Concerts and DJ-Sets
Concert Hall
Thu, 22.10. - Sat, 24.10.2009, Doors 30 min before concerts start
Dorit Chrysler – La Prise – Kieran Hebden & Steve Reid – Pharao Black Magic & VJ Undef – Ebony Bones – Prins Thomas – Papiro – Die Welttraumforscher – Cluster (Dieter Moebius & Hans-Joachim Roedelius) feat. Dorit Chrysler – Felix Kubin – Neevo & VJ Herr Ernst – Thomas Fehlmann – Patrice Scott
THURSDAY, 22.10.2009
THEME: HOUDINI EFFECT
DORIT CHRYSLER (USA)
OPENING CONCERT
Thu, 22.10.2009, 21.00 h
A native of Graz now resident in New York, Dorit Chrysler is one of the very few people in the world to have mastered the theremin. This fascinating and unusual instrument, invented in the 1920s by legendary physics professor and radio pioneer Lev Sergeiewitch Termen, is the mother of all electronic synthesizers and the only musical instrument in the world to be played without touch. As if by magic, Chrysler lures tantalizing sounds from her theremin simply by moving her hands within an electromagnetic field. The composer, multi-instrumentalist and singer – who in the course of a remarkable career has already performed with Dinosaur Jr., Mercury Rev and Echo and the Bunnymen – found in the mysterious “aether-wave violin” a perfect means of expression. In her new set Chrysler explores the inexplicable and strangely touching something that lies between sound, mood and movement – the Houdini Effect.
www.doritchrysler.com
www.myspace.com/doritchrysler
See Dorit Chrysler with Cluster: Sat, 22.00 h, Concert Hall
Shift Talk: Sun, 14.00 h, Lounge
Friday, 23.10.2009
Theme: 5 spells
LA PRISE (CH)
CONCERT
Fri, 23.10.2009, 21.00 h
Basel-based improv band La Prise situates its music at the analogue-digital interface, interweaving almost android-like acoustic effects with a realm of synthetic sound. Traditional instruments such as drums and double bass stand at the ready alongside the more unconventional variety: pans, glasses and tin cans, to name but a few. As if that were not enough, digitally generated and modified sounds also spook about the space, dynamically permeating the acoustic sound strata. Gregor Hilbe, Patrik Zosso and André Bader are the core of La Prise: three musicians who met on the circuit around Basel Music Academy's Jazz Department and have since played numerous concerts, often with guest musicians.
KIERAN HEBDEN (AKA FOUR TET) & STEVE REID (GB/USA)
CONCERT
Fri, 23.10.2009, 22.00 h
Musicians Steve Reid and Kieran Hebden have a project on the go that is extraordinary in many respects. For one, because this is an encounter of two completely different, congenial musical personalities: talented sampler Kieran Hebden aka Four Tet, who edits hip hop, jazz and folk samples then enhances them with a dose of his own drum, guitar and piano tracks; and seasoned jazz drummer Steve Reid, who has worked with masters like Miles Davis, Sun Ra and James Brown. And secondly because in their common project they combine two different musical styles, jazz and electronica. Not surprisingly, the music that ensues is also extraordinary. The two musicians bank not on tread-worn melodies but on the process itself, and evoke the magic of the moment.
www.kieranhebdenandstevereid.com
www.myspace.com/fourtetkieranhebden
PHARAO BLACK MAGIC & VJ UNDEF (CH)
DJ-SET
Fri, 23.10.2009, 23.00 h
Nicolas Probst and Konrad Sigl are well known around Basel as DJ and producer duo Pharao Black Magic. When they first met they still inhabited different musical planets and it was only with the new rave boom that the crucial rapprochement took place. They've been in search of new sounds together ever since, uniting deep house, cosmic disco, psychedelic or indie, and luring their public into the realm of exploding stars and cosmic melt downs. At the Shift Festival, Pharao Black Magic will be joined by VJ Crew Undef aka Martin Fuchs and Philip Whitfield. The visuals' design and code will reference organic and physical processes, life and breath.
www.myspace.com/pharaoblackmagic
www.undef.ch
EBONY BONES (GB)
CONCERT
Fri, 23.10.2009, 00.30 h
Brit performer Ebony Bones aka Ebony Thomas is as self-confident as she is scintillating. Before she came to fame as a musician – which happened mainly thanks to word of mouth and the MySpace Internet portal – she had a role in the TV soap “Family Affairs”. In the meantime, the powerful voice and charisma of this shaman of dance have made her the dailies' darling: on the one hand, thanks to her extravagant, DIY outfits; on the other, to her wildly energetic stage show in the company of a crazy band of six; and, most especially, to her recently released debut album, “Bone of My Bones”. A testament to her original ambition to make visual music, the album's colourful and captivating sound mix runs the whole political-eclectic gamut from new wave, post-punk, afrobeat and funk thru' hip hop. At the Shift Festival, Ebony Bones will present a special show with two percussionists for the first time.
