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Richard Norris & Eskimo Drop Epic 42-Track Compilation
Richard Norris teams up with Eskimo Recordings for Mr Norris Changes Brains, a 42-track global psychedelic journey. Out May 23rd on 3x2LP, CD & digital.
Over the past few years Eskimo Recordings have invited some of the best crate diggers around to curate compilations that don’t just reveal the hidden contents of their record bags but something about themselves too. Now, following in the footsteps of the likes of Bill Brewster and Psychemagik, producer, musician, DJ, writer and more, Richard Norris, takes us on a globetrotting psychedelic journey with the epic 42 track compilation, Mr Norris Changes Brains released on 23 May 2025.
A Psychedelic Odyssey: Richard Norris Curates Global Gems
For over forty years Richard has played a part in many of the UK’s most important music subcultures. Whether sharing stages with the likes of Tracey Thorn as a pubescent punk in St. Albans, or running freakbeat nights in Liverpool and working at the pioneering psychedelic label Bam Caruso, co-producing the UK’s first acid house inspired LP with Throbbing Gristle’s Genesis P. Orridge or riding the wave of creativity that the second summer of love unleashed all the way to the Top of the Pop studios as The Grid, Richard’s career has continually seen him work to expand his own musical horizons. He also strives to broaden the public’s musical perspectives. Most recently, he explored his diverse career as a musical tastemaker in his critically acclaimed autobiography Strange Things are Happening (White Rabbit).
Beyond the Wizards Sleeve Influence Runs Deep
Mr Norris Changes Brains is the most recent part of his mercurial career, drawing inspiration from his post 2006 adventures as one half of Beyond the Wizard’s Sleeve, alongside Trash’s Erol Alkan. This compilation shows how a more connected world has blown the dust off a paradoxically sometimes straightjacketed scene. The result is a dizzyingly wide-ranging collection that explores the further out there reaches of worldwide psychedelia and dancefloor mayhem.
“A lot of these tracks are fairly recent discoveries, things that I’ve discovered from around the time I started working with Erol and going right up to today. Whether that’s from going out to play and finding new records in places like Istanbul or just connecting with people online from all around the world. Psych can sometimes be a sort of narrow-minded field, with everything having to sit in its specific niche, but more and more people are open to new sounds and that’s allowed for a much broader selection.”
Richard NorrisThat freedom sees Mr Norris Changes Brains take us on a trip around the world and through time, with tracks from the 1960s rubbing up against recent releases. We journey through the US accompanied by heady fuzz monsters like Evolmia by Boston’s Banchee and the lysergic rhythms of Forest of Black by Oakland’s The Dirty Filthy Mud. Elsewhere we encounter mind-expanding sounds that have emerged everywhere from the valleys of Wales to sweaty Parisian basements, from underground Turkish clubs to Italian film scores and beyond.
Compilation Bridges Generations of Psych Fans
There’s obscurities aplenty, of course. Many of these recordings have never been officially available outside of their original, often hard to find, releases with some, like Thumbquake and Earthscrew by A to Austr and DAVE’s In My Mind, culled from punishingly rare private press albums. These rarities are accompanied by hidden gems, often overlooked B-sides to otherwise big hits with the likes of Rare Bird’s Hammond Organ stomper Devils High Concern or Iron Butterfly’s Iron Butterfly Theme duly making an appearance.
Despite their disparate origins, what unites these tracks is their infectious danceability. Mr Norris may change your brains but he will also move your feet. Whether it’s killer guitar riffs, oscillating synths, floor shaking drums or soulful Hammond organs, these are all cuts that get people dancing everywhere from festival tents to underground clubs
“With a lot of these tracks there’s a kind of fun element in them. It’s still psychedelia, but they’ve also got these solid, funky grooves. They sound phenomenal on the dancefloor and as much as these records might excite old psych heads, this compilation is also for a new generation out there who might have never heard anything like this before and, just like when I was 18 and heard The 13th Floor Elevators for the first time, think ‘Oh, my God, what on earth is this and more importantly what else is out there?’”
PRE-ORDER HERE
RELEASE DETAILS
Label: Eskimo Recordings
Format: 3x 2LP // 3CD // Digital
Cat no: 541416668181
Release date: May 23rd 2025SOCIAL MEDIA
Website of Eskimo Recordings
Eskimo Recordings on Instagram
Eskimo Recordings on BandcampTRACKLIST
- Chapter 1
- 1. Banchee – Evolmia
2. The Dirty Filthy Mud – Forest Of Black
3. Wool – Love, Love, Love, Love, Love
4. Spencer Mac – Ka-Ka Baya Mow-Mow (Sing A Little Love Song)
5. Trifle – One Way Glass
6. Brainticket – Black Sand
7. Emma De Angelis – Trip
8. Blonde On Blonde – Castles In The Sky
9. The Braen’s Machine – Fall Out
10. Eddie Warner & Roger Roger – Shut Up
11. Köy Kardeşler – Shürük
12. The Children – Beautiful
13. Moebius & Beerbohm – Doppelschnitt (Richard Norris Edit)
14. Demon Fuzz – Past, Present & Future - Chapter 2
- 1. Iron Butterfly – Iron Butterfly Theme
2. Rare Bird – Devil’s High Concern
3. Paul St. John – Flying Saucers Have Landed
4. Chris Hodge – We’re On Our Way (2010 Remaster)
5. Juantrip – Shadows
6. 62 Miles From Space – Time Shifts
7. White Trash – Road To Nowhere
8. Blue Phantom – Diodo
9. The Mannheim Rock Ensemble – Hungarian Dances
10. Limousine – Barriers
11. Ugo Busoni – Rullio
