We are embarking on the next phase of our project, with the launch of a new website and media platform. Aimed at reporting throughout the year on the cultural transformations shaping the Europe of tomorrow, it will feature stories from all over the continent, as told by the very people driving these changes.
We met with Mim Suleiman in C12, during the first club night of Nuits sonores Brussels.
This cross conversation between Are we Europe and Canal 180 is centered on the topic of European media organizations and how they’re able to reaffirm their independence, while adapting to shifting power dynamics in the world of information.
Last year, we caught up with Tenia Menegaki as part of our coverage of the Reworks Agora forum held in Thessaloniki. Here’s what happened.
To cultural independents dismay, Viktor Orban kept his majority following Hungary’s 2022 election. This setback called for an overview of the independents situation in the country. What are the institutional or structural obstacles that threaten cultural independents activity? Are there any windows of hope? In this piece, researcher, community advocate & policy adviser Levente Polyak describes a threatened, but still beating sector.
Le scénographe indépendant et journaliste musical Axel Simon, se penche sur la scénographie de la boîte de nuit française Le Sucre, installée sur le toit d’une ancienne sucrerie à Lyon. Les lieux comme celui-ci doivent-ils assumer leur identité de “club” dans le paysage culturel ? Comment la scénographie peut-elle refléter la personnalité des résident·es et des collectifs invités ? Dans cet entretien, nous explorons ces sujets avec la scénographe Léa Chaix et le programmateur Pierre Zeimet.
We sat down with Australian club force Nite Fleit for an hour during Nuits sonores Lab.
QuinzeQuinze holds a unique position in the French music scene. The five-member band – or rather collective – was born out of a course they took together at art school, which had them create musical and visual pieces every two weeks (hence their name, that can be translated as “fifteen fifteen”). Even today, the influence of their artistic background is omnipresent in their videos, costumes and graphics: they have managed to craft their own universe that is also fed by the Polynesian origins of two band members. We had a conversation after their performance at Nuits sonores on their origins, mythology in their work and car bass in Tahiti.
Meeting with Andy Jenkinson, known to acidheads as Ceephax Acid Crew, felt no different than chatting to an old pal about music production. That’s something to be expected, having watched his appearance on Electric Independence, and browsed his twitter account garnished with both thoughts coming straight from the mind of Sir Phax-A-Lot, and pictures of eight-bit sampling material from the 90s. In this exchange, recorded minutes before his show at Nuits sonores 2022, we talked about nostalgia, graphic synthetisers, animals, and all things Ceephax.
We sat down with the Bali-native duo, Gabber Modus Operandi, for an hour during Nuits sonores Lab.
On February 24, Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine. Since then, more than 6 million people have left the aggressed country. Just like other economic and artistic sectors, the Ukrainian electronic scene has been hugely impacted. Artists, journalists, labels, record shops: they testify here about their life since the beginning of the war, between Berlin where some of them are now refugees, and Ukraine where some stayed.
Exploring the workings of artificial intelligence through artistic creation is the ambition of the latest project launched by Sónar as part of the AI and Music S+T+ARTS Festival. Researchers and artists have worked together on these questions to create new performances. In this piece, Cécile Moroux exchanges with Anna Diaz and Javier Ruiz Hidalgo on “Engendered Otherness – A Symbiotic AI Dance Ensemble.”
In this article, author Arnaud Contreras collects the thoughts and words of cultural figures operating at the back of the war, in countries and regions close to the aggression. Through these words, questions emerge: In a context of war, what changes do artists in the immediate proximity feel? What actions can they take? What is their position towards Russian artists?
It is more than due time to introduce the world to the French rapper, half-Ivorian, who has been living between London and Paris for a few years now, Lala &ce, born out of the cloud rap made by new generations fed by the internet, auto-tune and slowed-down voices that melt into the basses until they peddle their own particular sonic mist. This is the face we have chosen to talk about the ever original programme of Lyon’s Nuits sonores 2022 festival (25-29th May), which reinvents itself after two years of pandemic and existential questioning.
Launched in 2017, L’atelier des artistes en exil has set itself the mission of accompanying artistic personalities in exile in France. Initially set up to respond to a request from these people lost in a country they do not know and faced with social and practical obstacles, the association has over time experienced a success that could be described as “bitter”, as the need for its existence is a reflection of a sad state of the world. Invited to the Brussels edition of the travelling discussion and debate forum European Lab, we met Judith Depaule, instigator of the Atelier des artistes en exil.
Independent stage designer and music journalist Axel Simon explores the stage design of Belgian festival Horst, based in industrial site ASIAT-Vilvoorde. In this interview, co-founder Mattias Staelens dives into the architectural DNA of the organisation, and how it faces environmental and aesthetic challenges.
In this long piece, freelance journalist Rosalie Ernst reflects on the threats to cultural heritage in times of war. This question is developed through exchanges with Ukrainian cultural workers, currently fighting for the preservation of the country’s heritage.
We sat down with Kornelia Binicewicz, curator behind the sonic and narrative project Ladies on records, a sonic endeavor enriching compilations of records with anthropological research.
During Nuits sonores 2021, we met with French artists Oklou & Krampf, who presented a project linking video game, music and performance: Zone W/O People
With the reflections of DJs and producers Julianna and Dani Boom, two of the most experienced artists on the national electronic scene, we review post-pandemic thoughts on what it means to collaborate intercontinentally.
As part of our coverage of the release of Atlantic Stereo, a compilation linking France and Colombia through music, we interviewed Linapary, Colombian singer who penned and interpreted the lyrics of “P.U.T.A”, a slow perreo anthem produced by french producers Simo Cell and Low Jack.
On the outskirts of the city of Medellín, in Colombia, between streams, birdsong and colourful flower farms, a handful of artists have decided to create soundscapes at the mercy of the mountain and the mystique of its forests.
We met with Congolese collective Fulu Miziki for an in-depth look at their work, a “build your own instrument” workshop and a conversation about their vision for this project.
Nous avons discutés avec les publics et artistes participant à l’édition 2021 de Nuits sonores pour revenir sur leur état d’esprit et leurs espoirs pour la scène. À l’approche de la prochaine édition du festival, nous revenons sur ces conversations.
As part of our coverage of the release of Atlantic Stereo, a compilation linking France and Colombia through music, we interviewed producers Voiski and Verraco on the changes of paradigms in the world and the utopias that still exist in it.
Promoters and selectors from non-central cities in Colombia, such as Mocoa, Pitalito and Pereira, tell us what it is like to organize a party and keep an electronic music collective alive, before and during the pandemic, in these territories. Despite having several factors against them, the imagination and collective work of a few helps to fulfill the same dream: to diversify the sound circuit they inhabit.
During the massive 2021 Colombian protests, partying, dancing and electronic music were key tools to gather social fabric and resources in support of the mobilisations. Motivando a la Gyal, Génesis Sound System and Fuerzas Sónicas Unidas were three active collectives during those months, who found in electronic beats a form of activism.
