Festival Alternativa: 1st Day

Makan

The Makan project was created as an audio response to the bleak situation in the world. The original duo of synthesizer player Jano Doe and Palestinian singer and qanun player Shafeeq Alsadi (see, for example, their performance at the NEXT 2024 festival) was joined by Finnish electronic musician Saku Liimatainen, and they will perform under this name for the first time ever at Alternativa. Their work processes the anger and sadness of current political and ecological developments into surprising soundscapes, where the lyricism of Arab tradition meets the rawness of live electronics. Makan's improvisations can be expected to be on the verge of collapse, fragile chaos, an emotional electroacoustic conversation for which contrasts are something natural.

MSHR

MSHR, originally an Oregon duo consisting of Birche Cooper and Brenna Murphy, has achieved cult status in the experimental underground and recognition in the gallery and academic world. Their work straddles the line between sculpture, ritual, and performance, and is based on their own electronic instruments, whose appearance is just as important as their sound. In sound installations and concerts, MSHR (pronounced "mesher" or as an acronym with variable meanings) creates environments for interaction between the living and the artificial, which also respond to movement and light. The concept of the synthesizer as a sculpture could lead to analog purism, but the duo incorporates digital as an integral component in programming and design. The music itself is not overshadowed by the visual garden of wonders. Electronic noises thrive like living creatures, unpolished and colorful.

Hüma Utku

Electronic music often connotes a certain dehumanization, but in the case of Hüma Utku, a trained psychologist, it is inextricably linked to emotions. Originally from Turkey and now based in Berlin, the musician likes to incorporate material from her other profession into her sound creations, which are released on prestigious labels such as Editions Mego and Karlrecords. Her current recording, Dracones, deals with the experience of pregnancy and childbirth, while her earlier work, The Psychologist, is a study of various psychological phenomena.

With its intensity, emotionality, and use of rhythmic elements, Utku falls into the so-called power ambient genre, as represented by Tim Hecker and artists from the Subtext label. Instead of their spectacular grandeur, however, she tends to delve into the depths. Dense textures, sparse beats, and unexpectedly alluring synth melodies are primarily intended to set the scene and introduce the narrative. Beneath the transparent structures of the compositions lie abysses, from whose darkness something ancient and primitive emanates. It is not difficult to drown in them.

Quinton Barnes & Black Noise Ensemble

Quinton Barnes is a musician from Montreal, Canada, whose acclaimed work has so far mainly included distinctive mutations of electronic soul and R&B. With this year's hot new release, however, he has ventured into new waters. Its genesis began with a single tweet in which Barnes expressed his desire to play with noise artists and improvisers for a change. This was noticed by his friend Michael Cloud Duguay, who contacted him, and the pair created an album and ensemble called Black Noise – a musical response to ideas of Afropessimism and a test of what “black” genres can still endure. 

Black Noise was created as a deconstruction of commissioned piano suites, performed by a jazz band made up of proven Montreal improvisers. The individual compositions range from free jazz, jazz rock, and funk to noise, and Barnes himself adds that he provides rap and soul vocals and lyrics that address feelings of despair over the inevitability of discrimination and dehumanization of the Black population. Barnes' music is like the negative of Afrofuturism, where ambitious electronics and jazz alternate with hopeless noise.