12. Bernard Estardy – Cha Tatch Ka
13. Kate – Shout It
14. Dyna-Might – Need You
15. La Metamorfosi – Scusa, Eh! - Chapter 3
- 1. André Brasseur – Saturnus
2. Contessa Vittoria – Can We Stay Together
3. Klaus Weiss – Time Signals
4. Brainstorm – You Are Whats Gonna Make It Last
5. Paladin – The Fakir
6. A To Austr – Thumbquake & Earthscrew
7. DAVE – In My Mind
8. Relatively Clean Rivers – Journey Through The Valley Of O
9. The Advancement – Stone Folk
10. The Pretty Things – The Sun
11. Poll – Psachno Na Vro To Filo Mou
12. Higamos Hogamos – Moto Neurono
13. The Invisible Girls – Huddersfield Wastes
LIVE DATES
- 24.4.25 – Richard Norris presents Oracle Sound live AV set, The Old Market, Hove, as special guest of Carbon Based Lifeforms
- 26.4.25 – Beyond The Wizards Sleeve DJ set, The Golden Lion, Todmorden
- 23.6.25 – Richard Norris live AV set, special guest of The The, Cliffs Pavilion, Southend
- 12.7.25 – Oracle Sound live AV set, Labyrinth Festival, Tofte Manor Bedford, w/Sasha and Digweed
- 23.8.25 – DJ set, The Wake Festival, Loxwood, West Sussex
- 24.8.25 – DJ set, Barley Mow, nr Wilmington, East Sussex
- 12.9.25 – DJ set, All Things Fungi Festival, East Grinstead, West Sussex
- 4.10.25 – Richard Norris presents Oracle Sound live AV set with Plaid, Castle and Falcon, Birmingham
ABOUT RICHARD NORRIS
Richard Norris has been pushing the envelope sonically for many years. From co-producing the seminal ‘Jack the Tab’ album, via his work with Soft Cell’s Dave Ball in The Grid and Erol Alkan in Beyond The Wizards Sleeve, alongside his many collaborations, solo albums, productions and remixes, Richard has been deeply connected with the spirit of psychedelia and dance since before Acid House.
credits (c) Josh Hight @josh._.hight After publishing his music memoir ‘Strange Things Are Happening’ (White Rabbit) in 2024, Richard is currently working on a host of new projects. These include Oracle Sound, his dub series of releases, Music For Healing, his monthly deep listening ambient work, Hypno, his new electronic dance label, a collaborative project with Mark Barrott for Anjuna Chill and DJ sets as Beyond The Wizards Sleeve. A live Oracle Sound AV show is currently touring, and The Grid return shortly, via a new deal with BMG that will see a ‘Best Of’ compilation, a brand new album and live shows.
Written by: Kasimiira Kontio
Instagram: @kontiocommsTaged as/in; AV, b side, Beyond, Compilation, crate, curation, dance floor, digging, Eskimo Recordings, Festival, freakbeat, global, Grid, Healing, music journey, Norris, obscure, psych, psychedelia, rare, reissue, releases, Richard Norris, soundtrack, vintage, vinyl, vinyl collection#writtenby
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Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery: Blue Blossom Lions, Ralf Kokke
Step into Ralf Kokke’s dreamlike forest world in Blue Blossom Lions. Vernissage: 2 May, 6–9pm @ Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Berlin.
Vernissage
Friday, 2nd May 2025
6 – 9pm
Opening hours during Gallery Weekend:
Saturday, 3rd: 11am-7pm
Sunday, 4th: 11am-6pm3 May – 7 June
In his latest solo exhibition at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Berlin, Ralf Kokke transports us into a twilight world bathed in blue. This is a realm of communality and pleasure, where people gather to rest, make music, and bathe in harmony with nature. The exhibition’s title, Blue Blossom Lions, alludes to the recurring presence of lions in Kokke’s dreams – guardians of his inner world and symbols of power and strength. In these paintings, predators of various kinds become guides, leading both artist and viewer through the composition while retaining their mystery and wildness.
A sense of magic and unease.
Het Bad In Het Bos (Forest Bathing), 2025, Chalk Paint on Canvas, 120 x 140 cm, 47 1/4 x 55 1/8 in As a child, Kokke grappled with the vividness of his imagination, which conjured both magical dreams and intense nightmares. Painting became a means not only of control but also of expansion, largely centring around the concept of paradise, which for Kokke, is linked to a feeling of safety and security as well as a oneness with nature.
While his previous works focused more closely on the characters or animals who occupied his dream world, in this series they are secondary to the environment that surrounds them.
We are drawn into lush, forest landscapes where figures and animals are glimpsed between trees, or lounging in a secluded glade. The colours and characteristics of the landscapes are inspired by those of Northern Europe but also borrow from the tropes of fairy tales to evoke a sense of magic and unease.
Dark Forest Swans (Zwanen In Een Donker Bos), 2025, Chalk paint on canvas, 160 x 200 cm, 63 x 78 3/4 in Moments of familiarity and intrigue, tension and calm
On the surface, these are all scenes of repose, but an undercurrent of tensions lingers. Take, for instance, the painting in which two figures sit on the banks of a river, playing the guitar. Around them, the world seems to pause, expectant: a tiger rests further down the river, its mouth slightly ajar; birds sit motionless in the trees; the sun burns a deep red. Elsewhere, a snake coils around the trunk and branches of a tree, poised to strike while in another work it is a swan that becomes the uncanny presence, emerging from behind a tree in the foreground while in the distance, figures bathe in the bend of a glassy river.
We could endlessly unpick the art historical references and symbolisms in these works, but Kokke is more interested in the suggestiveness of colour and line – how they shape the gaze and play with collective memory to create moments of familiarity and intrigue, tension and calm. This is not an act of deception but an invitation.
