Music Artists
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Alibeta
Aibeta is a musician, curator, filmmaker and writer. One of his main focuses in the last two years has been KENU Lab’Oratoire des Imaginaires, a community-led interdisciplinary laboratory at the cross-section between arts, culture, and social research which he founded in Dakar (Senegal) with a collective of artists in 2020.
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Aly Keïta & The Magic Balafon
Although steeped in tradition, Keïta's Afro-pop repertoire, driven by funk-rhythms and a preference for complex, jazz-oriented arrangements, sets him apart from the majority of balafonists. He founded Aly Keïta & The Magic Balafon with Dutch master drummer Marcel Van Cleef, bassist Richard Müller, and French trombonist Geoffroy Demasur. All based in Berlin, since their first meeting in the Jazz scene, they combine West African balafon music with funky, jazzy grooves.
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Andrea Belfi
Italian-born Andrea Belfi is a drummer, composer, and experimental musician based in Berlin. Over the years Belfi has built a sound world blending the complex timbres of the acoustic with the endless possibilities of the electronic. Belfi has a strong live reputation internationally and his performances are known to be energetic and hypnotic, featuring long-arching immersive soundscapes.
(photo credits - Roberto Brundo) -
Baby Vulture
Born in Mexico, Daniela Huerta is a multimedia artist and sound designer based in Berlin. She has developed her own multi-layered and eclectic form of DJ-ing under the moniker Baby Vulture. With mythology at the core, she explores modes of storytelling that shift between the real and the imaginary in an attempt to understand the realm of the psyche.
(photo credits - Bill Patrick) -
Ben Olayinka
Introducing Ben Olayinka, the Naija boy with an afrobeat soul. Ben reigns supreme as the “Minister of Enjoyment” and the “King of the Dutty Whine”. He's also the proud papa of Späti Party Berlin, where he flies his freak flag high, encourages people of all colours, shapes, and orientations to be themselves, and champions laid back open air come and go as you please vibes.
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C.A.R. + Max Loderbauer
The Cologne-Berlin Krautjazz formation C.A.R. and the electronic artist Max Loderbauer (known among others for his collaborations with Ricardo Villalobos and Tobias Freund) are performing together on stage for the first time. They got to know each other when the band was recording in the beautiful Candy Bomber Studio at Tempelhof Airport, right next to Max’s studio. The chemistry was right and without further ado, the artists decided to join together in a recording project. The result of this collaboration will be released in autumn 2023 on Bimba Records and will be presented live for the first time at Gaswerk Art Days.
(photo credit - Frederike Wetzels) -
Cinna Peyghamy
Cinna Peyghamy is a composer and sound artist, born in France to Iranian parents. His recent work focuses on the real-time transformation of acoustic sounds. At the centre of his setup is the tombak, a traditional percussion instrument. By combining it with the endless possibilities of the modular synthesizer, Cinna blends the boundaries between acoustic and electronic, between traditional and contemporary.
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Claudio Puntin
Claudio Puntin is a createur de musique, a soloist who decides at the moment how to generate music out of emptiness. From his big variety of musical roots, he has developed a personal musical language with natural access, including electronica, alternative techniques and self-invented instruments. He runs a music-creation space and recording studio in Gaswerksiedlung Berlin.
(photo credits - Grzegorz Gołębiowski) -
Coco Maria
Coco Maria is a selectora and a radio host. She specializes in Brazilian, South-, Central-American, and Caribbean wax. Irresistible slices of bossa nova, samba, cumbia, and all sorts of rarities from sunnier, far-off places, mixed with her unconditioned energy will keep your feet busy while making your mind embark on a trip to the warmed sides of the musical world. Coco Maria is the host of "Club Coco" at Worldwide FM, and "I Dream of Piranhas" on Cashmere Radio.
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Deadbeat + Maarten Vos
Having originally met 10 years ago in the context of the Studio Stekker residency program in Utrecht, Scott Monteith and Maarten Vos have forged a strong creative friendship, collaborating on various joint projects and contributing to the work of a vast array of like-minded artists within their respective creative circles. Both technical and musical polymaths in their own right, they explore the outer reaches of techno, drone, dub, and experimental forms through their respective musical and audio-visual projects.
