labor sonor open air

10 june 2023 | 19:00 | theaterhaus mitte

Theaterhaus Mitte Courtyard | Wallstr. 32 | Haus C | 10179 Berlin

STUDIO OF UNCONSCIOUS MUSIC—SUM
Alexander Markvart – loops, synth, bass, voice, percussion
Carina Khorkhordina – trumpet
Bryan Eubanks – saxophone
Axel Dörner – trumpet
Samuel Hall – drums, electronics

LOTTIE SEBES “VERITAS VENTRILOQUIST”
performance with sewing machines, effects- and sewing machine pedals, electro-magnetic microphones, talk-box, magnetic tape, found objects

CRYS COLE
Crys Cole – objects, electronics

Alexander Markvart
Lottie Sebes
crys cole © Seiji Morimoto

SUM (Studio of Unconscious Music), an experimental project originally from Siberia, formed in 2007 and has acquired a new line-up in Berlin. Siberian industrial songs meet Berlin improvised music. SUM works in genres like jazz-punk, industrial techno, electro-acoustic, synth-pop, etc. mixing this with a lyrical component—remnants of the song form: chants, declamations, endless repetitions. At the same time, SUM music—be it gnostic rave or convulsive raw industrial—remains quite suitable for dancing. Veritas Ventriloquist by Lottie Sebes is a performance and sound work which questions, transforms, and harnesses the historical entanglements of gender, voice and technology. At the core of this performance is the Veritas Machine—a noisy, dynamic, woman-machine interface made of dismantled and reforged sewing machines, re-envisioned as an instrument and vocal synthesizer. This instrument is a set, an apparatus and a relational system of technological components which have been predominantly used by women in history. crys cole is a Canadian sound artist based in Berlin. She works in composition, performance and sound sculpture / installation. Applying conceptual approaches that utilize haptic gestures and seemingly mundane materials, she creates subtle, texturally nuanced works that continuously retune the ear.

Abendkasse/box office opens at 18:00. Concert starts at 19:00. Entrance fee is €6–12 sliding scale. Funded by Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa, Spartenoffene Förderung Festivals und Reihen.

labor sonor spezial

in cooperation with THE LISTENING BIENNIAL

08 july 2023 | 18:00–22:00 | ballhaus ost

Ballhaus Ost | Pappelallee 15 | 10437 Berlin

BRANDON LABELLE “THE OPEN BODY”
with Catalina Tello Aranguiz, Kailin Badal Thomas, Nicole Michalla, Pamela Moraga, Thiago Granato, Miriam Jakob—dance


How does listening change us? In what ways do the sounds we hear alter the body? What are the consequences of listening – do we not listen in order to be moved, to be affected? 

The performance, The Open Body, focuses on listening as an experience of transformation. Through improvisational movement, the performance is based on developing listening strategies, where a group of performers attune to a given environment and move in response. This extends toward a deeper relational perspective, in which the performers listen inwardly, and to each other, as an imaginative process of live research. Throughout the long-durational work, the performers learn from what they hear, and from each other’s movements, incorporating this into themselves so as to find other ways of being in the body. What emerges is a meditative process of mutation, where the body opens itself to its surroundings, and to itself, drawing audiences into a sensitive scene of slow attention and transformation. 

The project is guided by what Anna Tsing terms “the art of noticing”, as what may assist in deepening a sense for the interconnectedness of life forms as well as the world of matter and energy. Following Tsing’s concept, the performance works at an art of noticing by evoking a time and space of listening, as what can enable greater empathy with others, especially that which is nonhuman and often invisible. The Open Body tests the limits of the body, showing in what ways we are shaped by all that is external to ourselves.

Abendkasse/box office opens at 17:00. Performance starts at 18:00: it’s a long-durational performance, you can leave and come back at any time. Entrance fee is €10–15 sliding scale. Funded by Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa, Spartenoffene Förderung Festivals und Reihen.