The rough texture of chalk paint lends the works a raw, almost primal quality, while depictions of water and impressions of softness in the leaves of the trees and grass evoke a strong sensuality the softness of leaves and grass evoke a visceral sensuality – a language both universal and deeply rooted in the body.
Get in Touch About the Exhibition
Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery
Mercator Höfe
Potsdamer Str. 77-87
10785 Berlin, GermanyCopyright © Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, All rights reserved.
Taged as/in; Art Exhibition, berlin, Blue Blossom Lions, contemporary art, Forest Bathing, Gallery Weekend Berlin, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Ralf Kokke, vernissage#writtenby
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Sonic Investigations – La Biennale di Venezia 2025
Opening Next Month: The Luxembourg Pavilion will present Sonic Investigations at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia 2025.
Sonic Investigations
Curated by Valentin Bansac, Mike Fritsch, Alice Loumeau
with Ludwig Berger & Peter Szendy
19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
Luxembourg Pavilion, Arsenale, Sale d’Armi, 1st floor
Sestiere Castello, Campo Della Tana 2169/F, 30122 Venice10 May – 23 November 2025
Preview days: 8 and 9 May 2025
Official Opening: Thursday 8 May, 4pm CEST
Photo © Simon Nicoloso.
The curators:
Valentin Bansac, Alice Loumeau, Mike Fritsch Sonic Investigations is an immersive, joyful and radical invitation to shift focus from the visual to the sonic. In our image-saturated contemporary society, sight often eclipses other senses which are vital to understanding the unseen dynamics of our sensory relationship with environments. Inspired by John Cage’s silent song 4’33’’, Sonic Investigations invites us to close our eyes and actively listen.
As a counter-project to the hegemony of images, the act of listening opens up new possibilities for exploring both built and natural environments and to move our attention towards giving voices to more-than-human agencies.
As both a practical and theoretical investigation, the project serves as a tool to re-explore the dense territory of Luxembourg – a significant case study for global western paradigms in territorial planning.
The sounds of the region emanating from biological, geological and anthropogenic beings blend into the intertwined soundscape of the Anthropocene and lead to the question: How to reveal the entangled character of specific contemporary situations in Luxembourg?
Through attentive listening and field recordings that capture a range of sounds from diverse environments, Sonic Investigations creates a new, uncanny and embodied experience of space, thus emphasising the value of sensorial approaches in spatial practices. Investigating territories through the medium of sound, the project seeks to craft new narratives that reimagine Luxembourg beyond anthropocentric perspectives.Acoustic Ecology and Sonic Warfare
By attuning to the auditory dynamics of the region’s densely infrastructured landscapes, the pavilion will provide an immersive space to give voice to the invisible. Drawing inspiration from Murray Schafer’s 1960s concept of Acoustic Ecology and Steve Goodman’s Sonic Warfare, sound serves as a point of tension, offering alternative ways to perceive space and confront the challenges of a rapidly transforming environment.
Also, The Luxembourg Pavilion at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia is delighted to invite you to the Curators’ Tour on Thursday 8 May at 2pm CEST with Valentin Bansac, Mike Fritsch, Alice Loumeau, Ludwig Berger & Peter Szendy. Please register through this form before Thursday 1 May, 2025 to attend.
During an exclusive press tour, the curators of the Luxembourg Pavilion will lead visitors through the immersive pavilion space, providing a behind-the-scenes look at the sound excerpts that shaped their research, sharing the creative process behind the project, and explaining how their work contributes to the architectural discipline.
Sound Pieces
A commissioned in-situ sound piece is at the centre of the physical pavilion. Developed in collaboration with sound artist and field recorder Ludwig Berger, the composition weaves together recordings from distinctive locations across Luxembourg, inviting listeners to explore space through a new auditory perspective. The field works spur from encounters and site visits with local specialists encompassing a broad spectrum of disciplines including ecology, social science, engineering, history and data science.
Focusing on multi-perspective field recordings, the piece critically examines the dynamics of the Luxembourgish territory and investigates how ongoing sustainable and digital advancements are shaping the country’s landscape. By employing sound as a tool for spatial and territorial analysis, the project offers a fresh framework for understanding urban and extra-urban contexts, challenging conventional approaches to territorial planning along with the power structures and limitations it creates. The concept of Ecotone – a transitional space between two ecosystems – guides the field recording process, utilising liminal spaces to explore the impact of human intervention on the environment.A multiplicity of voices are present in the sound piece, from the buzz of data centres to the silence of biodiversity loss, portraying, among other things, forests as spaces of exchange, energy production infrastructures and the architecture of digital technology. By exploring how complex networks coexist, the composition blurs the boundaries between human and nonhuman, natural and artificial, local and global, granting voice to silenced entities and overlooked systems.
Sound teaser for Ecotonalities: No Other Home Than the In-Between, 2025 by Ludwig Berger here.
On the threshold of the Pavilion, the suspended “Long Throw” parabolic loudspeaker by Anthea Caddy projects a sound work into the space based on a reading by philosopher and musicologist, Peter Szendy.
Exhibition
Inspired by Bernhard Leitner’s research on Sound Spaces, the pavilion provides an immersive environment where visitors are transported away from the abundance of images into a sonic experience. As banal as listening seems, concentrating solely on sound can create a surprisingly uncanny experience.
Sonic Investigations will present a collection of original content, including a sound piece, written texts, and fieldwork documentation. The aim of the project is to utilise the Biennale context as a platform for generating knowledge rather than physical objects. Therefore, the pavilion’s scenography is designed with minimal intervention, creating an ideal acoustic environment to display the soundscapes recorded in Luxembourg.A sustainable material strategy focuses on rental, reuse, recycling and reusability. The physical materials used consist of standard construction elements with minimal modifications, facilitating reimplementation within circular systems.If you are still in Venice on Saturday, 10 May, we would be delighted to welcome you to:
Public performance and book launch “Ecotones: Investigating Sounds and Territories”
In the presence of Ludwig Berger, landscape sound artist, composer and musician, Peter Szendy, French philosopher and musicologist, and contributors of the book.
