Just like – or even more than – previous editions, this year Occulto festival is a no compromise selection of artists whose interdisciplinary and experimental approach makes different genres, techniques, fields of knowledge and kinds of expertise collide with each other.
Occulto Fest celebrates the multi-faceted talent of poets/scholars that pioneered industrial – as well as gabber/hardcore – music; initiators of national techno scenes that moved to experimentation and later reintegrated beats in it; 360 degree performers able to mix avant-metal with feminist theories; folk songwriters that temporarily abandoned their guitar and moved on to machines and pedals; and more.
http://https://youtu.be/VS8We-7Ojo0
Occulto Fest 2015 features the German premiere of Z’EV’s CINEmotion – an evolution of his previous project Cine-Cussion that presents audiovisual pieces accompanied by live electronic music. On the occasion, film footage of a metalmorphic performance of his produced in NYC in 1983 will be used as the source material whose audio and video has been time dilated.
The American poet, audiovisual artist, musician and percussionist active under the name Z’EV studied at CalArts with Concrete poet Emmett Williams. In the late 70s he started to build his own concussive and percussive instruments, mostly out of metal and other industrial materials, and to perform with them. His 1988 LP “BUST THIS!” was chosen by The Wire as one of the fifty best percussion-based records of all time. In his own words, his “aesthetic interests focus on the manipulation of time and duration and the production of acoustic and cymatic phenomena”, and his “work with text and sound has been influenced by primarily – but not only, middle eastern mystical systems, as well as African, Afro-Caribbean and Indonesian music and culture.”
http://https://youtu.be/RvgLlJzctv8
Muse of Chaos (queer-pagan-doom-avant-metal): ?Alos/Stefania Pedretti is an Italian musician and performer. She’s been active since 1998 and she is a member of the bands OVO and ALLUN. Since 2003 she melts disciplines into shows/performances in which live music is a basic element.
Her work crosses the boundaries between different performing arts, integrating experimental music, performance, improvisation and video art; it makes the audience participate actively in the show through the stimulation of the six senses. The feminine figure is the basis of each performative action and its role both in history and in the contemporary society is critically investigated.
Everest Magma is the latest incarnation of the hyperprofilic Italian musician behind Rella the Woodcutter, a project that has already a number of releases on Boring Machines and one on La Délirante. In recent years, he put aside his psych-folk attitude and got his hands on a bunch of machines, tape recorders and pedal effects. The results, released once again by Boring Machines, confirm his desire and ability to push towards the extreme borders of any genre and instrument he confronts himself with.
Recorded in the Summer of 2014 while all the neighborhood was on vacation, Everest Magma’s debut album Modern / Antique exemplifies the multifaceted spectrum of sounds he’s currently willing to study. Raw loops of almost broken circuitry, semi-danceable beats are sometimes interrupted by more meditative and spacey moments or disturbed by stretched and unintelligible vocals.
Born in Vienna and based in Berlin, PURE has been making uncompromising electronic music since 1992. On stage he sculpts abstract sonic stories from evolving textures, pulsating repetitions and dynamic breaks using both hard- and software that equally affect the listener’s brains and bodies. While being one of the driving forces bringing techno culture to Vienna in the early 90s – as DJ, producer and organizer, he departed from that style soon after and moved on to less explored, harsher fields of electronic dance.
His turn towards experimental electronic music in the second half of the 90s went hand in hand with getting into programming his own music software. He uses this knowledge since then for computer based live performances and teaching at various universities and education facilities. Since 2003 he’s developed the HEART CHAMBER ORCHESTRA together with Erich Berger; an award-winning audio-visual composition for 12 musicians in which the heartbeats of the musicians create a score in real time. He recently started to reintegrate beat-oriented compositions into his live performances creating a dynamic collage of abstract soundscapes and heavy, bodily music.
http://https://youtu.be/BXb5_J8dHlU
Kasia Justka’s performance electr•cute is pure electricity, glitch, light, no computer, oscillating sounds turning into the images and the other way round. Kasia Justka is a Polish multi media artist based in Berlin. Her work capitalises on her obsessions with the medium of electricity.
Her art can be seen as an invocation to the vast power inherent within electronic systems and networks. With this conceptual frame in mind, Kasia fashions a dynamic order and form from primitive entropy. Using light, sound and image as her tools, her intuitive, analogue based performances have led to collaborations with musicians, theaters, clubs, fashion designers, artists and a whole host of other respected luminaries working in different disciplines within the creative spectrum.
Roman Catholics are Andi Stecher (drums/synths) and DuChamp (baritone guitar/synths). The duo was born from a series of bizarre coincidences arose from an anticlerical joke. Andi Stecher is an Austrian born, Berlin based drummer, percussionist and electronic musician. While being currently focused mainly on his solo compositions and live set, he does play drums in several bands and projects and composes scores for dance and performance. His most recent collaborations include Lydia Ainsworth, Andrea, Eliad Wagner, Colin Hacklander, Ignaz Schick. His solo album “austreiben / antreiben” has been released in June 2015 by Heart of Noise Editions.
DuChamp is an Italian scientist, artist and curator based in Berlin, religiously devoted to drone. Her debut album “NAR” has been released in 2013 by Boring Machines; her second work “Sculpture” – a split tape with Felicia Atkinson – by Idiosyncratics in early 2015. Her new album is out on Full Body Massage. She’s the (sweet) half of the Berlin tape label Kitchen Leg records and the co-curator of Occulto Fest. As scientist, she works on NMR biosensors.
For the lineup and detailed time table, check the website: http://occultofest.com/
Occulto Fest w/ ZE’V, ?Alos, Everest Magma and many more
Friday, 13 November + Saturday, 14 November 2015 | 20:00 CET
West Germany | Skalitzer Str. 133 | 10999 Berlin/Kreuzberg
occultofest.com | rhythmajik.com | signorinaalos.com | boringmachines.bandcamp.com | soundcloud.com/pure | electr-cute.tumblr.com | soundcloud.com/andistecher | soundcloud.com/duchamp
