We open Saturday with an inner-oriented sound immersion facilitated by writer and cyber-mystic, Romila. Through "jam karet," an Indonesian incantation to bend time, Romila curates explorations of liminality including: language as a portal for time travel, grief as a venue for timelessness, and non-linearities of queerness.
After a break, we return with a live performance by Chicago-based composer, scholar, and electronic musician, Hunter Brown. Hunter's artistic practice is grounded in extensive research in digital systems and computer-based composition. After his performance, Hunter will speak to subjects explored in his work, and open a discussion with the audience.
This is followed by two relevant diffusions from MONOM's catalogue. The first is by the infamous Rrose, aka Seth Horvitz, whose work, like Hunter's, weaves between academic circles and electronic music culture. Horvitz's interdisciplinary practice enlists the hallucinatory aspects of techno and the idiosyncracies of machines to create mind-bending soundscapes very well suited to multichannel systems. The last piece is by Istanbul-born, Berlin-based electronic musician Hüma Utku. Her piece, Bearers of False Gifts, draws inspiration from mysticism and folklore, exploring the possibilities of how sound textures and rhythm can be used to evoke a sense of the ancient within advanced electronic music. Harking back to Romila Barryman's opening to the day, we are offered another opportunity to bend time.
We open Saturday night's program with a diffusion of Women, Freedom, Life by Berlin-based multimedia artist Zöe Mc Pherson. Zöe brings psychoacoustic elements, dub beats, intense melodies, and a recording of the powerful voices of Iranian womxn fighting for human rights into this 30-minute immersion. This captivating piece moves us into a live performance by visiting artist, Huerco S, aka Brian Leeds, whose widely appreciated, layered sonic architectures have steadily pressed on the boundaries of the ambient music genre for the last decade.
Huerco S is followed by another artist whose work in electronic music is instinctively spatial and responsive to context. Hiro Kone, aka Nicky Mao, joins us from New York to perform on the 4DSOUND system, drawing from modular synthesis, noise, and instrumentation in her dynamic, world-making set.
We are delighted that Margo XS has come up from LA to close out this evening for us with a 2-hour Dj set, Her exceptional flair for experimental club, infectious pop, and gritty garage will light up the multichannel dance floor. In both her DJing and production, Margo is fiercely dedicated to representing and uplifting her LGBTQ+ and trans community, and it’s a great pleasure to bring her talent for this up North for MOTHER CLOUD.