Date: 10 May 2025
Time: 18:00 to 21:00
Location: Ca’Buccari (Calle Buccari 3, Viale IV Novembre, 65, Venice)
Commissioners appointed by the Luxembourg Ministry of Culture:
Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg
LUCA – Luxembourg Center for ArchitectureCurators
Valentin Bansac, Mike Fritsch, Alice LoumeauExhibitors
Valentin Bansac, Ludwig Berger, Anthea Caddy, Mike Fritsch, Alice Loumeau, Peter Szendy
Opening hours
10 May to 28 September: 11 a.m. – 8 p.m.
29 September to 23 November: 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Closed on Mondays (except on 12/05, 2/06, 21/07, 1/09, 20/10, 17/11)
www.venicebiennale.kulturlx.luFollow the Instagram with photos and sound excerpts from the project: @venicebiennaleluxembourg
Book (Ecotones: Investigating Sounds and Territories)
Edited in collaboration with philosopher and musicologist Peter Szendy, the book extends the investigations on the relevance of sound in territorial studies outside the context of Luxembourg. Developed as an autonomous book, it offers a curated collection of texts from various disciplines that examine spaces, territories and ecologies through sonic ventures. Much like the sound piece, the book fosters new cultural frameworks and theoretical tools for spatial practitioners.
Structured in three chapters that provide a multiplicity of textual forms including essays, fictions and situated case studies, the book begins by exploring sound as a perceptual medium and the potential for a politics of listening. The second section narrates sonic practices, investigations, methodologies and the sensorial engagement of the listener’s body. Finally, the third section enters territories and field experiments, exploring how to portray sonic entanglements within specific contexts.
The book includes contributions by Peter Szendy, Shannon Mattern, Tim Ingold, Soline Nivet and Ariane Wilson, David George Haskell, Ludwig Berger, Philip Samartzis and Madelynne Cornish (Bogong Centre for Sound Culture), Nadine Schütz, Laure Brayer (CRESSON), Julia Grillmayr, Christina Gruber and Sophia Rut (Lobau Listening Comprehensions), Yuri Tuma (Institute for Postnatural Studies), Emma McCormick Goodhart, as well as a fiction piece by Xabi Molia and poems by Laura Vazquez and Cole Swensen. The graphic identity of the project and the book are designed by Pierre Vanni.Activations
A series of three events will activate and resonate with the pavilion at key moments, such as the opening week, the Pavilion Days and the closing week. These activations extend the reflection on embodied practices and sensorial approaches to space through sound, engaging with what composer Pauline Oliveros calls Deep Listening.
The programme will include an off-site sound performance by Ludwig Berger with readings from the book, a short residency with Gaia Ginevra Giorgi culminating in a performance within the pavilion’s immersive space, and an audio-walk through the Venice lagoon guided by Nicola Di Croce, each offering a unique exploration of the audience’s body within soundscapes.
The events will create a dialogue between the pavilion’s production and the local Italian sound research scene.
Copyright © 2025 Pickles PR, All rights reserved.
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total recall – Gabriele Regiert, Matthias Reinmuth
Entdecke „total recall“ beim Sellerie Weekend 2.–4.5. in Berlin – Kunst jenseits von Kommerz, mit Gabriele Regiert & Matthias Reinmuth am Samstag vor Ort!
Sellerie Weekend
2.5. – 4.5.2025
https://www.sellerie-weekend.de/Freitag 15-19 Uhr, Samstag 14-18 Uhr und Sonntags geöffnet! 14-18 Uhr Gabriele Regiert und Matthias Reinmuth sind am Samstag anwesend *
open friday 3-7pm, saturday 2-6pm and sunday 2-6pm the artists are present on saturday
Sellerie Weekend:
This initiative aims to create visibility for the work of independent art spaces in the city through joint action. It expresses an understanding of art and its display that is not oriented towards commercial purposes.
Initiated by Spoiler
total recall
Gabriele Regiert, Matthias ReinmuthAusstellung: 12.04. – 24.05.2025
Ordnung scheint dringend nötig in einer Zeit, in der offenbar vieles in Unordnung geraten ist. Werte und Normen geraten angesichts der jüngsten Kriege und Krisen durcheinander, unsere Lebenswelt ist geprägt von dauerhaften Veränderungs- und Anpassungsprozessen, reaktionären und totalitären Zwangsideen stehen Rationalität und Wissenschaft gegenüber. Und angeblich stehen nur Ordnung und Chaos zur Wahl.
Es überwiegt ein Gefühl der Orientierungslosigkeit. Die Ereignisse der Welt passieren nun nicht nur gleichzeitig – so wie sie es immer schon getan haben – sie sind heute noch dazu gleichzeitig erfahrbar geworden. Während die Erde brennt und Raumgleiter zum Mars düsen, wühlen wir auf der Suche nach neuen Häppchen immer weiter Gold aus der Erde, jagen es durch Quecksilberlaugen und vergraben es wieder in Stahltresoren im Untergrund. Immer gravierender wird unser menschliches Eingreifen in die Biosphäre spürbar.
Die Ausstellung total recall versucht Bilder für diese Komplexität zu finden.
Haben wir noch irgendeine Chance, selbstbestimmt und mit Würde Entscheidungen zu treffen?“mach-alles-größer-Freunde”
Algorithmen, die programmiert werden mit den erratischen Zukunftsvisionen unserer „mach-alles-größer-Freunde“? Haben wir noch irgendeine Chance uns kollektiv darüber bewusst zu werden und an einer optimistischen und sozialen Zukunftsvision für die Menschheit zu entwickeln?