www.myspace.com/ebonybones 
PRINS THOMAS (NOR)
DJ-SET
Fri, 23.10.2009, 01.30 h
Prins Thomas, a Norwegian DJ and producer who came to fame primarily owing to co-releases with Hans-Peter Lindstrøm, ranks as a trailblazer of the so-called cosmic disco movement. His DJ sets are diverse: alongside Italo disco classics, Prins Thomas, who enjoys a bit of fun with myths and legends, plays deep house or Balearic minimal techno. He not infrequently scares his dance-floor crowd with a charming smattering of bad taste elements: the name of the game in his musical wonderland is – surprises! Early this year Lindstrøm and Prins Thomas' second album was released on Eskimo Recordings. At Lindstrøm's request and committed as he is to all things unpredictable, Prins Thomas played numerous instruments on this album, about which he didn't have a clue: “Once you've really mastered a thing, it lacks bite. Our music perhaps has a bit too much bite...” The duo's open-mindedness has paid off: this is a truly cosmic record.
www.myspace.com/prinsthomas
SATURDAY, 24.10.2009
THEME: COSMIC TECH-EVOCATIONS
PAPIRO (CH)
CONCERT
Sat, 24.10.2009, 20.30 h
Papiro live on stage is a maestro of booming, hypnotic drone. When it comes to the old electronic musical instruments that he's been collecting for years, he's in a class of his own. In his concerts he leaves time and space enough for the specific sound of an idiosyncratic analogue noise machine to unfold to the utmost, thereby opening up magic channels with enormous allure. Immune to trends, Papiro has trodden his own musical path for years and en route ran into Damo Suzuki, Luigi Archetti, Die Welttraumforscher, Zbigniew Karkowski and Sonic Boom, among others. At the Shift Festival Papiro will play with Michael Zaugg. The two of them recently completed a tour of Japan in the company of Daniel Buess and their Noise project “Mir”.
www.papiro.ch
www.myspace.com/papiromusic
DIE WELTTRAUMFORSCHER (CH)
CONCERT
Sat, 24.10.2009, 21.00 h
Under the alias Die Welttraumforscher (or WTF), Zurich-based Christian Pfluger has been working since 1981 on a fantasy world that is as wondrous as it is wonderful. It is this world the fantasy creatures of Pfluger's invention inhabit, who have many an adventure to survive in lo-fi pop songs. However, “The World Dream Researchers” – the name plays on the almost identical German word for “space research” – cannot only be found in the world of music but is in fact “a secret musical, literary and scientific project” (Pfluger). To this attests among other things the online (German) book “Lia and the World Dream Researchers”. Begun in 1998, it now proudly encompasses 1,700 pages. Luckily, the project is not a well-kept secret. Now and then, music makes its way on cassettes, CDs or vinyl from the WTF living room to public space. And in 1998 a remix-album appears on Felix Kubin's Gagarin Records label, featuring interpretations of WTF songs by such illustrious figures as Mouse on Mars and Barbara Morgenstern. In 1992 and 2005, Welttraumforscher Christian Pfluger, Christian Weber and Roland Strobel tour Switzerland, Belgium and Germany as a flesh and blood trio. At the Shift Festival, Die Welttraumforscher will appear as a duo with a new video-clip up its sleeve. Christian Pfluger (keyboards, melodica, glockenspiel, vocals) and Roland Strobel (keyboards, accordion, melodica, xylophone) will reinterpret the WTF repertoire, in order to re-enchant a disenchanted world.
www.diewelttraumforscher.ch
CLUSTER
(DIETER MOEBIUS & HANS-JOACHIM ROEDELIUS) (D)
CONCERT
Sat, 24.10.2009, 22.00 h
Under the Cluster alias, Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius have written musical history and made a crucial contribution to the development of electronic avant-garde music since the late 1960s. Opinions diverge yet they rank as pioneers of kraut rock, cosmic music, ambient, techno or even of the current cosmic disco movement. A persistently avant-garde spirit of adventure has driven their creation of an eclectic musical cosmos: psychedelic infinite or hypnotic loops, coolly minimalist sound imagery and whimsical sounds – a musical cosmos beyond all borders. Conrad Schnitzler, Michael Rother, Holger Czukay and Conny Plank have also been part of Cluster, at times, and the collaborations with Brian Eno are equally legendary. Scheduled for European release in November 2009, the album “Qua” is Cluster's first studio production in fourteen years. At the Shift Festival, they'll present a jam session along with their guest, theremin virtuoso Dorit Chrysler (see Opening Concert).
