio.com
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Volker Bertelmann, better known as HAUSCHKA, has achieved renown by reviving an instrument that ever since John Cage occupies a permanent place in new music: the prepared piano. On his current album “Foreign landscapes” Hauschka departs from the chamber music format, as for the first time he arranges his repetitive textures for an orchestra consisting of twelve string players and brass.

Morgenrot by Hauschka

“Infra”, the new work by MAX RICHTER, is the fruit of a collaboration between the choreographer Wayne McGregor and the artist Julian Opie. In November 2008 the core piece was first performed as a soundtrack for a ballet at the London Royal Opera House.

Embers by Max Richter

Now released as an album, it shows that the music does not miss out on any of its mesmerising beauty even without visualisation. During his concert the composer and pianist will be accompanied by a string quartet and a VJ who improvises on stage.

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HAUSCHKA, MAX RICHTER ENSEMBLE
Wednesday 03.11.2010 | 19:30 CET
HEBBEL AM UFER – HAU | Stresemannstr. 29 | 10963 Berlin/Kreuzberg

http://www.hebbel-am-ufer.de | Map | http://www.myspace.com/maxrichtermusic

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His new album “II” is about to come out on Get Physical. The singer and guitarist RAZ OHARA, born in Denmark as Patrick Rasmussen, is part of the very first generation of migrants that in the sense of a new era have lastingly marked the music scene along the river Spree in the early Nineties. Together with colleagues like Peaches or Gonzales that have emigrated from Canada at about the same time he is one of the important artists of the then newly founded label Kitty-Yo that turned the night into day during endless jams at the Maria am Ostbahnhof.‘
Natalie Beridze aka TBA

Tylistically his early albums were characterised by the same restlessness like his eventful life as the son of a seaman. The eclectic mix of beat, soul and funk on his much-praised album “Realtime Voyeur” made the critics come up with daring comparisons to Prince, while he presents himself as an introspective singer/songwriter on the successor “The Last Legend”, playing the acoustic guitar to come to terms with the void and feelings of loss after his father’s death.

Natalie Tusia Beridze aka TBA / Nevermind

After short-time collaborations with local electro stars like Apparat or Alexander Kowalski, the ODD ORCHESTRA, directed by Oliver Doerell, seems to be the perfect medium for Raz Ohara to act out his various musical inclinations. In the end he merges them to become his own distinctive style.

Before that the gorgeous NATALIE BERIDZE presents her album “ForgetFulnes”, which is planned for release in autumn on Monika Enterprise. Beridze is an artist from Tiflis in Georgia, electro musician and singer. She attracted the attention of a wider public in Germany with releases on Thomas Brinkmann’s label Max Ernst and through the compilation “4 Women No Cry”, produced by Gudrun Gut.

Natalie Beridze aka TBA LIVE
RAZ OHARA AND THE ODD ORCHESTRA LIVE
Friday / 19.03.2010
HEBBEL AM UFER – HAU 2: Hallesches Ufer 32 / 10963 Berlin

http://www.myspace.com/tusiaberidze |  http://www.hebbel-am-ufer.de