In cooperation with Berlin Atonal, MaerzMusik - Festival for Time Issues presents the third issue of “The Long Now” from 25 March starting at 6:29 p.m. to 26 March at midnight at Kraftwerk Berlin.
Among this year’s artists are: Alvin Lucier (US), Tim Hecker (CA), Chris Watson (UK), Kara-Lis Coverdale (CA) and Keith Fullerton Whitman (US).
“The Long Now” is the grand closing event of MaerzMusik − Festival for Time Issues 2017. Surrounded by the monumental setting of Kraftwerk Berlin, the project assembles concerts, performances, electronic live-acts, sound and video installations to form a composition in time and space. Embracing musical worlds from early Renaissance polyphony to the musical avant-garde, experimental electronics, Ambient and Noise, this third edition of “The Long Now” allows for sonic and bodily experiences of an exceptional kind.
As a central guest at MaerzMusik 2017, Alvin Lucier – one of the most prominent representatives of the American avant-garde – will present his legendary piece “I am sitting in a room” on 25 March at “The Long Now”. On the same evening, vocal ensemble Graindelavoix from Antwerp will perform “And Underneath The Everlasting Arms”, a piece it just premiered in Vienna that focuses on the phenomenon of sleep and sleeplessness and was created together with light designer Koen Broos. Berlin-based but internationally active ensembleZinc & Copper will play “For Brass and Computer”, a composition by Catherine Christer Hennix. The Swedish-American sound artist and mathematician also performs the revival of her masterpiece “The Electric Harpsichord” from 1976 at an opening concert at MaerzMusik 2017, as well as the special action space Kalam-i-Nur at silent green.
Canadian ambient electronic artist Tim Hecker and fellow compatriot and newcomer Kara-Lis Coverdale have worked together on several of Hecker’s albums – most recently on “Love Streams” in 2016. In their sonic worlds, both draw reference from the so-called “Early Music” of the Renaissance and Baroque. At “The Long Now” they each perform a solo act. At the festival, American-born Keith Fullerton Whitman known for his work with modular synthesis and as a pioneering force in drillcore inflected IDM, has of late turned his attention to musique concrete and the study of Pierre Schaeffer. He prepares a piece for “The Long Now” based on his own processed and layered recordings of the Kraftwerk building and its surrounds. Known for his sound works as well as field recordings, especially for nature film productions (BBC), is Englishman Chris Watson. He was a founding member of two influential experimental music groups, Cabaret Voltaire and The Hafler Trio. The Guardian included his “Weather Report” album from 2003 in their list of “One of the thousand albums you should hear before you die”.
On view throughout the entire duration of “The Long Now” are installations by American ambient avant-garde composerWilliam Basinski, which he created together with video artistJames Elaine.
The programme, which was curated by Berno Odo Polzer, Laurens von Oswald and Harry Glass, will be published successively in the Facebook event and on the Berliner Festspiele’s website.