In 2017, Skaņu Mežs festival marks its 15th anniversary. The festival will take place at the music house “Daile” on October 13th and 14th with an opening event on October 6 at the art museum Riga Bourse. Although the „full” program of the festival was announced in August, dub techno veterans Porter Ricks and SHAPE platform’s post-techno producer Machine Woman have been added to the line-up.
Porter Ricks is the sound project of Thomas Köner and Andy Mellwig. Their legendary releases on Chain Reaction (1996) and Mille Plateaux (1997) were recently complemented by Anguilla Electrica, a new LP on Tresor Records. Köner has been working extensively as a sound designer and artist – exhibiting at among other places the Centre Georges Pompidou and The Louvre. Mellwig’s other projects include collaborations with Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine and Pete Kember of Spacemen 3. Porter Ricks is undoubtably the central item in their musical careers, setting a high-water mark for experimentally tinged pulsating techno. The name Porter Ricks is based on character from the TV series Flipper. The nautical view evokes a clear vision, something freeing.
Porter Ricks will play the festival on October 14.
Russian-born Anastasia Vtorova a.k.a. Machine Woman is a sound artist and image maker who often collaborates with other artists. Her works are inspired by late night listening to the sounds of down beat minimal electronica along with melancholic cinema from all over the world. She sets what has been deëned as “waltzing the line between techno and avant garde”. Since 2014, there have been releases on Tesla Tapes, WTN?, Peder Mannerfelt Produktion as well as contributions to Sacred Tapes and low income $quad. Her work has begun to gather notable attention, having been highlighted in Fact Magazine’s „10 house & techno producers to watch in 2016”. November 2016 saw the beginning of Take Away Jazz Records, Vtorova’s own label the output of which she characterizes as “music for people who can’t sleep at night and are perhaps quite fond of mundane, abstract collages”. She has recently been offered a regular show on Berlin Community Radio as well as contributing a bi-monthly podcast to Bristol’s Noods Radio. Vtorova is currently working on a number of remixes and new material. Machine Woman is a fan of audio books and the Baltic Sea. She is an artist of the SHAPE platform for innovative music and audiovisual art from Europe.
Machine Woman will play the festival on October 13.
Tickets to the festival can be purchased here: ticketservice.lv. Advance sales ticket for a single concert night costs 15 EUR, while a two-day pass for October 13 and 14 costs 20 EUR.
Skaņu Mežs festival is supported by the Ministry of Culture of Latvia, State Culture Capital Foundation, the Municipality of Riga, Trust for Mutual Understanding, Kulturkontakt Nord, Goethe-institut Lettland, as well as iRobot, Valmiermuiža and Red Bull Music Academy. Skaņu Mežs is also a member of the SHAPE platform for innovative music and audiovisual art, supported by the „Creative Europe” program of the European Union, and I.C.A.S., an international network of festivals, devoted to adventurous sound.
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