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Derek Gripper
Derek Gripper is one of South Africa’s leading guitarists whose love of the kora set him transcribing and recording some of its greatest works, changing the face of classical guitar and giving the instrument its very first African repertoire. When Gripper released “One Night on Earth,” his first album of kora translations, classical guitar legend John Williams said he thought it was “absolutely impossible until I heard Derek Gripper do it,” while kora maestro Toumani Diabaté asked for confirmation that it was indeed just one person playing.
We are honoured to have invited this outstanding artist to play in Berlin for the first time!
(photo credit - Simon Attwell) -
Ekow Alabi Savage + Ziggy Zeitgeist
This project is the point of conjunction of ancient and technological worlds from the drummers’ perspective - from traditional West African rhythms now commonplace in Western pop music through to the evolution of the drum machine and its impact on electronic music. Ekow Alabi Savage is a virtuoso and living legacy of afrobeat and highlife music and a native of Ghana who considers himself a Berliner for many years now. Ziggy Zeitgeist, leader of the acclaimed Live-Club mashup Zeitgeist Freedom Energy Exchange and now running his own label again further joining the worlds of live improvisation, and African-derived rhythmic concepts with electronic dance music.
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Halosaur
Halosaur, a.k.a Stephane Lefrancois, is a French music producer, teacher, drummer, live performer and DJ, currently based in Berlin. He runs a studio in Gaswerksiedlung and dedicates large portions of his time to teaching modular synthesis and drumming. He has released on prestigious labels such as R&S, !K7, KMS, Classic Music Company, and more. He took part in many collaborations, the latest of which is the Maracuja project, where he explores infectious, uplifting afro beat vibes with two of his inspiring partners in crime, Sarkis Ricci and Elle Holgate.
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Ibaaku
Ibaaku is a sound poet, exploring the potential of audio through collaborative and interdisciplinary work touching fields such as visual and performance arts. He is now a rising figure in electronic and experimental music on the African continent. And recently co-founder with Alibeta of the 1st music label dedicated to contemporary and electronic music from Senegal: Miziku Tey Records.
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KUF
KUF create emotion-laden dialogues across layers of time and dimensions of sound. With three albums the Berlin trio pioneered an astonishing inversion of the typical electronic band set-up, by pairing a plethora of disembodied, sampled voices with acoustic real-time interaction on bass, drums and keys.
(photo credit - MaxParovsky) -
LeCiel
LeCiel is an American International artist, producer, vocalist-writer, live performer, film composer and dancer. She combines many sounds and voices that pull from her lived experiences, including her influences in gospel, R&B, soul, jazz, hip-hop, world and melodic tribal tech-house. Refusing to have her music assigned to any genre, she consistently pushes the boundaries by enmeshing electronics and live instrumentation to create her unique, organic, earthy, groovy and soulful sound.
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Marylou
Marylou is a French, Berlin-based DJ. The Morphine Records & Ominira affiliate has got impeccable tastes, focusing on a no-boundaries selection. Her daring and psychedelic sets are always experimentation of her true style: From Traditional music and Noise to bass, footwork and jungle, she carves smart rhythms and depths, always for the committed ear.
(photo credit - Vincent Moon) -
Mop Mop
Andrea Benini, better known by his stage name Mop Mop, is an Italian musician and producer. He performs worldwide with his band, the Mop Mop Combo, as well as a DJ. Five studio albums, many Singles and over 50 Million streams make Mop Mop a “cult” reference in the international “World” music field. Iggy Pop plays Mop Mop on UK’s BBC radio, Woody Allen chose them for one of his movies and the Funk legend Fred Wesley (James Brown’s co-arranger) signed with Benini the tune “Run Around”, awarded in 2013 as best “Dancefloor track” for the Red Bull Music Academy, Germany.
