Owen Pallett & Stargaze (CA) / Isolation Berlin (DE) / Fenster (DE/US/UK/FR) / Hinds (ES) / Wooden Wisdom & DJ Fitz (US/IE) / Rival Consoles (UK) / Lapalux (UK) / Inga Copeland (EE) / Chikiss (RU)
Photo: Peter Juhl
Owen Pallett & stargaze / 23 – 00.00 / Berghain
World premiere
When Owen Pallett is not busy working for the London Barbican, Spike Jonze, the Petshop Boys, Arcade Fire and Taylor Swift or debunking Beyoncé’s pop-hits for the world, he’s just Owen Pallett. The holder of a degree in composing published his already fourth album »In Conflict« last year. A heavyweight. “Depression, addiction, gender trouble and the circumstances, that creative people are often facing, are presented as positive, endearing and compassionate forms of being.“ Pallett himself says about the record. Musically, it is a chamber pop masterpiece that features Brian Eno as a guest. Together with the Berlin based music collective stargaze, the Canadian Pallett will perform fresh material, taken from his upcoming album in a world premiere. The stargaze collective is known for its many co-operations and its outstanding initiative when it comes to the convergence of classical music and many other genres, such as electronica, folk or pop. It’s a match made in heaven.
This performance is a co-production with the Ruhrtriennale.
Owen Pallett: Website / Facebook / Twitter
stargaze: Website
Isolation Berlin / 22.00 – 22.40 / Berghain
If Germany had an equivalent to the BBC’s »Sound of 2015«-list, Isolation Berlin would most definitely be on it. For now they are left with their »Bus der stillen Hoffnung (Bus of silent Hope)«, but they’ve undoubtedly got their foot on the gas. Last year, the quartet stepped out of the shadows with their EP »Aquarium« and the follow-up »Körper (Body)« that were released via the label Staatsakt, known as the guardians of German added value-pop. Isolation Berlin call their own music proto-pop: stricken by lovesickness they wade through aquariums, leave false friends and hopes behind, and sing to borderline-princesses. It’s an ode to the dirt that is our life. In August Isolation Berlin will present songs from their upcoming debut album.
Photo: Chad Kamenshine
Hinds / 21.00 – 21.40 / Berghain
They became known as roes and now begin their victory march as hinds. Wait a second! You didn’t quite get that? Okay, let’s start from the top: Hinds used to be called Deers (sic). They are four Spaniards that form a band and a gang at the same time. The international music press is already at the feet of Ana Garcia Perrote, Carlotta Cosials, Ade Martin and Amber Grimbergen. The reason being their lively slacker-pop, that makes you forget that the bus is already at the last stop and you just sang along loudly to songs like »Bamboo«, entertaining everyone on board.
Fenster / 19.40 – 20.40 / Berghain
World premiere
With spectacular self-made music videos, the multinational quartet Fenster drew a lot of attention to itself and its first two albums. Now the Berlin based band turned to a new major project: a full-length feature film called »Emocean«. In a mix of movie and concert, they will turn the Berghain into a world of holograms and premiere the movie as well as the soundtrack they’ve composed for it. The complexity of their previous work is once more increased and it thus becomes a shadowy ride between extraterrestrial blues, tropic psychedelics and intimate folk-moments.
Wooden Wisdom & DJ Fitz (DJ-Set) / 00.20 – 03.00 / Panorama Bar
Elijah Wood might not have an Oscar at home, but surely all the releases of his label Simian Records, including »New Magnetic Wonders« by the The Apples in Stereo. He probably also owns a large collection of old West-African, Turkish and Brazilian psychedelic-, funk- and soul-music as well as krautrock. That’s what unites the Hollywood-actor with DJ Fitz, founder of the irreplaceable art- and music-space »West Germany«, and with music consultant Zach Cowie. The three record collectors make a formidable DJ-trio that brings their truly global disco to Berlin.
Wooden Wisdom: SoundCloud
Photo: Lenka Rayn H. Fine Art Photography
Rival Consoles / 23.40 – 00.20 / Panorama Bar
Berlin premiere
There are a couple of good reasons for Ryan Lee West to share a label with neo-classicists such as Ólafur Arnalds or Nils Frahm. Not only because the other two Erased Tapes-artists tend to explore the electronic realms time and time again (Arnalds for example performs at »Pop-Kultur« with his project Kiasmos the following day), but also because with his Rival Consoles-productions, West elicits from synthesizers the grandeur of classical music. Maybe that’s why West composes all of his music on piano, violin or guitar, or maybe it’s that he records all of his sounds analogously. Electricity in this case means life, it’s not for nothing that the new Rival Consoles EP is called »Sonne (Sun)«. And as if the imagination isn’t already very busy, the Berlin premiere of the Rival Consoles performance will be supported by spectacular visuals.
Photo: Stuart Howard
Lapalux / 22.40 – 23.20 / Panorama Bar
German premiere
The label Brainfeeder is mostly known for its boss – super-producer Steven Ellison a.k.a. Flying Lotus – and the fertile proximity that links him with its many artists on the Californian coast. The British Stuart Howard is an exception to the rule. He connected with Ellison via email and is now based in Prague, not exactly known as the L.A. of the east (As luck would have it.). The tinkerer of beats transforms the world into a crackling Rubik’s Cube that keeps producing new, oscillating moods. It’s bubble-soul from the beat-machine. In March he released his second album, »Lustmore«, that he will present in the Panorama Bar for the first ever time in Germany.
Inga Copeland / 21.40 – 22.20 / Panorama Bar
Berlin premiere
Inga Copeland has been somewhat of a modern Medusa in the last five years. When the enigmatic nebulae of her productions lured you to the end of the world, it suddenly becomes clear that all truth lies in these delicate sounds and you’ll freeze in crazed, shattering bliss. First as half of Hype Williams, then as copeland, and now as Lolina, the Estonian serves up one mystical caress after the other. Her new EP »RELAXIN’ with Lolina« follows her fabulous album »Because I’m Worth It« and will be performed for the first time in Berlin at »Pop-Kultur«.
Chikiss / 20.40 – 21.20 / Panorama Bar
Galya Chikiss’ first band was called Nervenklinik (Mental Asylum). The young musician had moved to the Russian metropolis St. Petersburg right after graduating from school. Her place of birth is the Belarusian Wizebsk, home to avant-gardists like Marc Chagall, El Lissitzky or Kasimir Malewitsch. But the punk band didn’t make it very long and Galya started making music in many different constellations until one of them, Chikiss, became her main outlet. Under this name, though in varying formations, she published numerous albums and EP’s e.g. on the American forerunner label Not Not Fun. She collaborated with Barbara Morgenstern, Milky Toad and Sun Glitters and played at all of the bigger Eastern European festivals. Every Chikiss-song is a little trip in itself: to smoky plush couches, to enraptured heights and soft depths.