Lucas Gutierrez (AR), Silo Sessions.
Electronic music, once the exclusive domain of secluded art laboratories, has now made the connection to clubs inseparable. The rhythms of dance music draw a line from popular to research; the software and gear marketed for dance musicians cross-pollinating with more experimental tools, as music styles, textures, and timbres mix, as well. But now, finding a way out of that club context and its restrictions may be as vital as the emergence from the lab years ago.
Making connections between Argentina and Germany, across an international collective of audiovisual artists, FxLD’s latest project invades a disused grain silo in Berlin. Literally in the shadow of Kreuzberg’s famed techno haven Watergate, the base of the silo is a narrow, concrete cave, broad-shouldered beams criss-crossing the space.
We get to listen to the fruits of the Silo Series performances, realized live and retaining their rough edges and improvised forms. And you can see some of the flickers, too, via filmmaker (and now CDM collaborator) Kevin Klein.
Danish artist Vectral, aka Søren Lyngsø, paints cinematic portraits in sound, rhythms throbbing underneath digital textures, all interwoven into a narrative of grooves and shadowy noises. Argentinian Lucas Gutierrez is an industrial designer and visual artist, but his music is a kind of dance of tribal glitches.
SILO SESSIONS from Mindpirates e.V. on Vimeo.
We have full-length music mixes here:
Resembling nothing if not Plato’s famous allegory, audiovisual shows in the silo echo on those cold post-industrial surfaces and dance on the walls. Listening to the results, you’ll hear traces of dance grooves as they’re fragmented into glitchy textures, the computers sounding a little bit as though they’re about to scream under the strain. (Having been floating around academia for about twenty years now, I remember how frequent complaints used to be about “beat-driven” music. For a time, academics were as afraid of recognizable rhythm as they were of tonality in the post-war era. I think more enlightened openness has prevailed – a good thing, too, as I wouldn’t want to have to drop Beethoven for his four-on-the-floor time signatures.)
I’m honored to get to play as part of this series tomorrow, Friday, using software I’ve built in Pd and Processing. (I hope to share those patches, once they’re cleaned up.) But I’m equally pleased to share the work that’s come before, as I’m thoroughly enjoying listening to it. And while we can’t entirely replicate the experience, I loved the feeling of being close with other listeners, in a space that wasn’t a concert but wasn’t a club, either – shoulder to shoulder with music lovers, sounds and light slightly different from each vantage point.
More of Lucas – LUCAS GUTIERREZ . Ascendente LiveAct – PANORAMICA 2012 (Buenos Aires, Argentina – actually, 2013’s installment is next weekend if you’re in that neighborhood!)
If you are in Berlin, come say hi. More on the series, and the ideas behind it:
SILO SESSIONS
Mindpirates open the doors of their silo, in collaboration with FxLD, to make way for experimentation with a series of concerts exploring the relationship between audio and visual concepts. This event takes its name from the location where the event will be executed, an old grain silo in the heart of Kreuzberg. The unique space is characterized by its geometric architecture ideal to create an introspective atmosphere.
Seeking to promote a state of connection that goes beyond the limits of reason, guest artists will work image and sound simultaneously using non-conventional structures to compose and execute in real time.MINDPIRATES
Mindpirates is an artist group that works on aspects and issues of contemporary culture, sociology and ecology. The group has the approach to work independently and interdisciplinary. They combine challenging aesthetics, substantial examination and experiment with new forms of distribution, exposition and cooperation.Mindpirates e.V. is a member based network. The e.V. is building and developing a community that supports ideas and projects with the Mindpirates.
Mindpirates Vereinsheim is organized by the Mindpirates e.V. based in Berlin. The space follows the tradition of an artist run center and is used by its members as a platform for mutual exchange and public presentation.
The Mindpirates Projektraum is an independent art space and a curatorial platform for the collaborative production and presentation of artistic projects, exhibitions and critical research work. It is a meeting place for the exchange of thoughts and impulses through which to forge relationships with the guest artists and the public.
FxLD
Is an artistic collective based between Berlin and Buenos Aires. Has the aim of serve as a platform for research, experimentation and promotion of Digital Art and Generative Art and to give them a place in the consolidated circle of art. FxLD believes that they are forms of Fine Arts that can respond to the most deep inquires of the spirit. And defends that the computers and informatic languages expand the barriers of creation to make way to a new aesthetical and conceptual paradigm in art.
VECTRAL (DK) ( Silo Sessions I )
Behind the pseudonym Vectral, Søren Lyngsø, producer/composer/computer-programmer and visual-artist with a master degree in electronic music-composition from the Royal Academy of Music, explores the interplay between electronic compositions and audio-reactive visuals with concerts leading the audience through his sensory labyrinth step by step. His stubborn sounds-capes and crackling sound structures consist of electronically arranged material from everyday life heard through homemade software. The visual part consists of live generated 3D graphics using 3D control points to create dynamic colors and shapes.
http://sorenlyngso.dk
http://vectral.bandcamp.comLUCAS GUTIERREZ (ARG) ( Silo Sessions II )
Digital Artist and Industrial Designer and native of Belen City in the province of Catamarca, Argentina. He specializes in video-art and real time video session projects pushing limits and blending influences from Motion Graphics and Graphic Design. He strives to achieve simplicity in its work while playing with blurred visuals and blending together the variations of two styles. The design studio coalesces its influences to create a variety of audio/visual projects for creative professionals in the art and media world.
Lucas has exhibited his works in well-known national and international festivals such as: Offf-Post-Digital Creation Culture, Panoramica / Tiempo Visual Panorama Real 2010 & 2012 (Bs As, Argentina), Getset Festival 2012 (Porto, Portugal), Cccartaxo 2010/12 (Portugal), Fuga Jurasica & Sincroba 2009 (Bs As – Argentina), Videofest 2008/9 (Cordoba, Argentina) among others. Lucas Gutierrez became a well-known Visual Artist and participates as resident VJ in a number of shows and events, fusing primarily electronic music with art.
He is currently a member of: fungo_project collective (Lisbo, Portugal) and undertones (Argentina). “A chaotic style that permeates his works with motion graphics. Seeks simplicity while running with the limits of the blurred image”.
Finally, from Vorspiel (which runs prior to the Transmediale and CTM festivals), here’s a murky jam of artists in the silo space — good stuff, good times (again, including recent CDM collaborators Easton West and Kevin Klein):
Mindpirates & P2P Vorspiel: Plutonic Frequencies from Mindpirates e.V. on Vimeo.
Details of what’s going on there:
On the occasion of CTM Vorspiel, Mindpirates will channel the ancient knowledge of the lost tribes of Pluto through vibrational frequencies. This cosmic learning experience will take place in the secret Silo space located at Mindpirates.
This very special event was part of P2P Vorspiel, a pre-festival weekend preceding the opening of transmediale 2013 BWPWAP – Back When Pluto Was a Planet and CTM.13 – THE GOLDEN AGE through a dissemination of projects including exhibition openings, workshops, talks, performances and parties outside the main venues of either festival.
Participating Artists:
Pauline Doutreluingne
Cy Iurinic
Kevin Klein
Emmanuel Pidré
Owen Roberts
Dylan Warn
Easton WestCamera:
Philipp Wenning
Edit:
Kevin Klein
More images:
