SHAPE, a new 3-year initiative co-funded by Creative Europe programme, gathers 16 European non-profit organisations active within the ICAS – International Cities of Advanced Sound network, to create a platform that aims to support, promote and exchange innovative and aspiring musicians and interdisciplinary artists with an interest in sound. SHAPE attempts to present a variety of idiosyncratic sounds from all over Europe, and to provide audiences and professionals with insightful lectures, talks and workshops by experts in various fields related to sound and performance.
Every year all platform’s members will collectively choose 48 musicians to participate in a mix of live performances, residencies, workshops and talks across festivals and special events.
SHAPE will focus on artist presentations (concerts and exhibitions) and educational activities, aimed at the wide audience, artists as well as cultural workers.
Although the work on the platform is already running from December the 1st 2014, the public will see the SHAPE project launching at Berlin’s CTM Festival for Adventurous Music and Art 2015 with a Meet and Greet event on Thursday, January 29th, 16:00 at the Projektraum of the Kunstquartier Bethanien. Presentations by several SHAPE members and selection of participating artists – Berlin’s post-techno producer Ketev and Romanian-born DJ/producer Borusiade – will give an insight into the upcoming year of activities, musical projects, and beyond. All interested artists, professionals and the general public are welcome to come and meet SHAPE coordinators and musicians!
Eight different artists will be brought to CTM 2015 – Un Tune as a result of the SHAPE initiative:
Marco Donnarumma will perform at the Hacklab Opening at the Kunstquartier Bethanien / Projektraum on Friday 23 January. His performance will feature his own Xth Sense instrument, a special technology in which his own varying muscle contractions, heart rate, and other electrical impulses are scanned, converted into algorithms and then into bioacoustic sound played through a surround sound system.
Matthijs Munnik, a new media artist based in The Hague, will present “Heliosphere,” another installation shown at the CTM 2015 Exhibition, opening on the 23rd at the Kunstquartier Kunstraum. Munnik creates science-inspired installations and performances that challenge and experiment with the perceptions of the visitor and test the limits and complexities of this perception.
On Saturday the 24th, Warsaw-based producer Zamilska will perform at YAAM. Zamilska’s latest release, aptly titled UNTUNE and met with great acclaim after the viral success of her single “Quarrel,” is marked by heavy-handed, sludgy beats whose military, arduous quality is reflected in the album’s track names (“Army,” “Effort,” “Enemy,” “Flag.”)
On Sunday 25 January, Paul Régimbeau (a.k.a. Mondkopf) will provide an acerbic prelude to stoner metal legends Electric Wizard with his project Extreme Precautions.
The next SHAPE artist, Hungary’s Gábor Lázár, will add to a hard-as-nails roster (consisting of Prostitutes, Aleksi Perälä, Maelstrom and Egyptrixx) on January 30th at Berghain. Lazar plays algorithms, giving a voice to the screeching melodies of the CPU’s tortured soul.
On Saturday 31 January at HAU2, Milan-based artist Lorenzo Senni will extend his reconnaissance and abstraction of 1990s rave music from the exclusively aural to include the visual and tactile with his project “Advanced Abstract Trance (AAT).”
RSS B0ys, another SHAPE-supported project, also presented in conjunction with Unsound Festival in Poland, will appear at YAAM on 31 January. RSS Boys is a shamanistic techno project combining analogue hardware with e-drums managed and performed (in veils) by two nameless Polish artists.
Yair Elazar Glotman, aka Ketev, will join RSS Boys and an array of Berlin Current artists in the same party on the 31st at YAAM. Glotman’s post-techno aesthetic centers on the creation of phasing patterns from Reel-to-reel tape loops manipulated by 4-track cassette decks. These patterns are often placed above slowly shifting, rhythmic post-techno mantras.
Other SHAPE festivals, including Rokolectiv (Bucharest) and Cynetart (Dresden) – with a specific event, linking the ICAS network to SHAPE – will soon follow, developing an ongoing chain of activities throughout the year.
The SHAPE website is coming soon, and so is the full list of the 48 SHAPE artists for 2015! The website will serve to highlight the individual artists chosen for SHAPE, as well as the participating festivals. Meanwhile, you can visit the CTM festival homepage (www.ctm-festival.de) for more details.
SHAPE member organisations are:
Arcadi / Némo – Paris, FR
CTM Festival / DISK e.V. – Berlin, DE
Cynetart Festival / TMA Hellerau e.V. – Dresden, DE
Festival Maintenant / Association Electroni[K] – Rennes, FR
Insomnia Festival / Association – Tromso, NO
Les siestes électroniques / Association Rotation – Toulouse, FR
Meet Factory – Prague, CZ
MoTA – Museum for Transitory Art – Ljubliana, SL
musikprotokoll / ORF im Steirischen Herbst – Graz, AT
RIAM Festival / Technè – Marseilles, FR
Rokolectiv Festival / Association – Bucharest, RO
Schiev Festival / Black Drop Productions – Brussels, BR
Skaņu Mežs Festival / Association – Riga, LV
TodaysArt Festival / The Generator Foundation – The Hague, NL
UH Festival / Ultrasound Foundation – Budapest, HU
Unsound Festival / Fundacja Tone – Krakow, PL
Supported by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union and in collaboration with ICAS – International Cities for Advanced Sound.
Media partners: The Wire, Resident Advisor, ResonanceFM.