(photo credits - Marco Onofri) -
Perera Elsewhere (live show + DJ set)
No matter where Perera has found herself musically - from live shows & DJ sets at institutions such as Berghain, the Guggenheim, the Hamburg Philharmonic, Mutek Festival, or music licensed for Ava Du Vernay’s ‘Queen Sugar’ or by Oscar-winning director Paolo Sorrentino - she has constructed a creative habitat and welcomed others to it. She plays at Gaswerk Art Days both with her band and with a solo DJ set. A true multi-hyphenate, Perera’s open and autodidact technique is also highlighted by a long list of collaborations, composing music for moving images, art installations & dance.
In our program, she performs both her live show and a solo DJ set. -
Rhythms of Prescott
Versatility, crafty & open-minded are some words to describe the effect of Rhythms of Prescott’s work both on the dancefloor and in his productions. An open book to all shades and appetites of music, a top shelf understanding of groove, reading people and the context of space with a unique knack for selecting records for the moment, seamless and relevant. From House to Techno with 90's flair, Disco and rare super grooves, an underground selector at heart - versatility is the strength of his flow, with plenty of his unknown and self-productions through his sets.
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Sacha Hladiy
Sacha Hladiy’s life always whirled around the arts and the piano. After studying for four years at the Bill Evans Piano Academy under the direction of Bernard Maury and collaborating on different albums in France, he moves to Berlin. Here he focuses on solo piano works, with compositions that take inspiration not only from French composers, such as Satie, Debussy and Ravel but also from the works of Chopin and Philipp Glass. Sacha's music and improvisations are a mix of neoclassical, impressionism and worldwide grooves. The sweet and deep harmonies are an invitation to dream and let go. The simplicity and melancholy of the melodies open the heart and inspire the soul.
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Shackleton (DJ act)
Sam Shackleton was born in Lancashire in England and has been based in Berlin since 2008. One of the most original and critically lauded voices in electronic music, Shackleton has moved from the depths of the early 2000s dubstep underground to a diverse range of international collaborations and commissions in the last decade, his hypnotic beats and unique rhythmic touch are now heard on some of the most adventurous and progressive projects that have emerged from the European dance scene in recent years.
In our program, Shackleton will create bridges between the live acts of our best up-and-coming artists. -
Shush presents... Ama//Mizu (live)
Shush is a Berlin-based collective of music lovers & music makers aiming to unite folks through movement & vibration. Their shared goal is to nurture a community that approaches music and club nights without constraints to style, tempo, or form.
Ama//Mizu is a feeling, a moment of uncertainty. Inspired by the escapist rhythm of electronic music and the vivid narratives of folk, between the loud flicker of a light and the overarching silence. A sliding world of shadowy textures, cavernous sub-bass and hauntingly melodic vocals. -
Shush presents... Ken Okuda (DJ set)
Shush is a Berlin-based collective of music lovers & music makers aiming to unite folks through movement & vibration. Their shared goal is to nurture a community that approaches music and club nights without constraints to style, tempo, or form.
Ken Okuda is a selector, music journalist and researcher from Berlin, inspired by all styles of dance music. He’s co-founded the collective and sound system Shush, bringing a soulful touch to Berlin dancefloors. With a dedication to spinning vinyl and a keen ear for contemporary sounds, his sets move in numerous directions. -
Shush presents... Moody
Originally from Los Angeles, Paula Mellibosky aka Moody’s Chilean roots have helped her discover a passion for global funky grooves and have led her to a life of collecting vinyl and sharing her love with those ready to dance. Moody’s style knows no boundaries as she loves to dip in Brazilian disco while making leaps towards Chicago house to jazz-funk. Moody has been living and making a name for herself in Brussels since August 2021.
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Shush presents... Orlando Rosé (DJ set)
Shush Shushis a Berlin-based collective of music lovers & music makers aiming to unite folks through movement & vibration. Their shared goal is to nurture a community that approaches music and club nights without constraints to style, tempo, or form.
