Following two years of rescheduling, the audiovisual concert series FIBER x The Rest Is Noise returns to its trusted slot, the first Friday of the new year. The 2023 edition starts with exciting audiovisual collaborations between musicians and visual artists, on the cutting edge of music, media, and physical matter. FIBER x The Rest Is Noise 2023 features performances by Vincent Rang, Shoal & Helena Basilova, Nik Colk Void, Klara Lewis + Pedro Maia and Sarkawt Hamad (DJ) on the Muziekgebouw stage.
FIBER x The Rest Is Noise
Friday 6 January 2023
Globally, digitalization has expanded in a major way under the influence of the pandemic. At the same time we witness the strong need to physically connect to the material world after a period of virtuality. This edition of FIBER x The Rest Is Noise focuses on the beauty and uniqueness of physical materials, as well as on the way musicians and media artists compose organic forms through digital means.
The programme
In a uniquely audio visual collaboration project, musicians and composers Klara Lewis and Nik Colk Void collaborate with visual artist Pedro Maia. Guitars, synths, euro rack modular systems, voice, sampling and outboard processing are presented in a playful collage intertwining pop, noise, tender techno and brutal ambient by Lewis and Void, accompanied by Maia’s 16mm analogue film manipulations. Nik Colk Void made name in the experimental electronic music scene with the bands Factory Floor and Carter Tutti Void (featuring Throbbing Gristle’s Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti). Stockholm-based sound sculptor Klara Lewis previously collaborated with composer Simon Fisher Turner, and producer Peder Mannerfelt. Portuguese film artist Pedro Maia predominantly uses 16mm and 8mm celluloid film. He has contributed to projects with Patti Smith, Fennesz, and Lucrecia Dalt.
Part installation and part performance, MONOLITH is based on the concept of the chemical garden, originating from synthetic growth. Inspired by the book The Mechanism of Life by French biologist and physician Stéphane Leduc, this concept was translated to the stage by Vincent Rang.
Rang is a visual artist who is fascinated by natural patterns, created for example by wind, water, and crystal. He developed MONOLITH together with DJ/producer Shoal, who focuses on connecting mind, body and sound, and pianist Helena Basilova, who fuses the classical tradition with contemporary composition and technology. She previously recorded works by Morton Feldman, Anton Webern, and Olivier Messiaen.
Last but not least, Sarkawt Hamad moves between the binaries of darker moods and bliss energies. The Amsterdam-based, Erbil-born artist finds inspiration in all sorts of elements, from rock music to dreamy pop and her roots. Firmly entrenched in the Dutch underground scene, she translates this experience into a melodic flow behind the decks. Diverse in sources, her sets ebb effortlessly between different genres, from breaks to leftfield techno and house, all connected through a contagious energy. Sarkawt creates a space in which euphoria, more pensive states and deep soft noise can coexist.
Programme
7.30 -8 PM | Introduction with interview
8.30 – 9.10 PM | Vincent Rang, Shoal & Helena Basilova present MONOLITH (Live A/V)
9.10 – 9.40 | Break
9.40 -10.20 PM | Nik Colk Void, Klara Lewis + Pedro Maia (Live A/V)
With dj-sets from Sarkawt Hamad before and after the live-performances.
Klara Lewis, Nik Colk Void & Pedro Maia (Live A/V)
Klara Lewis is a critically acclaimed sound sculptor from Stockholm who has been presenting her audio-visual shows in clubs and art galleries around the world and has been selected as a highlight of such festivals as Atonal, Mutek, Sonar and Semibreve. Lewis builds her work from heavily manipulated samples and field recordings creating a unique combination of the organic and digital. She has released numerous well received albums via Editions Mego – Ett, Too, Ingrid, Ingrid Live at Fykinggen and Live in Montreal 2018. In tandem with her solo works, she has active collaborative projects with Simon Fisher Turner and Peder Mannerfelt.
