Centrum Sonic Lecture 5: German Thrash – Extreme Metal For A Divided Nation Philip Freeman

19.00 (18.45 doors) Sonntag Februar 2012

German Thrash – Extreme Metal For A Divided Nation - Philip Freeman will discuss the three most important bands of the early 1980s thrash metal scene in Germany – Destruction, Sodom and Kreator. All these bands emerged in West Germany in the early 1980s, performing songs with themes of violence, nuclear war, and other typical metal concerns, with Kreator probably the most politically engaged of the three. The lecture will refer to songs from early albums like Destruction’s Infernal Overkill and Eternal Devastation, Sodom’s Obsessed By Cruelty and Persecution Mania, and Kreator’s Endless Pain and Pleasure To Kill. Kreator was the first metal band to perform in East Germany following the Berlin Wall coming down. This starts at 7.00 so be there before.

Please rsvp at david@centrumberlin.com or by accepting invite at the fb event.

Sonic Lecture 4 - A Boom Bap Continuum (Laurent Fintoni) - Sunday 22nd January 2012

Laurent Fintoni's's Sonic Lecture is entitled A Boom Bap Continuum and looks at the evolution and mutation of hip hop's 'boom bap' sound aesthetic from 1999 to 2009 and beyond. Exploring the sound's early mutations in the 2000s via the work of people like Dabrye, Machinedrum, Prefuse 73 and El-P through to the work of people like Flying Lotus, Hudson Mohawke, Ras G and Mike Slott. Using a chronological backbone, music selection and newly sourced input from some of the early pioneers, the lecture will show how terms like trip hop, glitch hop, IDM and later wonky were ultimately often attempts at pigeon-holing boom bap's mutations into more comfortable boxes and how its sonic evolution was influenced from the soul and funk of the 70s to electronic music, rave and video games which led to its revival and continued popularity. As Laurent says: "A Boom Bap Continuum seeks to trace what I see as the fascinating evolution of hip hop's most enduring sonic aesthetic and how it was influenced by technological evolution, cultural and geographical mutations as well as hip hop's original ethos of 'do what you want with what you have." (Laurent's website)

Please RSVP to david@centrumberlin.com. Lecture starts at 7pm, please arrive by 6.45pm.

Callum Cooper: The Constant and the Flux January 4 - 7 2012 - live video performance Finissage and Screening: Saturday 7 January 19.00

Callum Cooper: The Constant and the Flux January 4 - 7 2012 - live video performance
Finissage and Screening: Saturday 7 January 19.00

Between Wednesday 4 and Saturday 7 January Callum Cooper will develop a video performance at different sites in Berlin culminating in a screening at Centrum on the 7th January.
Places and times of the performance will be available on the website and blog.

Callum Cooper is an artist filmmaker who is interested in the production of film, he has used camcorder's and iPhone's as filmmaking tools. For this project he has created a particular structure with attached cameras and invites members of the public to take part, making spontaneous films with the process firmly at the centre of the outcome.

Curated by Carmen Billows in collaboration with Centrum

Times and meeting places for performance / Zeiten und Treffpunkte für die Performances:

Wednesday/Mittwoch
11 Uhr Tempelhof Flughafen (close by to / nahe St. Thomas Kirchhof)
14 Uhr Görlitzer Park (close by to / nahe dem Spreewaldplatz)
15 Uhr Schlesischer Busch (next to the Watch Tower / nahe dem Wachturm)

Thursday/Donnerstag
11 Uhr Arconer Platz
12 Uhr Mauerpark
14 Uhr Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer (on Bernauer Straße)

15.30 Uhr Bodemuseum (nahe / next to Monbijoustraße)

Friday/Freitag
11 Uhr Bundeskanzleramt

12 Uhr Haus der Kulturen der Welt (auf Dachterrasse / on roof top terrace)

14 Uhr Holocaust Mahnmal

15.30 Uhr Sony Centre (Potzdamer Platz)


Saturday/Samstag

13 Uhr Alexander Platz (close by the TV Tower / nahe des Fernsehturms)
15 Uhr Centrum
19 Uhr Finnissage at Centrum (Performance, film presentation and Installation)

For details on the locations please contact / Für weitere Informationen zu den Orten der Performance wendet euch bitte an Carmen Billows: 0176 64 043 043

David Rhodes Installation and Finissage

David Rhodes Centrum Residency - 12-18 December 2011

David Rhodes makes abstract paintings of vertical lines over black space. At a distance the stripes create a physical disorientation, close up though, the artist's interest in the surface of paint is revealed. His deliberate permitting of accidental imperfections opens up the possibility for an emotional as well as an intellectual response. David Rhodes lives and works in Berlin.

