This post is part of a special series dedicated to the Resonate 2016 festival in Belgrade.
Here I am writing from Belgrade for a new sound expedition. Over the next few days I’m going to share updates and daily recaps about Resonate, the Serbian new media arts festival which has been growing exponentially in its just 5 years of life.
Indeed, as their name crossed my eyes many times lately, I headed east so to pay them a visit and experience what is happening here with my own… ears. In 4 days the festival packed an intense program with lectures, workshops and live performances across several locations in the city center, so I will boldly grow more eyes if needed, and share the most of it so to hopefully give you a taste of what this festival has to offer. Stay tuned then and …Â Pozdrav iz Beograda!
Very excited about the first day here at the festival. Belgrade is sunny and beautiful and I grabbed my pass for the festival at the Kinoteka Cinema, which is the film history building and the main location of Resonate.
Introduction lectures and screening start right away and people rapidly fill the space. Loads of students and local creative people mostly, but there are a few coming from abroad as well. The two intensive workshops of the day will keep people busy all day long all over the last floor, learning about volt, amp and basic synth building principles as well as building their own first basic synth, a crackle box.
While people are soldering iron and wiring upstair I find my way to the first performance, by Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, a contemporary modular synth virtuoso, which performed her last album: Ears. It has been my most awaited guest of the day and indeed it has been a blissful performance, to say the least. She translated the album intentions smoothly playing her Buchla as just a few are able to do. She is currently collaborating on a new album with Suzanne Ciani, you can guess it’s gonna be great.
Just after lunch we had Hans-Joachim Roedelius. If you don’t know him, help yourself checking his website, there is so much to say about a truly experimental music pioneer, which work spans from ambient music (collaborating with people such as Brian Eno) to kraut rock and jazz. His lecture was basically a conversation about his lifetime experience in music. It’s been powerful to me listening to this 80-something years old man talking about how music pushed him, until today, in doing what he really loved to do. Also he offered a brief picture of what east Berlin was at the time, how they used to make music and instruments from nothing, the time of the war, the prison, and how he switched from physiotherapy to music, following his true call, and still, let’s say, healing people.
Last lecture saw the sound artist Pierre Bastien, talking about the historic excursion of the use of natural and mechanical sources to create sound installations. Basically the art of sound and sound of art kind of talk.
In another building, not far away, people are learning and experimenting visual programming languages, during a great and intensive fullÂday workshop.
- When you are back home: final thoughts on Resonate 16 - April 20, 2016
- 5th day at Resonate 16 with Artists and Engineers, Nicholas Felton and Memo Akten - April 17, 2016
- 4th day at Resonate 16 with Squarepusher, Atau Tanaka and Darsha Hewitt - April 16, 2016
Thank You Carlo! Really nice description.
I ever wanted to know more about it! I will follow you in this trip.