www.roedelius.com
See Shift Talk: Sat, 18.30 h, Lounge
FELIX KUBIN (D)
CONCERT
Sat, 24.10.2009, 23.00 h
A few lines barely suffice to sum up the indefatigable Hamburg musician Felix Kubin. He is said to live and work in defiance of gravity. He is also described as a Futurist ambassador of light, a “psykotronic” or sometimes simply as Europe's most endearing lunatic. One thing is sure: his unusual ideas are reflected in creativity that effortlessly and with a touch of tongue in cheek flits from art to pop, from hi-fi to lo-fi. Studio productions for radio, live radio broadcasts, scores for film and theatre, animated films and music publishing number among his activities as does management of his label, Gagarin Records, founded in 1998 and – it was no coincidence – named after the Soviet cosmonaut. Kubin's sense of the cosmic dimension and his mastery of analogue music machines with both a nostalgic as well as a futuristic touch make his electro-pop a never-before-heard experience. At the Shift Festival, Kubin will give a concert (Saturday) and live a lecture performance (Friday).
www.felixkubin.com
www.myspace.com/fkubin
See Lecture Performance „Paralektronoia“: Fri, 18.00 h, Schaulager
NEEVO & VJ HERR ERNST (CH)
DJ-SET
Sat, 24.10.2009, 00.00 h
Basel-based DJ Neevo has a passion for collecting records and for the last thirteen years has been on a mission in his home city and away, in practically every club that exists and many that have already bitten the dust. His mix of rediscovered avant-garde, kraut rock and proto electronica pearls, as well as house and techno beats – specially compiled for Shift 09 – is an open invitation to an electrifying dance ritual. Minimalist visuals from Herr Ernst will accompany the set.
www.myspace.com/neevomusic
www.myspace.com/herrernst
THOMAS FEHLMANN (D)
CONCERT
Sat, 24.10.2009, 01.00 h
Thomas Fehlmann is a legendary electronic musician, producer and DJ. He first stepped into the limelight in the 1980s, on the synthesizers of the band Palais Schaumburg and as a pioneer of German techno. He began playing with the hypnotic effects of repetitive, mechanically generated sounds in those early days, which proved persuasive with his public. To spread the new sonic worlds, Swiss-in-exile Fehlmann founded his own label Teutonic Beats at the end of the 1980s, which released work by Moritz von Oswald, Westbam and Wolfgang Voigt. In 1990 he began to play with The Orb, the undisputed flagship of the Brit rave movement. Thomas Fehlmann was soon to become a key figure also on Berlin's sprouting club scene. In 1995 he and Gudrun Gut founded the “Ocean Club” project. Initially conceived as a series of current electronic music events to be held at Tresor, it later developed as the radio programme “Ocean Club Radio”, which is still going strong today.
www.flowing.de
www.myspace.com/thomasfehlmann
PATRICE SCOTT (USA)
DJ-SET
Sat, 24.10.2009, 02.00 h
Patrice Scott ranks among the most go-getting DJs and producers in techno-megalopolis Detroit and he has taken the world by storm. His releases range from deep house to techno and are characterized by substantiality, quality and diversity. Musicians on the Detroit circuit – Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson, for example – were a major musical influence for Patrice Scott, as was Electrifying Mojo's (aka Charles Johnson's) legendary radio show. Scott founded his first label, Sistrum Recordings, in 2006. The very first release, “Atmospheric Emotions” was acclaimed internationally and landed immediately on the play-lists of countless famous DJs. At Sistrum Recordings Scott pursues his goal of making high quality music available to a broad public.
www.myspace.com/patricescott
Videokultur (CH)
Visuals
Videokultur is a coalition of visual jockeys aka VJs, comprised of the crews Bildstörung (ZH, www.bildstoerung.ch), Kim & Jim (LU, www.kimandjim.ch), Pixelpunx (AG/BS, www.pixelpunx.ch), Projektil (ZH, www.projektil.ch), Suffix (LU, www.suffix.tv) and Undef (BS, www.undef.ch). Founded in 2007, Videokultur has since regularly organised events – such as a VJ-round table or VJ Camp for visual artists, musicians and other interested parties – where projects can be presented, new concepts tried and tested and collaborations launched. Videopong.net has also established itself as a successful online instrument for VJs. During the Shift Festival, Videokultur VJs turn into VideoWitches, GreenScreen Imps and Pixelhunters. In their temporary home base, a laboratory in container format, the digital wizards whip their booty into handy-size clips and loops. In the Concert Hall, they brew their imagery live, stirring in VJs' archives, live concert footage, musicians' input – to make a potent, heady brew that explodes all visual borders during DJ-sets from Pharao Black Magic, Prins Thomas, Thomas Fehlmann and Patrice Scott.
www.videokultur.ch