Rewire is proud to share the full music line-up for its 12th edition, taking place from 6 to 9 April in the city centre of The Hague. Today's announcement includes many (world) premieres, commissioned projects, and unique collaborations that reflect the aim of Rewire to platform and facilitate musical experimentation, exploration, and innovation.
Having previously announced Soundwalk Collective & Patti Smith, Kelela, Fever Ray, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and Ellen Fullman & The Living Earth Show, among many others, the music line-up of Rewire 2023 is now (almost) finalised with the addition of 58 new artists and projects. New additions include world premieres by Alto Arc (Deafheaven’s George Clarke, Danny L Harle, Hundred Waters’s Trayer Tryon, and make-up artist Isamaya Ffrench), Tim Hecker & Vincent de Belleval, Peter Zummo & KAKUHAN, Matthew Herbert & Julian Sartorius, The Paper Ensemble & Ale Hop, Pavel Milyakov & Perila, upsammy & Jonathan Castro present Germ in a Population of Buildings, Wacław Zimpel & Ben Kreukniet, and Maoupa Mazzocchetti with Luna Maria Cedrón & Samir Aouad present Heels of Joy. Another world premiere is an interdisciplinary performance by Aura Satz, Rhodri Davies & Julia Eckhardt, who are commissioned to present a new composition Occam Delta XX by Éliane Radigue, accompanied by a film by Aura Satz.
Other newly announced unique performances for Rewire 2023 include Daniel Blumberg presents GUT, Ellen Arkbro & Johan Graden, Amnesia Scanner & Freeka Tet present snaptrance.webcam, Ghosted (Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling, Andreas Werliin), Nadah El Shazly & Elvin Brandhi, EXPAT (Mykki Blanco & Samuel Acevedo), HTRK, Lucinda Chua, KAKUHAN, Hatis Noit, Infinity Knives & Brian Ennals, Deena Abdelwahed, TLF Trio, Ana Roxanne, Malibu, Afrorack, CS + Kreme, Dale Cornish, Pierce Warnecke & Matthew Biederman present Spillover, Zoh Amba, Slickback x Weirdcore present VOID, Grand River presents All Above, Tzusing, Martha Skye Murphy, Aleksandra Słyż presents A Vibrant Touch, Zoë Mc Pherson & Alessandra Leone present Pitch Blender, Dylan Henner, Enxin/Onyx, M. Takara & Carla Boregas, Bitter Babe b2b Manuka Honey, Safety Trance, Aquarian, Authentically Plastic, Pak Yan Lau presents Bakunawa, Youniss, Oscar Peters, Tatiana Koleva & Zhivko Vasilev present Wood Skin Air, Elvin Brandhi, and Leslee Smucker presents Worlds Within. Proximity Music Visceral Acts, in collaboration with iii, will feature artists Aernoudt Jacobs, Amos Peled, Dominik 't Jolle & Maria Komarova, Karel van Laere, Matteo Marangoni & Dieter Vandoren, Naama Tsabar, Naomi Rincon Gallardo, Vica Pacheco, Vivian Caccuri & Thiago Lanis.
Check out of the complete Rewire 2023 music line-up here or read more below about the newly announced artists and projects.
On Thursday 6 April the festival will be preceded by a freely accessible opening night of talks, listening sessions and film screenings introducing the thematics of the Rewire 2023 context programme. This programme as well as the rest of the context programme, and film screenings will be announced on a later date.
Tickets for Rewire 2023 are exclusively available via rewirefestival.nl/tickets.
Full Music Line-up Announcement in Depth
Rewire has commissioned Deafheaven frontman George Clarke, maverick pop producer Danny L Harle, Trayer Tryon from Hundred Waters, and make-up artist Isamaya Ffrench to present the first ever in-person performance of their recently formed supergroup Alto Arc, translating the maximalist hybrid of club and metal music of their debut release into a bewitching and entrancing live show. Returning to Rewire after his 2019 performance of Konoyo, Tim Hecker will perform brand new material of his upcoming album in a commissioned liveshow with a bespoke light design by visual artist Vincent de Belleval.