Darauf können die Arbeiten der Ausstellung total recall keine Antwort geben, sie können vielleicht nur Wege zu richtigen Fragen aufzeigen. English version: Order seems to be urgently needed at a time when many things seem to have fallen into disarray. Values and norms are getting mixed up in the face of recent wars and crises, our living environment is characterized by permanent processes of change and adaptation, reactionary and totalitarian ideas of compulsion are confronted with rationality and science. And supposedly there is only a choice between order and chaos.
Sellerie Weekend: total recall – Gabriele Regiert, Matthias Reinmuth
Exhibition: 12.04. – 24.05.2025A feeling of disorientation prevails. The events of the world are now not only happening simultaneously – as they always have – they have also become simultaneously tangible today. While the earth burns and spacecrafts jet off to Mars, we continue to dig gold out of the earth in search of new morsels, chase it through mercury leaches and bury it again in steel vaults underground. Our human intervention in the biosphere is becoming increasingly noticeable.
The exhibition „total recall“ attempts to find images for this complexity.
Do we still have any chance of making self-determined and dignified decisions?
Algorithms that are programmed with the erratic visions of the future of our “make-everything-bigger-friends”? Do we still have any chance of collectively becoming aware of this and developing an optimistic and social vision of the future for humanity?The works in the exhibition „total recall“ cannot answer this question, they can perhaps only point the way to the right questions.
Scotty Berlin
Raum für aktuelle Kunst und experimentelle MedienOranienstrasse 46
D 10969 Berlin
U-Bahnhof Moritzplatz
Öffnungszeiten: FR: 15 –19 Uhr / SA: 14 – 18 Uhr
www.scotty-berlin.deFacebook: ScottyProjectSpaceBerlin
Instagram: scottyspaceberlinTaged as/in; art without limits, artists on site, berlin art weekend, contemporary art, gabriele regiert, matthias reinmuth, nonprofit art, Scotty Berlin, scotty space, sellerie weekend, total recall#writtenby
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Pièces Monophoniques: A Track-by-Track Journey by Marc Melià
Crafted on an analog monophonic synthesizer with no overdubs, Pièces Monophoniques is a tribute to simplicity in an era of limitless digital possibilities.
Since his debut album, Music For Prophet (Les Disques du Festival Permanent, 2017), Majorca-born composer Marc Melià, now a long-time resident of Brussels, has been redefining the contours of electronic music through a minimalist, reductionist approach. Melià’s work is much like a solitary hike through the vastness of mountains. On this hike, one carries only the essentials. His work invites listeners on a journey stripped of excess. It focuses instead on the purity of sound and intention.
While some have dismissed monophonic music as overly simplistic, others have embraced its distinct charm. Historical records, such as those by Johannes Quasten, reveal that early Church leaders were drawn to monophonic music because it resonated with the era’s cosmological beliefs, highlighting the harmony and unity of all creation.
In an age of digital abundance, Marc Melià deliberately embraces constraint, crafting an album that thrives within a limited palette of choices. Yet, from these self-imposed boundaries emerges a stunning universe, brimming with rich textures and elegant harmonies. For his debut album, Melià worked exclusively with a Sequential Prophet.
With Pièces Monophoniques, his third LP, he returns armed solely with an analog monophonic synthesizer and handcrafted MIDI sequences etched directly onto a single stereo track.
These recordings seek to uncover beauty within the boundaries of limitations and simplicity, rejecting any embellishments that are not essential. Melià presents the bare skeleton of music, highlighting the power of absence and silence as creative forces. Like the hidden mass of an iceberg, what is not heard becomes as significant as what is heard.
224 Steps – The Pulse Returns
The album navigates the boundary where the quest for an uninhibited emotional response intersects with the mechanical sounds generated by synthesizer circuitry. Despite being a collection of beatless tracks, a pulse occasionally surfaces, like in the closing piece, “224 Steps.
224 Steps – The Pulse Returns & Échoes et Fantasies – the Mirage of Harmony
A sharp sequence blended with multiple delays and reverbs creates the vaporous celestial specter of multiple voices in “Illusions of Polyphony”, while “Échoes et Fantasies” conjures the illusion of dual harmony.
Overture – An Electric Dawn
The expansive reverbs and silences between the euphoric synth phrases in “Overture” transport us to an imaginary magestic landscape shaped out of an electric field.
Resonances – The Art of a Single Note
“Resonances,” a one-note drone-like sequence, embodies the album’s aims as a series of resonances created with the synth filter emerge from the fundamental note.
“Pièces Monophoniques,” aims to contribute to a tradition that dates back to the dawn of humanity. After all, there is no denying that the earliest music crafted by humanity was monophonic, from the soothing lullabies sung to newborns to Gregorian chants, traditional labor songs, and the repertoire of solo compositions by countless composers.
Artist: Marc Melià
Release: Pièces Monophoniques
Label: Vlek
Release Date: May 23, 2025#writtenby
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Mental Health in Clubs: Konferenz setzt starke Impulse
Die Konferenz „Mental Health in Clubs“ setzt starke Impulse für mentale Gesundheit im Nachtleben – mit Handbuch, Panels und klaren Maßnahmen.
Die Mental Health in Clubs Konferenz bildete den Abschluss zwei intensiver Jahre des Projekts Mental Health in Clubs, initiiert von der Clubcommission Berlin e.V., gefördert im Rahmen der INQA-Experimentierraum-Projekte des Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales und finanziert durch die Koordinierungsstelle Betriebliche Gesundheitsförderung. Sie setzte ein starkes Zeichen für die Enttabuisierung psychischer Gesundheit in der Clubszene. In Panels, Fachvorträgen und einem interaktiven World Café wurden zentrale Fragestellungen rund um mentale Gesundheit im Nachtleben diskutiert.