Orlando Rosé is a keys player, producer Shushand DJ based in Berlin. He is co-founder of the Shush collective and the Pinewax label family. He forms half of the producer duo dibou and has collaborated with Yasmin Umay, D’Monk, and GEEGEE. He hosts a monthly show on THF Radio, showcasing local talents of the Berlin scene. -
Sonic Interventions
Sonic Interventions is a band of transdisciplinary, Diaspora-futuristic musicians based in Berlin. Sonic Emerged in 2020 from weekly jam sessions on Tempelhofer Feld and is now established as one of the city's most acclaimed underground Jazz collectives. Known for inclusive live spectacles, in which moments of meditation and trance rise into heavy grooves, traditional rhythms of the African and Latin American continents coalesce with urban styles such as Hip Hop, Trap and House. The band combines poetry and ecstatic dance inspired by the cosmos, ancient alchemy and world mythologies. They plan to release their debut album in 2024. (photo credits - Catzillalovesyou)
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Triniboi Joocie & the Samuel Dubois Band
Award-winning steel pan champion Samuel Dubois leads the electrifying musical revolution, blending the infectious rhythms of soca and calypso with cutting-edge electronic elements. Caribbean Energy meets Underground Grooves. Featuring Trinidadian-born sensation Triniboi Joocie, delivering soca heat that ignites the dance floor, alongside the versatile genius of New Zealand-born pianist and composer Aron Ottignon, and the world-class drumming mastery of Jose Joyette.
The concert for Gaswerk Art Days premiers the EP release of the new formation, soon out on Urban Trout / Modulor Music! A free drink at the bar for whoever manages to stay still in front of the rumbling soca energy of this quartet. -
UTA (Tresor/Warning)
A veteran and somewhat legend to Berlin’s bass music scene, selecta DJ UTA’s resume spans from co-running UK bass dedicated party Rec Room (alongside Sarah Farina and Kepler) to providing killer sets for the likes of Rinse FM, Boiler Room, HÖR and Berceuse Heroique mix series. Schooled in classic house and techno as part of the German capital's thriving underground scene in the '90s, UTA's wide-ranging selections are tied together by her skilful technique, honed over decades behind the decks.
(photo credits - Sunnstudio)
Some words about the music program
The music program consists of a very multifaceted lineup, where genres and fame are secondary to energy, atmosphere, and quality. Reflecting the multiplicity of influences and tastes of the music community, the music curators thought of an event for music lovers and ears that are hungry for diversity. From energetic and genre-transgressive band performances under the summer sun to delicate listening sessions and late-night electroacoustic solo performances, this year’s program moves on a red thread that connects African tradition and Berlin’s experimental electronics.
Amongst the highlights, we count the award-winning experimental pop auteur Perera Elsewhere; acclaimed South-African classic guitarist Derek Gripper, specialising in the kora music of Mali and playing in Berlin for the very first time; electroacoustic composer and percussionist Andrea Belfi; ever-transforming and lively Mop Mop, guided by Andrea Benini; selectora and Worldwide FM radio host Coco Maria; the raw, unpredictable experimentations of the band KUF; and the no-boundaries selection, smart rhythms and depth of Frech, Berlin-based DJ Marylou (Morphine Records).
Other important artists have been invited by the curators to present themselves with new formations and collaboration. Multifaceted DJ, producer and drummer Ziggy Zeitgeist teams up with Ghanian percussionist legend Ekow Alabi Savage; while under the lead of steel pan champion Samuel Dubois, Caribbean energy meets underground grooves with the soca heat brought by Triniboi Joocie, the genius of pianist Aron Ottignon and the drumming mastery of Jose Joyette.
On the experimental side, the Cologne-Berlin Krautjazz formation C.A.R. features the electronic contribution of Max Loderbauer; while Dub master Deadbeat joins the electroacoustic composer Maarten Vos.
Amongst the up-and-coming artists, we feel like listing Senegalese Ibaaku, with his futuristic electronics; Cinna Peyghamy, combining the tombak with the endless possibilities of modular synthesis; and the irresistible electronic, soulful grooves of producer and vocalist LeCiel. Shackleton joins us with different DJ support acts to intersect and connect the live performances of these young artists.
An African stream of music contributions can be recognised in the program, counting Aly Keïta & The Magic Balafon and Alibeta’s band project, together with others already mentioned above. Many more artists from Gasweksiedlung and from its expanded circle will share the stage with other trusted characters of the local scene.