Rewire has also commissioned the influential and prolific US composer and trombonist Peter Zummo to collaborate in an artistic residency in The Hague together with Japan’s KAKUHAN, resulting in a live show during Rewire 2023. KAKUHAN are also slated to perform the incredible music from their debut album Metal Zone during a separate show.
Expanding the cycle of Eliane Radigue’s Occam Ocean acoustic works, Occam Delta XX is a new commissioned trio composition featuring Aura Satz (film), Rhodri Davies (harp), and Julia Eckhardt (viola). Rather than producing a film that documents the music and sits outside of it, the film participates in the logic of the score and is developed in an open weave with the musicians. Exploring a cinematic language that enacts the rippling effects of Radigue’s sound, the film diffracts musical gesture into acoustic moire.
The upcoming festival edition boasts many high-end A/V shows, breaking new ground in the relationship between sound and vision in a live context. Finnish-German club powerhouse Amnesia Scanner is invited to perform new material in the live show snaptrance.webcam, co-created with New York City-based digital artist Freeka Tet; Pierce Warnecke & Matthew Biederman present Spillover; and as last year’s commission had to be turned into a video feed due to visa issues, Slikback x Weirdcore are coming to Rewire 2023 to finally perform their intense audiovisual collaboration VOID on stage. The free-spirited Dutch artist upsammy will premiere a new live A/V collaboration with artist Jonathan Castro, and Berlin-based artists Zoë Mc Pherson & Alessandra Leone will present a new A/V show based around the cybernetic sound system experiments of Mc Pherson’s new album Pitch Blender. Famed multi-instrumentalist Wacław Zimpel makes his Rewire return to perform new material from his upcoming album Train Spotter in a live A/V show designed by multimedia artist Ben Kreukniet. Grand River will present the intricate instrumentation of her new album All Above in a live show, with light design and visuals by Marco Ciceri.
Besides collaborative audiovisual projects, Rewire 2023 presents a variety of musical collaborations that allow artists to step out of their creative comfort zone and co-create. A great example of this is how the distinctive percussion of Swiss drummer Julian Sartorius met the virtuose electronics of Matthew Herbert. Together they will perform the world premiere of a live rendition of their joint album Drum Solo — recorded in a single day. Another world premiere is a new collaborative show, in which prolific Berlin-based producer Pavel Milyakov (aka Buttechno) graces the stage alongside electronic musician and vocalist Perila for a fuzzy mix of dreamy pop and poetic spoken word, matched with hazy electronics and guitars. Meanwhile, Nadah El Shazly & Elvin Brandhi team up for a brand new show that takes the canonical form of the opera and brings it up to speed with contemporary culture. Additionally, Rewire 2023 hosts the world premiere of a unique collaboration between one-of-a-kind sound artist Ale Hop and The Paper Ensemble, which promises to deliver a sonic fabric woven from the smallest and softest sounds we can hear, in juxtaposition with the brutality of percussion and amplification. Proving what fruitful musical directions collaborations can lead to, Ghosted is a wildly inventive and captivating formation of esteemed musicians Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling, and Andreas Werliin that takes musical cues from 70s ECM jazz, electronic minimalism, African music, krautrock, and many other influences. Mykki Blanco will share the stage with their partner Samuel Acevedo as EXPAT, performing a combination of theatrical poetry stemming from the Black Queer diaspora, combined with the goth and heavy metal musical traditions of Latin America.
As a festival for musical experimentation, Rewire is interested in how artists explore new artistic territory and experiment with various musical directions and disciplines. As such, Rewire 2023 presents GUT by London-based musician, songwriter, and composer Daniel Blumberg, signalling the next chapter in his artistic journey and truly forging a daring new path in his practice.
Strikingly different, but just as adventurous is a performance by Ellen Arkbro & Johan Graden, which features vocals by Arkbro and showcases an unexpectedly pop-oriented side from the musical peers.
