Following its sold-out debut in 2020, the Philharmonie Berlin will once again dedicate two evenings entirely to electronic music with a second Strom Festival on 3 & 4 February 2023. Strom brings together visionary artists whose work is grounded in electronic music but with regular practices beyond club music frameworks to reside for a night in the singular spatial setting of the Philharmonie Berlin. The invited artists are drawn from a wide range of electronic sounds and have reached beyond their core constituencies into different art forms and layers of technology or culture, widened the scope of their respective genres or created new ones altogether.
The Philharmonie Berlin is one of Germany's leading cultural institutions, an architectural landmark of the German capital and home to the Berliner Philharmoniker, one of the top orchestras of the world. The great hall, designed by architect Hans Scharoun with the stage in its centre and surrounded by seating on all sides, offers a unique acoustic setting and has served as a model for modern concert hall layouts around the world.
Strom spans three distinct settings. The Main Auditorium for seated listening and audiovisual performances by Wolfgang Voigt/GAS, one of the most important and productive techno-concept artists since the early 1990s, Hauschka + Kai Angermann, and Robert Henke with his media-archaeological work 'CBM 8032 AV'. Together with composer and sound designer Simon Stockhausen, members of the Berliner Philharmoniker are also part of the festival this time: the newly formed ensemble transformed acoustix is working on a world premiere for Strom.
The foyer of the Philharmonie Berlin will be the space for the dance element of the program. In addition to Juan Atkins, Detroit techno founder and originator of the now globally celebrated music genre, and Marcel Dettmann, resident DJ of Berghain club since the beginning, this stage will feature an AV-set by Blawan and the DJ sets by Nídia, upsammy and Stefan Goldmann.
For the duration of the festival, the Hermann-Wolff-Saal will show the installation 'The Trembling Line' by Aura Satz, which amplifies the movements of acoustic instruments as caused by the physics of sound.
Programme and artists
The film and sound installation “The Trembling Line” by Aura Satz will be shown in the Hermann-Wolff-Saal for the duration of the Strom festival. It explores the visualisation of sound and the acoustically amplified tonal potentials of acoustic instruments. The works of Aura Satz include film, sound, performance and sculpture. She integrates numerous technologies into her work, such as Chladni figures, the Rubens’ tube, theremins, mechanical musical instruments, record grooves and optical sound storage. The artist’s work has been shown worldwide, including at Tate Modern London, MoMA New York and the Sydney Biennale.
Hauschka (Volker Bertelmann) translates ideas that originate from the practice of repetitive electronic music to the limitless expressive possibilities of the prepared piano. His works range from solo albums to works with orchestras and Oscar- and Golden Globe-nominated film scores. At Strom, he will be accompanied by percussionist Kai Angermann.
Marcel Dettmann has been resident DJ at the Berghain club from the very beginning and is one of the most important representatives of the new techno sound from Berlin. His tracks and sets thrill listeners with their minimalism and rawness, without sacrificing emotion and surprising moments. Seemingly effortlessly, he knows how to mediate between purist techno, pertinent Chicago tracks, and the old and new of the past 25 years. His new album Fear of Programming was released in November.
DJ and producer Juan Atkins is the founder of Detroit Techno and the namesake of the now globally renowned music genre. In the mid-1980s, he combined influences from Detroit’s rich dance music history with futuristic sounds from Europe, creating a template that continues to evoke new interpretations to this day – not least by Atkins himself.
Strom is curated by Stefan Goldmann, who himself has consistently reinterpreted electronic music as a composer and DJ. In the process, he has often developed site-specific formats, for example for the LACMA Museum in Los Angeles, the Honen-in Temple in Kyoto and the Centro Cultural Kirchner in Buenos Aires. Strom’s programme is also tailored specifically to the spatial characteristics of the Philharmonie in order to create the most inspiring combination of classical concert hall and electronic music. In 2020, Stefan Goldmann presented a specially developed audiovisual format in the main auditorium. This time he will play the opening set in the foyer.
Hailing from the Netherlands, upsammy creates dazzling sound structures that are both rhythmically and spectrally complex as well as immediately appealing. She tours worldwide with her DJ sets and live formats.
Supported by TSE AG