Nik Colk Void is an electronic musician and artist with a vast reputation in experimental shapeshifting and collaboration. UK based, Void has produced eight acclaimed studio albums with her musical groups Factory Floor (Gabriel Gurnsey & Dominic Butler), Carter Tutti Void (Chris Carter & Cosey Fanni Tutti) and NPVR with the late Peter Rehberg, releasing via Mute, DFA, Blast First, Editions Mego and Industrial. Her debut solo album Bucked Up Space will be released this year (April 8th) via Editions Mego. Key live performances, solo and with collaborators include: CTM – Unsound – Incubate – Pitchfork (NY, Paris & Chicago) – Moog – Coachella – GRM Paris – Club2Club – LEV – Semibreve, Rewire. Art residencies at the Barbican – London ICA – Zabludowicz Gallery – Lisson Gallery – Art Basel – Fiorucci Trust (Stromboli Island) – Galleriapiû Gallery (Bologna) – Semibreve (Portugal).
Pedro Maia is a Portuguese filmmaker (Berlin Based) working predominantly with 16mm and 8mm film, pushing the boundaries and aesthetic of analog cinema by manipulating the raw materials and challenging the traditional process. His work has been presented and exhibited at renowned film festivals, Institutions and galleries, including The Barbican Center, Serralves Museum, Tokyo Contemporary Art Museum, Armenian Centre for Contemporary Experimental Art, amongst others. Maia has contributed to projects to Patti Smith, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lucrecia Dalt as well as collaborative projects with musicians such as Vessel, Shackleton, Visionist, Shapednoise, Jacaszek, Lee Ranaldo, Fennesz, presenting live at festivals such as Sonar, Unsound, Berlin Atonal and Mutek.
Vincent Rang, Shoal & Helena Basilova (Live A/V)
Vincent Rang (1989) is an experimental visual artist working primarily with moving image as a medium. He believes in the power of moving image and audio as a door into another world. He explores themes of scale, time experience, natural patterns and symbiosis with audio. His gaze is often directed towards the natural dances of life. He observes, captures and re-arranges these various patterns, from wind patterns, water currents, blooming flowers, landscapes and rock formations, to create abstract audio-visual experiences, offering the viewer enough space to find their own truth and interpretation in the work, and most importantly, to feel them.
Whether he’s DJing or performing live, Shoal seems to continuously challenge himself on a creative level. Never repeating itself, each live set is a winding river of emotions transcribed into music, a walk-through of Shoal’s experiences and places he’s been to. The Utrecht-based producer aims for the body and mind: Enriched with hypnotic rhythm patterns, field recordings, and drones, his distinctive take on sound design is on display across a series of EPs on labels such as Harmony Recordings, LET Recordings, and On Board Music.
Having music written for her from when she was seven years old, Helena Basilova feels a natural connection to contemporary music. It is something of a personal calling to lead the public to the most interesting works and enjoy exploring new territory together. Helena performed, among others, at Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall, New York City), Hyogo Performing Arts Centre (Japan), Rachmaninov Hall (Moscow), Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the NCPA in Mumbai, Banff Centre (Canada) and the Amsterdam Dance Event. Upcoming projects include composing new music-score for Aelita a Sovjet movie from 1924 together with Salvador Breed. A new solo program Crystalline with works by Olivier Messiaen, Tristan Murail and Karen Tanaka. Also 2022-2023 will present a new audio-visual installation to Julius Eastman’s monumental Gay Guerilla.
FIBER just released an interview with Vincent Rang, Shoal (Kenny Kneefel) and Helena Basilova. Read it below!
MONOLITH INTERVIEW WITH VINCENT RANG, SHOAL & HELENA BASILOVA
Sarkawt Hamad (DJ)
Between the binaries of darker moods and bliss energies – Sarkawt Hamad’s sound is unmistakable. The Amsterdam-based Erbil- born artist finds inspiration in her fascination for rock music, to dreamy pop and her roots. Firmly entrenched in the Dutch underground scene, she translates this experience into a melodic flow behind the decks. Diverse in sources, her sets ebb effortlessly between genre – breaks, leftliefd techno and house, all connected through a contagious energy. Sarkawt creates a space in which euphoria, more pensive states and deep soft noise coexist.
Partners
FIBER x The Rest Is Noise 2023 is a collaborative effort between FIBER Festival and Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ.