Honouring the voice as the oldest musical instrument on Earth and as an endless site of musical experimentation and innovation, the upcoming edition of Rewire features distinctive performances by the London-based Japanese vocal performer Hatis Noit and singer, songwriter, composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Lucinda Chua that each showcase the versatility, depth, and limitless potential of the human voice as an instrument. New York-based musician Ana Roxanne also honours the divinity of the human voice by channelling choral music, classical Hindustani singing, and R&B divas. Meanwhile, singer-songwriter and Nick Cave protégé Martha Skye Murphy channels the range of Kate Bush in the airy vocals of her spellbinding songs. The gristling, fuzzy techno-rock of HTRK has gradually shifted towards more gentle western noir with dream-like vocals, as heard on their brilliant album Rhinestones (2021). Rewire 2023 will be the first time since 2009 that this beloved act performs in the Netherlands.
Platforming established heavyweights and emerging talents of electronic music, Rewire is adding a range of DJs, producers, and performers for the late festival nights, including live-wire acts such as Tzusing, Aquarian, Safety Trance, Bitter Babe b2b Manuka Honey, and Authentically Plastic. Additionally, Rewire 2023 features many artists that explore various niches within electronic music, from Dale Cornish’s inquisitive studies of dance music, Enxin/Onyx’s haunting collaboration, and Afrorack’s dazzling compositions on his custom-built modular synthesiser, to the moody and heady soundscapes of Malibu and Dylan Henner’s gentle and soothing ambient soundscapes.
The world premiere of The Heels of Joy will be an original live music show that combines Andalusian folklore, South American styles, Pop and urban and avant-garde club music by Maoupa Mazzocchetti with Luna Maria Cedrón & Samir Aouad. Meanwhile, Youniss presents a forceful exploration of his identity and self-expression through blistering beats and arresting vocals that recall imperfect 90s punk rock and IDM cassette tapes. Experimental hip-hop duo Infinity Knives & Brian Ennals bring their urgent, eclectic, and unpredictable rap music straight from Baltimore to the stage of The Hague.
The cosmic, kraut-jazz of M. Takara & Carla Boregas proves a great counterpoint to the fearless experimentation and improvisation of composer, saxophonist, and flautist Zoh Amba, while CS + Kreme perform their spaced out “horizontal-music” with leftfield bass guitar, heavy dub processing, sweeping post-punk, and chamber music soundscapes for the first time in the Netherlands. De- and reconstructing chamber music, cellist Cæcilie Trier, pianist Jakob Littauer, and guitarist M. K. Frøslev of TLF Trio build on minimalism, free jazz, and modes of Central European Classical of the Late Renaissance and Early Baroque in a fascinatingly contemporary fashion.
Bulgarian-born, Netherlands-based percussionist Tatiana Koleva shares the stage with Bulgarian kaval player Zhivko Vasilev and Amsterdam-based sound designer Ruben Kieftenbelt for the dynamic performance of various unique compositions by Koleva. Brussels-based sound artist, improviser, musician, and composer Pak Yan Lau performs a live rendition of her recent album Bakunawa (2021), delving and digging deep into the sound spectrum of detuned toy pianos, second-hand gong rods, prepared harp, metal tubes, and ring modulators. The Hague-based sound artist and composer Oscar Peters premieres a new project that has been written for his six self-built organs and features two saxophonists as collaborators.
Rewire 2023 also hosts a new edition of Proximity Music, a joint exhibition program initiated in 2021 by Rewire and iii, which seeks to connect music, architecture, technology, ritual, and play through physical experiences engaging with all the senses. The exhibition Proximity Music: Visceral Acts will be presented at Rewire 2023, inviting audiences to engage playfully with mind and body. Featuring a diverse range of works emerging from the backdrop of a health crisis, it brings into question ideas of health and sanity. Artists included in the exhibition are: Aernoudt Jacobs, Amos Peled, Dominik 't Jolle & Maria Komarova, Karel van Laere, Matteo Marangoni & Dieter Vandoren, Naama Tsabar, Naomi Rincón Gallardo, Vica Pacheco, and Vivian Caccuri & Thiago Lanis, and more to be announced.