Mental Health in Clubs
Am Freitag, den 25. April 2025, fand im Maaya die erste Konferenz „Mental Health in Clubs“ der Clubcommission Berlin statt. Die Veranstaltung hatte mehrere Ziele. Dazu gehörten die Präsentation und Einordnung der Projektergebnisse sowie die Veröffentlichung des „Handbuchs für Mitarbeitende und Führungskräfte zur Stärkung der Resilienz und psychischen Gesundheit in Clubs und Livespielstätten”.
Ein weiteres Ziel war die nachhaltige Vernetzung zwischen Clubkultur, Gesundheitswesen und Politik. Schließlich gab es einen Ausblick in zukünftige Maßnahmen und Entwicklungen. Rund 100 Expert:innen aus Clubkultur, Medizin, Wissenschaft und Politik tauschten sich über die psychische Gesundheit im Nachtleben aus und entwickelten konkrete Maßnahmen für die Zukunft.
Handbuch Mental Health in Clubs
Hannah (Tresor), Yannis Trouinard (Fitzroy, LARK), Tom Neumann (Zenner), Marcel Weber (1. Vorsitzender Clubcommission), (Panel: Organisationsentwicklung zur psychologischen Versorgung in Clubs und organisationale Resilienz), Fotos © Marbella Studio Mentaler Support für Nachtarbeitende
Die Speaker:innen bei der Konferenz beleuchteten nicht nur die psychischen Belastungen der Nachtarbeit, sondern präsentierten auch praxisorientierte Lösungen. Der Diskurs auf der Konferenz macht deutlich, dass die Förderung psychischer Gesundheit durch Ruheräume, Awareness-Teams und Supervisionen in Clubs sowie durch den Ausbau psychotherapeutischer Angebote für Mitarbeitende weiter gestärkt werden muss. Besonders betont wurde dabei die Notwendigkeit, Führungskräfte stärker für Gesundheitsförderung zu sensibilisieren und freiberuflich Tätigen mehr strukturelle Unterstützung zu bieten.
Asia James, DJ MELL G (Panel: Mental Health von marginalisierte Gruppen in der Clubbranche), Fotos © Marbella Studio Psycare und Antidiskriminierung
Eine Idee von Vertreter:innen aus Politik und Gesundheitswesen zur Stärkung psychischer Gesundheitsstrategien war die Entwicklung einer Präventionsplattform durch das Land Berlin, die Clubcommission und Krankenkassen wie die AOK Nordost. Sie könnte kostenlose Psychoedukation, Peer-Support und psychosoziale Beratung für Nachtarbeitende anbieten.Für einen diskriminierungssensiblen Umgang wurden gesellschaftliche Frühprävention, beispielsweise an Schulen, und die Förderung respektvoller Konsenskulturen empfohlen.
Es wurde auf den hohen Bedarf an Psycare- und Antidiskriminierungsarbeit aufmerksam gemacht. Besonders wichtig ist dies für marginalisierte Gruppen. FLINTA*-Personen (Frauen, Lesben, intergeschlechtliche, nicht-binäre, trans und agender Personen) sind davon betroffen.
„Psycare“ steht in dem Fall für psychologische Erste Hilfe auf Festivals, in Clubs oder bei anderen Events. Diskutiert wurde dabei auch die geringe Inanspruchnahme psychologischer Hilfe durch Cis-Männer sowie die anhaltende Stigmatisierung von Therapie, die für viele eine Hürde darstellt.
„Die erste Konferenz “Mental Health in Clubs” hat gezeigt, wie wichtig es ist, die psychische Gesundheit im Nachtleben stärker in den Fokus zu rücken. Die zahlreichen Diskussionen und praxisorientierten Lösungen verdeutlichen den dringenden Handlungsbedarf. Besonders die Idee einer Präventionsplattform für Nachtarbeitende sind ein wichtiger Schritt, um echte Veränderungen zu bewirken.“
Emiko Gejic, Pressesprecherin der ClubcommissionEntstigmatisierung von Substanzgebrauch
Beim Thema Substanzgebrauch ging es um die Entstigmatisierung. Es ging auch um Präventionsprogramme für Mitarbeitende und den offenen Dialog innerhalb des Arbeitsumfelds. Diese Gespräche betreffen die Vereinbarkeit von Konsum und Therapie und beinhalten eine Pilotstudie. Ein weiterer wichtiger Punkt war auch die Berücksichtigung der Bedürfnisse neurodivergenter Menschen. Dabei brauche es vor allem Rückzugsräume, angepasste Lichtgestaltung, Gehörschutz, transparente Kommunikation und die Entwicklung eines Neurodiversitätskonzepts für Veranstaltungen.
Nicht nur die Ergebnisse der Studie, sondern auch das große Engagement der Teilnehmenden zeigte die Relevanz des Themas. Die Teilnahme am Mental Health Projekt der Clubcommission hat die psychische Gesundheit der Mitarbeitenden verbessert. Sie hat auch zu strukturellen Veränderungen in den teilnehmenden Clubs geführt. Viele der teilnehmenden Clubs bestätigen auch während der Konferenz: Die psychische Gesundheit wird bei Entscheidungen der Clubleitungen mittlerweile genauso gewichtet wie wirtschaftliche Überlegungen.
„Die Ergebnisse der Studie zeigen: Um Menschen in der Clubkultur besser zu unterstützen, braucht es weitere Maßnahmen für eine künftige Präventionsstrategie. In den vergangenen zwei Jahren haben wir gemeinsam mit der Charité, der Deutschen Psychologen Akademie und der FernUniversität Hagen wichtige Erfahrungen gesammelt, wie wir wirksame Angebote wie psychosoziale Beratung, Peer-Support-Gruppen und Psychoedukation speziell für diese Zielgruppe entwickeln können.”
