NETWORK MUSIC FESTIVAL // A hi-tech musical weekender
22-24th FEBRUARY 2012 // BIRMINGHAM (UK)
Network Music Festival returns to Birmingham to present a weekend of innovative hi-tech musical performances and installations from local and international artists.
After the success of the first Network Music Festival in January 2012 the festival will return to Birmingham on 22-24th February 2013.
We are working with some of the artists from NMF 2012 to curate what promises to be an exciting and diverse line-up of network artists. Benoît and the Mandelbrots (CO/DE), Wrongheaded (UK), Glitch Lich (UK/USA) and Birmingham’s own network band BiLE have each curated a concert at the weekend long festival. Alongside this, local curator Samuel Rodgers (Consumer Waste) has programmed a sound installation exhibition which addresses the theme of networking. NMF2013 will feature specially invited artists, including audio-visual laptop duo Alo Allik (EST) and Yota Morimoto (BRA), and artists selected from the festival's Open Call, which received more than 90 proposals from Europe, the Americas and Australia.
The festival will take place in venues across Birmingham’s lively arts quarter, Digbeth, with performances and the festival hub located once again at the home of the Friction Arts collective, the newly expanded The Edge warehouse.
This year's very special guests are The Hub (USA) - considered by many to be the inventors of network music - making a rare visit to the UK. This legendary band first started wiring computers together for live performance in the 1980s and remain a seminal influence for computer music bands today.
Other highlights include the live-coding band Slub (UK), inventors of the ‘Algorave’: that is, dance music produced using computer algorithms, written live in front of the audience. The festival will also welcome another highly innovative act, PB_UP (DE), who were the first laptop band to perform entirely wirelessly. The German group describe themselves as an 'acoustic computer folk band' in that they perform completely 'unplugged,' without any external power or amplification.
Contemporary composer John Eacott (UK) will present his piece 'Floodtide', which is based on the natural movements of the river Thames. It will see Eacott collect real-time data on the river's tidal movement, which is automatically translated into musical notation, and transmitted via the internet to be performed by a chamber group of classical musicians in Birmingham.
The festival will also include a chance to explore the inner-workings of network music with a variety of general interest and specialist talks and workshops - open to all levels of experience.
Tickets for NMF 2013 are available now from: http://networkmusicfestival.brownpapertickets.com.
More information about the festival can be found at the festival website: networkmusicfestival.org or you can follow us on facebook: facebook.com/networkmusicfestival or twitter:@netmusicfest
Network Music Festival // 22-24th February 2013 // The Edge, 79-81 Cheapside, Birmingham, B12 0QH
Twitter: @NetMusicFest Hashtag: #NMF2013
Facebook: www.facebook.com/networkmusicfestival
Email: networkmusicfestival@gmail.com
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NMF2012 featured over 70 artists from Birmingham’s home-grown talent to UK and international artists from as far afield as USA and Colombia in 5 concerts. They presented a diverse range of performances including live coding, multiple-location performances, trans-atlantic streaming, new instruments for network performance, installations, workshops and talks. The festival was featured on BBC 5 Live’s Outriders program and mentioned in several national and international publications including The Financial Times and The Computer Music Journal. This year is set to feature just as many artists showcasing cutting-edge approaches to high-tech musical performance. Expect a diverse programme of laptop performances, live coding, multi-location performances, communicating home-made musical gadgets, immersive sound installations, interactive workshops and more!