After two festival editions presenting sensory-sensitive concerts, Rewire has sent out an open call to artists to develop a completely new work, to be performed for a sensory-sensitive audience. Performer and composer Leslee Smucker has now been commissioned to perform Worlds Within, an immersive show – inspired by archaeologists’ findings in caves – that brings audiences into the sound-worlds and resonances that reside within them.
The Rewire 2023 music line-up:
33 (Billy Bultheel & Alexander Iezzi)
ABADIR feat. HOGIR
Aernoudt Jacobs ‘Glass Vibration Gaze’
Afrorack
Aleksandra Słyż ‘A Vibrant Touch’
Alto Arc - world premiere
Amnesia Scanner & Freeka Tet ‘snaptrance.webcam’
Amos Peled ‘Phantom Limb’- world premiere
Ana Roxanne
Aquarian
Aura Satz, Rhodri Davies & Julia Eckhardt ‘Occam Delta XX’ - world premiere
Authentically Plastic
Bitter Babe b2b Manuka Honey
CS + Kreme
Dale Cornish
Daniel Blumberg ‘GUT’
Deena Abdelwahed
Dienne
Dominik 't Jolle & Maria Komarova
Dylan Henner
Ellen Arkbro & Johan Graden
Ellen Fullman & The Living Earth Show ‘Elemental View’
Elvin Brandhi
Enxin/Onyx
EXPAT (Mykki Blanco & Samuel Acevedo)
Fever Ray
Ghosted (Oren Ambarchi / Johan Berthling / Andreas Werliin)
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Grand River ‘All Above’
Hatis Noit
Himera (live) - world premiere
HTRK
Infinity Knives & Brian Ennals
Joe Rainey & String Quartet
Julia Reidy
KAKUHAN
Karel van Laere ‘Reach’
Kelela
Leslee Smucker ‘World Within’ - world premiere
LSDXOXO (live)
Lucinda Chua
Lucy Gooch
Lucy Liyou
M. Takara & Carla Boregas
Malibu
Maoupa Mazzocchetti with Luna Maria Cedrón & Samir Aouad ‘Heels of Joy’ - world premiere
Maria Chavez + Mariam Rezaei + Victoria Shen - world premiere
Martha Skye Murphy
Matteo Marangoni & Dieter Vandoren ‘Komorebi’
Matthew Herbert & Julian Sartorius - world premiere
Moin
Naama Tsabar ‘Untitled’
Nadah El Shazly & Elvin Brandhi
Naomi Rincon Gallardo
No Plexus - world premiere
Nwando Ebizie ‘The Swan’
Okkyung Lee's Yeo-Neun Quartet
Oscar Peters - world premiere
Osheyack
Pak Yan Lau ‘Bakunawa’
Pamela Z ‘A Secret Code’
Patrick Belaga, Asma Maroof & Tapiwa Svosve
Pavel Milyakov & Perila - world premiere
Peter Zummo & KAKUHAN - world premiere
Pierce Warnecke & Matthew Biederman ‘Spillover’
Rachika Nayar
Rainy Miller
Safety Trance
Sarahsson
Sélébéyone
Slikback x Weirdcore ‘VOID’
Soundwalk Collective & Patti Smith ‘Correspondences’
Steve Gunn & David Moore
Tatiana Koleva & Zhivko Vasilev ‘WOOD - SKIN - AIR’ - world premiere
The Dwarfs of East Agouza
The Paper Ensemble & Ale Hop - world premiere
Thomas Ankersmit
Tim Hecker & Vincent de Belleval - world premiere
TLF Trio
Tzusing
upsammy & Jonathan Castro ‘Germ in a Population of Buildings’ - world premiere
Vica Pacheco - world premiere
Vivian Caccuri & Thiago Lanis ‘Fantasma Boca’ - world premiere
Waclaw Zimpel & Ben Kreukniet - world premiere
Youniss
Zoë Mc Pherson & Alessandra Leone ‘Pitch Blender’
Zoh Amba
Read more about each artist on the line-up page and see which festival day they’ll perform on.
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