Feminist, diverse, cross-genre: From July 11th to 13th, 2024, the “Heroines of Sound” festival presents early and current heroes from electronic sound to performance, sound art and advanced pop. The ‘disembodied’ sound of electronic music is a legend that is being illuminated in a new way with the current program, but especially with the two festival focuses on voice and percussion in conjunction with electronics. You can experience beat-oriented drum and electronic sets by outstanding percussionists such as Katharina Ernst, Tatiana Heuman, Florencia Curci, Teresa Riemann, Robyn Schulkowsky and Laura Robles. The electric bassist Farida Amadou also uses an extraordinarily percussive approach to her sets. In a concert with the young Polish ensemble Kompopolex, new works by Kelley Sheehan, Stellan Veloce, Sofie Meyer, Greta Eacott, Marta Śniady and Monika Dalach can be heard for the first time in Berlin. These works uniquely explore the multifaceted spectrum of electronically enhanced percussive and instrumental voices.
The soloist ensemble PHØNIX16 presents the premiere of Marisol Jiménez’s “Maŝinika Deliro” at the Radialsystem – a crossover of performance art and electroacoustic sound synthesis, which, through the interaction of electronics and voice, transforms the human body into a sound generator and shakes tonal expectations with rattling vocal cords and false vocal folds.
A spotlight of the festival is Katalin Ladik (*1942): As one of the few female protagonists of the artistic avant-garde, she established herself as a pioneer of acoustic poetry with her radical approach in the former Yugoslavia in the 1960s and 1970s. Using her body and voice as an instrument and medium, she questions conventional gender roles, as in her new work “Membrane Universe” – a composition commissioned by the festival.
Together with the interdisciplinary performances by younger artists/authors such as Ira Hadžić and Swantje Lichtenstein, the cross-generational evening program presents the diverse encounters between language, literature and (sound) art. Further highlights include current compositions by Karen Power, Kathy Hinde and Anna Murray, which the Irish Quiet Music Ensemble is performing for the first time in Berlin. These works explore the potential of contemporary music in conjunction with electronics, field recordings, dance and Noh singing from Japanese culture. The composer and this year’s guest curator Julia Mihály presents her new version of “18WEST – Songs for Downfall”, which impresses with its stylistic references to agitprop and protest music. The program also presents performances by the experimental multi-instrumentalist Theresa Stroetges aka Golden Diskó Ship and the Ukrainian electronic artist Zavoloka.
Heroines of Sound was initiated from the Berlin scene with a feminist agenda by Bettina Wackernagel and a group of artists. Outstanding early works as well as pioneering positions by younger artists will be performed. The idea is to make the connections between different genres tangible and to continually strengthen the presence of artists in the art and music world.
©️ Heroines of Sound / Radialsystem 2024