14 - 16 ottobre 2011, Krems (Austria)
The 2011 edition of the Kontraste Festival is curated by Sonic Acts. The first revamped edition will take place from 14-16 October in Krems in Austria, an hour’s drive from Vienna. This edition of the festival explores a wide range of imaginary landscapes created by composers, filmmakers, musicians and artists. Imaginary Landscapes is obviously a reference to the groundbreaking compositions by John Cage. His Imaginary Landscape #4 is probably the first composition to exclusively use pre-recorded and electronic sounds. But Imaginary Landscapes refers to any landscape conjured up for our senses by artistic or technological means. It refers to abstract two- and three dimensional spaces, to immersive environments made from pure light and spatialized sound. Imaginary Landscapes refers to the potential of sound and light to make us imagine what is not there, make it feel real, or make us dream. You can immerse yourself in cinematic experiences, a mesmerising fog environment, spatial laser works, and electronic music by pioneers and new heroes of the genre. These compositions – some specially commissioned – are performed on the massive loudspeaker orchestra of the Acousmonium. The revamped festival also hosts an extensive film programme, soundwalks and site-specific works. A publication and a symposium with keynotes, panel discussions and presentations will contextualise the festival theme. Expect cutting-edge sonic and visual experiments by Eliane Radigue, Douglas Kahn, KTL, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Edwin van der Heide, Chrstina Kubisch, Jan-Peter Sonntag, Yutaka Makino, HC Gilje, Gert-Jan Prins, Greg Pope, Kees Tazelaar, Hilary Jeffery and many others. Info: www.kontraste.at