For his residency at Centrum David Rhodes will be animating his black and white paintings. By using painted tubes instead of flat canvases, he will be able to play with the movement his paintings create. Spinning, leaning, hanging, he will experiment with the tubular paintings in space.

The Finissage takes place at 19.00 on Friday 16 December and we are also open Saturday 17 14.00 - 18.00 December or by appointment.

Sonic Lecture 3: Rachel O'Dwyer - Spectres of Sound Reproduction (11/12/11)

The next in the series of Centrum's Sonic Lectures is by Rachel O’Dwyer, who teaches at Trinity College Dublin and is Editor of Interference (A Journal of Audio Culture). Her lecture is called Spectres of Sound Reproduction and in focuses on an area of music described as 'Hauntology'. The Centrum programme has already touched on the hauntology theme with the Wolpertinger nights and proponents Leyland James Kirby (last month) and Position Normal (June 2010) performing here.

As Rachel describes: "Using a variety of examples from early recordings, sonic arts, contemporary and popular music, this lecture will explore themes such as time, presence, preservation and decay in sound recording from the Victorian era through to recent digital recording and remastering, and examine how the spectre of the past continues to haunt contemporary listening practices, musical genres and in particular our understandings of analogue and digital sound reproduction."

Starts at 7pm, please get there early
Rsvp to david@centrumberlin.com for a place.

Jonny Mugwump's (Exotic Pylon) Residency 13-17 Nov

Jonny Mugwump's whirlwind residency at Centrum finished over a week ago, so a chance to catch breath and look back.

Landing in Berlin (that morning) Jonny started on Sunday 13^th November with his Sonic Lecture (the second in our series), using the opportunity to discuss and play the music that has influenced his various music projects, plus some of his favourite moments on his Exotic Pylon and Weird Tales radio project. The lecture, which will soon be broadcast on NTS Radio and available to download (link here soon), allowed Jonny to pull together some of the themes that cement his music interests and how they have led to the ethos behind his radio, nights and label projects.

Then, for the next four evenings, Jonny hosted City Symphony - a live radio event broadcast on Ustream and soon to be on radio (and available to download). Each night offered a very different experience.

Infinite Livez, live with video installation by Jade Boyd, Jonny Mugwump's Exotic City Symphony at Centrum Berlin from Jade Boyd on Vimeo.

Monday night based around two stunning live performances from Infinite Livez and Wermoster (who was interrupted by Berliner Polizei mid set).

Tuesday included an interview with Tapeworm, discussing his various music projects and playing some of his music choices, and an audio/visual performance from Jans Martin and Jade Boyd.

Wednesday night developed into chat-show format as Jonny and Leyland James Kirby shared their favourite Youtube moments, preceded by an interview with Sohrab and followed DJ set from Dalglish.

On Thursday, the show was given over to singer Billie Ray Martin and video artist Ceven Knowles to launch their collaboration ‘The Opiates’ (some footage here). DJ Zhao's DJ set brought things to a close.

video lyd VHS installation/ live manipulation by Jade Boyd, Jonny Mugwump's Exotic Pylon: City Symphony at Centrum Berlin from Jade Boyd on Vimeo.

Each night also had Jonny's exemplary DJing and Jade Boyd's awesome video splicing visuals and the 'studio audience' who came each night, were also an important part of proceedings. Overall it was a great week and fantastic residency from Mugwump, who (I'm sure, though it sounds like he has this kind of schedule every week) went home quite exhausted, particularly evening ended in its own impromptu after party.