Welcome to Rewire 2018
06 Apr 2018
We are proud to welcome you to Rewire 2018, the eighth edition of our annual celebration of forward-thinking music. Proud because we feel we have successfully intensified our approach in looking for the unheard from all over the world and for inviting some of the most significant innovators of our times.
Spanning three days and encompassing 100 individual events, including numerous (inter)national premieres, commissioned performances, live concerts, club nights and an extensive discourse programme, the Rewire 2018 programme embraces the vast landscape of contemporary music and aims to challenge you, our artists and audience, to explore new and unfamiliar sonic worlds.
This year, we introduce a new concept, the Artist in Focus and Young Artist in Focus programmes.Showcasing early pioneers and rising talents who have had a profound impact on and continue to shape the worlds of music and art, we are honoured to present Laurie Anderson, a true innovator in the realms of electronic music and performance art, as our inaugural Artist in Focus. Representing the new generation of pioneering composers, we welcome Tristan Perich as our Young Artist in Focus. Both artists are invited to present an expansive programme covering their respective oeuvres across the Rewire 2018 festival days, culminating in solo performances on the final day of the festival.
Framing music into genres is increasingly something of the past. Yet, as a music festival, we believe it’s more important than ever to explore the context surrounding the performances and to connect music to wider social and cultural phenomena. While music can offer space to escape daily reality, it also provides a window through which we can better understand the world around us. For this reason we have extended our efforts to make way for the exchange of thoughts and ideas and have framed our enquiry within three key themes.
The first of our themes, Sense of Self, traces the acceleration in our understanding of selfhood, identity and representation. The second theme, Network Music, explores the non-linear ways in which we conceptualise, distribute and organise through music, while the last theme, Electronic Music Innovation in Historical Context folds linear time to bring technological innovations throughout the history of sound and music into the present day. Each of these themes is anchored in musical performances across the festival weekend and will be explored through an extensive discourse programme of artist talks, workshops and presentations.
We attach great value to the development of new and innovative works. As such, you will find several commissioned performances at this year’s festival. Visionary New York-based artist Juliana Huxtable presents Triptych, a new work for electronics, voice, harp, drums and video, while in Telegraph Music, electronic composer Antenes uses a one-of-a-kind switchboard modular synth setup to investigate the intertwined histories of electronic music and telecommunications. The globally dispersed alliance of musicians and artists called Quantum Natives presents Nexus (II), a ‘digital theatre’ in which four performers are transported into a mirrored, virtual stage. Further Rewire 2018 commissions are Ivan Vukosavljević & Il Hoon SonandGlice & Dieter Vandoren.
→ https://www.youtube.com/embed/33t2GZVSHEY
The Rewire 2018 programme also includes a number of special projects that will be making their (inter)national premiere. Swedish composer Ellen Arkbro has been invited to present a special live rendition of her ‘For Organ and Brass’ compositions with brass trio Zinc & Copper, as well as a new piece for organ and electronics, composed for the organ in Lutherse Kerk. Three of the most powerful and creative voices in the Arabic music world today, Maryam Saleh, Maurice Louca & Tamer Abu Ghazaleh come together to perform their masterpiece, ‘Lekhfa’, while fellow Cairo-based composer Nadah El Shazly conjures her mesmerizing debut Ahwar to life with a full band.
The artists and projects discussed here are just a few of this year’s festival highlights. You can find a complete guide to the Rewire 2018 programme, including introductions to each one of our festival artists and events in our Festival Programme Book.For exact performance times, download our Timetable or pick up a copy at any of our Festival Venues. We have tried to be as comprehensive as possible, but for last minute updates, please check the Rewire 2017 website.
We invite you to put all preconceptions aside and listen together to the unheard. To explore the overlooked and to celebrate the visceral and the cerebral. We wish you an incredibly inspiring festival weekend.