Future Soundscapes Festival

Day 1: Anna Schürmer // Manfred Miersch // Jan Brauer

What does the future sound like? Future Soundscapes investigates the past and present of science-fiction sounds at the intersection of popular culture, music and film. With sound lectures and talks, concerts, installations, screenings and performances

More information coming soon
Overview

19:00
Anna Schürmer (interpolationen.de)
Opening Sound Lecture
In her keynote lecture Cultural Historian Anna Schürmer will focus on Zukunftsmusik, in German a highly metaphorical term meaning „music of the future“ as well as „some time in the future“. Sound is an essential element in the conception of future worlds, whether as noise, tones or music. Especially white noise or static often assumes a Utopian character and was recognized as a form of music only during the modern age. This kind of noise is a characteristic feature of past, present and future avant-gardes. The audience will be invited to join Schürmer on her journey through time and noise: from Dadaism and futurism via electronic music pioneers like Karlheinz Stockhausen and Kraftwerk up to contemporary Techno and the posthuman symphonies of the digital era.
Lecture held in German

20:00
Manfred Miersch
Sound Lecture / Performance with Subharchord and theremin
In this sound lecture Manfred Miersch, sound researcher and musician, will present the subharchord  – a long forgotten, unique electronic instrument that Miersch rediscovered in 2003 after a period of intense research. The subharchord was developed in East Berlin in 1962 by engineer Ernst Schreiber in close cooperation with composer Addy Kurth. Both men aimed at developing a machine that was able to produce futuristic sounds. With its „subharmonic“ sounds the instrument was soon used in avant-garde electronic music and was used for creating sound effects for films produced in the GDR such as the SciFi classic „Signale“ (1970).
Lecture held in German

21:00
Jan Brauer - DJ Set for A Trip To Mars (1918)
Future Soundscapes festival has commissioned Berlin-based DJ and composer Jan Brauer to compose a new score for the Danish silent film A Trip to Mars (1918). In his live performance, Jan Brauer will present an electronic remix of vinyl records, inspired by futuristic tracks from pop music history and film history alike. A Trip to Marsis one of the first feature films about space flight and concerns a crew of fearless men and their long voyage to Mars. When they reach the planet, they discover that it is inhabited by people who have reached a higher stage of development, free of diseases, violence, and hatred. A film with a strong pacifist message in the final year of World War I.

A Trip to Mars / Himmelskibet
1918 | Holger-Madsen | Denmark | 1918 | 81 min.
Avanti Planetaros launches in his self-built spaceship to Mars. But the journey doesn't go smoothly: the crew reaches for alcohol, there is a threat of mutiny. Arriving on the foreign planet, the crew encounters a pacifist high culture, free of diseases, violence, sexual needs and the fear of death. A message of peace in the war year of 1918.

A project by silent green Film Feld Forschung gGmbh.
Founded by Musicboard Berlin GmbH.