• Main floor / Analogue vision by Frankie Casillo

X100

X100 is a new one-off festival that celebrates and contextualises the legacy of Iannis Xenakis (1922 – 1997). Xenakis’ pioneering work initialised techniques and directions that continue to inspire a variety of disciplines from architecture and drawing to music theory and light design. But a hundred years after he was born, the continuing presence of this great composer is felt most strongly in the thriving and overlapping tradition(s) of experimental electronic music – the world in which Berlin Atonal operates. The sonic world of Xenakis, this once musical outsider, used formidable musical techniques such as arborescences, stochastic synthesis, and proto-granular synthesis in service of high-impact musical events, sensorial immersion, spectacle and noise. Contextualised here amongst diverse practices and trends within contemporary electronic music, the music of this prolific utopianist continues to not only challenge modes of temporal existence, but of how music can be imagined and shared.

X100 is organised by OUTER (the team behind Berlin Atonal) and curated together with Studio LABOUR, with the support of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes.

 

PRESENTATION

18th Nov - 20th Nov 2022 – Kraftwerk Berlin, DE

PERSONAL NOTES

The trite old quote; "writing about music is like dancing about architecture" strangely strikes to the heart of what Xenakis was doing. Applying musical ideas to Design, architectural ones to Music, Math functions to performance and flocking behaviour to Light. Brought to life with an ancient knowledge of theatre and drama, of procession and ritual - the Greek undercurrent that runs through his work.

This is what makes it so spectacular and relevant: a deep-seated holistic philosophy. Taking inspiration from his multi-methodological approach was what made it so exciting to develop scenography and lighting for this festival.

Erecting scaffolding structures in space (but "stochastically": through instructions interpreted by the construction workers), a Greek-theatre inspired landscape for performer and audience alike, a reflecting-refracting foliation blending lights and shadow, a meandering pathway of glitching torches for a curious audience...

The perfect chance to develop our project of going beyond what a musical festival can be — interweaving sound and space, illumination, performance and atmosphere on many levels. –m