Erich Joseph, Projektleitung Mental Health in ClubsÜber die Clubcommission:
Die Clubcommission ist das Netzwerk der Berliner Clubkultur. Sie wurde im Jahr 2001 gegründet und ist mit über 350 Mitglieder die weltweit größte Vereinigung von Clubbetreiber:innen und Veranstalter:innen. Sie unterstützt die Arbeit der Kulturunternehmer:innen durch die Optimierung der Rahmenbedingungen und die Verbesserung der Infrastruktur.
Neben vielen verschiedenen Aktivitäten wie nachhaltiger Stadtentwicklung, Schallschutz und der Vermittlung zwischen Clubs, Bauherren und der Nachbarschaft, ist die Verbesserung der Arbeitsbedingungen in der Nachtökonomie wichtig. Auch die Entwicklung von Antidiskriminierungs- und Sensibilisierungsmaßnahmen in Clubs ist von Bedeutung. Die Erforschung der verschiedenen Dimensionen der Clubkultur ist seit jeher ein wichtiger Bestandteil ihrer Arbeit.
Text: Emiko Gejic, Pressesprecherin der Clubcommission
Copyright © 2025 Clubcommission Berlin e.V., All rights reserved.Taged as/in; Arbeitswelt, awareness, berlin, Clubcommission Berlin, Clubculture, Clubkultur, Clubs, Diskriminierung, FLINTA, Gesundheit, Handbuch, Konferenz, Lichtgestaltung, Medizin, mental health, Nachtleben, Neurodiversität, Peer Support, Politik, Prävention, Psycare, Psyche, Psychoedukation, Resilienz, Ruheräume, Substanzgebrauch, Supervision, Wissenschaft#writtenby
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Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, I AM NOT SURE I CAN TRUST YOU
UNCENSORED ist Danielle Brathwaite-Shirleys mutige Einzelausstellung während des Gallery Weekend Berlin 2025. Eröffnet am 2. Mai, 18-21h.
DANIELLE BRATHWAITE-SHIRLEY UNCENSORED
2. Mai – 26. Juli 2025Eröffnung: Freitag, 2. Mai 2025, 18-21 Uhr
NOMEGALLERY.COM
Potsdamer Str. 72 – 10785 – BerlinAm Freitag, 2. Mai findet im Rahmen des Gallery Weekend 2025 um 14 Uhr in der Neuen Nationalgalerie ein Artist Talk mit Danielle Braithwaite-Shirley und Sheldon Gooch statt. NOME freut sich, anlässlich des Gallery Weekend Berlin 2025 UNCENSORED zu präsentieren, eine Einzelausstellung der in Berlin lebenden Künstlerin und Archivarin Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley und ihre erste Zusammenarbeit mit der Galerie.
About Brathwaite-Shirley:
Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley ist bekannt für ihre immersiven und interaktiven Installationen, die Animation, Malerei, Klang und Performance verbinden. In ihrer Arbeit erforscht sie Identität und Fehlinterpretation durch das Erzeugen von Unbehagen und Konfrontation.
UNCENSORED präsentiert neue Werke – Malerei, Zeichnungen, Paravents, Klang- und Videoarbeiten –, die den Betrachter mit Emotionen konfrontieren, die wir oft unterdrücken. Angesichts zunehmender Zensur schafft die Ausstellung Raum für verdrängte Gespräche und regt das Publikum dazu an, seine Überzeugungen und Reaktionen zu hinterfragen.
About NOME:
Die in Berlin gegründete Galerie NOME erforscht die Schnittpunkte von Kunst, Politik und Technologie. Mit dem Schwerpunkt auf konzeptionellen und sozial engagierten Praktiken vertritt NOME internationale Künstler, deren Arbeiten die vorherrschenden Narrative herausfordern und einen Dialog provozieren. In der Potsdamer Straße gelegen, ist die Galerie ein wichtiger Ort für kritische zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin.
Über das Gallery Weekend Berlin:
Das Gallery Weekend Berlin zählt zu den bedeutendsten Kunstereignissen Europas. Jedes Jahr im Frühling öffnen rund 50 ausgewählte Galerien in Berlin ihre Türen für ein internationales Publikum aus Sammlerinnen, Kuratorinnen, Kunstliebhaberinnen und Medienvertreterinnen. Neben den offiziellen Ausstellungen finden zahlreiche Eröffnungen, Performances, Artist Talks und Veranstaltungen in der ganzen Stadt statt. Das Wochenende bietet eine einzigartige Gelegenheit, die Vielfalt und Dynamik der Berliner Kunstszene hautnah zu erleben – von etablierten Positionen bis hin zu jungen, aufstrebenden Künstler*innen.
Corinna Wolfien
Books Communication Art
+49(0)175 5676046
mail@corinnawolfien.comTaged as/in; »Uncensored«, art, Artist talk, berlin, Black Trans Art, contemporary art, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, exhibition, Gallery Weekend Berlin, Neue Nationalgalerie, NOME Gallery, Queer Art#writtenby
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Takehito Koganezawa | Picnic on Paper at LOOK Gallery
Join the LOOK Gallery for Picnic on Paper—Takehito Koganezawa’s poetic solo show in Berlin. Opening May 2, part of Gallery Weekend 2025!
Takehito Koganezawa | Picnic on Paper
Opening | Friday, May 2, 2025 | 3 – 7 PM
Gallery Weekend Berlin
Sa & Sun | May 3 – 4 | 10 AM – 6 PMMay 2 – June 15, 2025
Thurs – Sun | 12 – 6 PM
Takehito Koganezawa, Inner Power, 2024. © Takehito Koganezawa, Courtesy LOOCK, Berlin To mark 25 years of collaboration with Japanese artist Takehito Koganezawa, LOOCK Gallery is pleased to present Picnic on Paper, a solo exhibition featuring drawings, watercolors, and a video work.
His work is currently included in In anderen Händen:
Highlights der Sammlung Philara in der Miettinen Collection, Berlin (25.04.-27.07.2025) and will be shown in Takehito Koganezawa: Eins auf Zwei, Zwei aus Eins, a solo exhibition at the Humboldt Forum Berlin (24.05.–12.10.2025). This exhibition includes recent acquisitions made by the Museum für Asiatische Kunst and site-specific works by Koganezawa.
Reflecting on past experiences and his artistic practice, Koganezawa recently stated:
The earliest artwork I can recall was a drawing made with a ballpoint pen.
Not a drawing in the usual sense—more a quiet ritual of motion. I drew ovals over and over until the paper began to break. The movement of my hand flowed through the pen, leaving behind lines—traces of a gesture, fixed on the surface. It felt like running laps on a track: breathless, focused, and strangely excited. I think I was trying to touch the feeling itself.
There was wonder in how a physical act could stay in material, and a kind of reverence for the world that emerged—fragile, yet absolute. It brings to mind another moment: the first time I told a lie. A small one, harmless perhaps. But in it, I glimpsed how even a simple falsehood could split the world into two. I felt I had begun to understand the secret of language. (My father, of course, saw through it at once, and that little parallel world collapsed into a dead end.)
Yes—for me, drawing on paper is tied to that primal memory. It is a bodily act. It is also a fiction, a quiet invention.
Pan Paper Picnic.
A revolution moves forward, wearing the face of a joke.
The freedom on the surface of the paper—and the freedom behind it—slips past censorship through play.The works presented in this exhibition not only explore the artist’s creative process and the endless possibilities that arise when he begins to work, but also the relationship between materials and the physical act of working on them.
About the Artist
Takehito Koganezawa, a resident of Berlin from 1999-2017, currently lives and works between Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan. Koganezawa has participated in several solo and group exhibitions around the world, most recently Recovery at the Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art in Kagawa, Japan (2023) and The View of Hanoi at the Asia Culture Center in Gwangju, South Korea (2023). In 2024, he took part in the Van Gogh House Residency Program in London.
Takehito Koganezawa – Picnic on Paper
Vernissage | May 2, 2025 | 3 – 7 PM
May 2 – June 15, 2025 | Thurs – Sun | 12 – 6 PM
LOOCK Galerie
Ackerstr. 171, 10115 BerlinTaged as/in; LOOCK Gallery#writtenby
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George Benjamin / Martin Crimp: Written on Skin
Eine packende Geschichte über Liebe, Kunst und Identität: WRITTEN ON SKIN – im Mai in der Deutschen Oper Berlin. Jetzt Tickets sichern!
Basierend auf einem der bekanntesten Texte des französischen Hochmittelalters „Le cœur mangé“, auf einen anonymen okzitanischen Text des 12. Jahrhunderts zurückgehend und dem Trobador Guillem de Cabestanh zugeschrieben, gelang Autor Martin Crimp und Komponist George Benjamin mit WRITTEN ON SKIN ein Gleichnis über Identität, Liebe und die Macht von Literatur und Kunst.
In seltener Perfektion greifen Text und Komposition ineinander, eine packende Geschichte und eine so präzise wie poetische Sprache ergänzen sich mit einer hochtheatralen, zeitgenössischen Musik, die in ihrer klangsinnlichen Fülle auch ein breiteres Publikum zu fesseln vermag.
Erleben Sie die Geschichte vom verspeisten Herz des Liebhabers in Katie Mitchells bildgewaltiger und psychologisch fundierter Inszenierung diesen Mai unter der musikalischen Leitung von Marc Albrecht mit Daniel Okulich, Giorgia Jarman, Hugh Cutting, Anna Werle und Chance Jonas-O’Toole – Karten für die letzten drei Vorstellungen gibt es ab 24€. Wir freuen uns auf Ihren Besuch!
Ihre Deutsche Oper BerlinInhalt:
Drei Engel blicken aus der Gegenwart zurück in jene Zeit, in der jedes Buch ein kostbarer, auf „Haut geschriebener” Gegenstand war. In diese Epoche reist einer der Engel in Gestalt eines Illustrators, der für den gewalttätigen Protector ein Buch über dessen Verdienste schreiben soll. Obwohl der Protector seine junge Frau Agnès eifersüchtig bewacht, beginnt diese eine Liebesaffäre mit dem Engel in Künstlergestalt. Der Protector entdeckt die beiden, tötet den Illustrator und serviert seiner Frau das Herz des Geliebten.
Die Termine im Überblick
04.05. So17.00 Written on Skin | Deutsche Oper Berlin
14.05. Mi19.30 Written on Skin | Deutsche Oper Berlin
20.05. Di19.30 Written on Skin | Deutsche Oper Berlin | Zum letzten Mal
Karten und Service:
Tageskasse: Do. – Sa. (außer feiertags), 12.00 – 19.00 Uhr
Abendkasse: 1 Stunde vor Vorstellungsbeginn.
Keine Abendkasse bei Vorstellungen in der Tischlerei.
Tel.: +49 (30) 343 84 343
info@deutscheoperberlin.de
WebshopDeutsche Oper Berlin
Bismarckstraße 35
10627 Berlin-Charlottenburg
AnfahrtTaged as/in; berlin, BerlinEvents, ContemporaryOpera, culture, Deutsche Oper Berlin, George Benjamin, KatieMitchell, Martin Crimp, Musik, Oper, Theater, Written On Skin#writtenby
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