
ADJAN GAMMARTH // October 15, 2016
Since its inception, E-FEST has always valued the territory of the night. DJ-sets and live shows of various aesthetics, established and emerging electronic music artists, meet and link up on a single stage, to form a coherent global program. A territory shared with other disciplines linked to electronic music (vjing, video mapping, scenography and graphic design).
In its tenth year of existence, the project returns to the scene that saw its birth. Far from a retrospective of the artists who have made the festival proud, the program will emphasize the cross-disciplinary musical approach that makes the project so unique, reinviting some of the artists who have marked its history, as well as the FEST public.
ON THE PROGRAM
RABIH BEAINI
Rabih Beaini (aka Morphosis aka Ra.H) has been building bridges between techno, electronic impros, dark wave, krautrock and cosmic jazz since the mid-90s, whether in his epic DJ sets, his live performances with analog synthesizers and drum machines, or his label releases, Morphine Records (subtitled « raw soul revolution », « collapsing borders and fields » or just « fine electronic music ») and the programming of his famous Venice club (Elefante Rosso), specializing in concerts of free jazz, experimental music, noise and techno. His subsequent releases, on Honest Jon’s, the Lebanese Annihaya label and Morphine, have since clearly established him as one of today’s most curious and fascinating electronic musicians, at once avant-garde and luminous, and above all open to the world, and to history – just listen to the Upperground Orchestra records on which he surrounds himself with real (free)jazz musicians, it’s insane.
http://www.morphinerecords.com
PRAED
Praed was founded in 2006 by Lebanese artist Raed Yassin and Swiss musician Paed Conca. Their musical approach is a blend of popular Arab music, free jazz and electro – resulting in psychedelic shaabi. Since its creation, the duo has made some very interesting collaborations with world-renowned musicians, including: Axel Dörner and Johannes Bauer (Germany), Hans Koch (Switzerland), Takumi Seino and Maki Hachiya (Japan), and Stéphane Rives (France).
Praed’s originality lies in its exploration of shaabi (popular Arabic music) and its interconnection with other genres linked to hypnotic music. Since its launch, the duo has endeavored to reflect the complex fabric of Egyptian society in their music. Paed Conca and Raed Yassin have discovered a strong cultural connection between the sounds of shaabi and mouled music, played in religious trance ceremonies. The psychedelic, hypnotic effect that accompanies their genre motivates Praed to explore other oral music traditions around the world that also use forms of acoustic delirium, such as free jazz, space jazz, psychedelic rock and others, and then integrate them into their musical elaborations.
http://www.paed.ch/praed/
PAULA TEMPLE
Paula Temple describes herself as a Noisician, a noisemaker who approaches her music primarily through the concept of noise and silence. Raw and conceptual, Paula’s techno gives her live shows a singular, experimental character. Signed to the prestigious R&S label, on which she released her Deathvox EP in 2014, she founded Noise Manifesto, a platform for « innovative electronic music and collaborations that don’t follow norms ».
http://www.residentadvisor.net/dj/paulatemple
soundcloud.com/paulatemple
paulatemple.com
AURORA HALAL
Aurora Halal is a producer, videographer and creator of Brooklyn’s Mutual Dreaming series and the Sustain-Release festival. The hardwares used for her live sets are psychedelic, with an intense sensuality that pushes her compositions further and further into deep hypnotic states.
GOLDEN CIO
Making a name for herself in Munich in 2001, Cio quickly made a name for herself across Germany and Europe, after releasing her first compositions based on samples gleaned from MPC during her Egyptian travels. It was during this period that she met Donato and Paul Britschitsch. This was followed by the legendary The Fraser, on the Prologue label. If her sets are risky, it’s because the producer is fully at the heart of her movement, ambient techno. Inaccessible and mysterious, she is the lady of spades of the clique that gravitates around the labels Semantica, Prologue and Time To Express (Claudio PRC, Voices From The Lake, Van Hoesen). Her dark techno is as chiselled as it is deep, atmospheric as a distant, contemplative dream.
http://www.ciodor.de/
ZADIG
Zadig is sometimes presented as a veteran of the Parisian scene. This is not quite true. Although his first contacts with electronic music date back to the early 90s, it wasn’t until 2009, with a first release on Plastic Rec, that his talent as a producer finally asserted itself. A signing to Syncrophone in 2010 and the creation of his own Construct Re-Form label in 2011 completed this process of revelation. Zadig is now recognized as a talented musician and astute label manager. In demand by prestigious promoters such as Berghain, REX and Concrete, he remains attached to the underground and to a family-oriented, supportive vision of the music business. His atypical career is above all a story of encounters.
www.residentadvisor.net/dj/zadig
www.soundcloud.com/zadig-construct_re-form
www.discogs.com/artist/Zadig
LES GRACIESLes Graciés
A Franco-American duo, Les Graciés was born in 2012 from the meeting of two musical soulmates, Eric Douglas Porter (aka Afrikan Sciences) and Gaël Segalen (aka IhearU). Their work is defined as a sensitive conversation, free from any temporal grid, exploring borders and attempting to capture moments of eternity.
RENART
Young producer Renart is one of the proudest representatives of the new French techno scene. Renowned for his excellent production work, it’s on stage that he makes his greatest impression, with intense, textured sets tinged with trance, just like his live performances, which are veritable techno epics.
Renart’s music has mythological overtones, and since 2010 he has released a string of EPs on Cracki Records, Versatile, Dawn Records and, most recently, Fragrant Harbour.
Inspired by ancient techno, the Roman de Renart and traditional music, Renart tells a story of hypnosis and psyche, made up of haunting repetitions, reminiscent of happy mornings when the stars die.
www.soundcloud.com/renarttt
VOIRON
Voiron: Having cut his teeth in the HTTP (House To The People) duo, Voiron has now embarked on a solo project. His music is a free acid techno that oscillates between 0 and a billion BPM, between ideological second degree and analog experimentation.
After numerous releases, including the « Radôme » EP on the Concrete Music label in 2014, he released the « Station Cibie » EP on Cracki Records, the start of a fruitful relationship that should culminate in an album for 2016. Whether live or in a dj set, Voiron delivers strong, original performances that are sure to leave their mark on the audience.
KANGDING RAY
Born in 1978 in France, Kangding Ray now lives in Berlin. He started out as a guitarist and drummer in several bands with very different styles, from noise-rock to jazz, and then, after acquiring a sampler, moved on to electronic music.
These diverse influences are reflected in the music of Kangding Ray, whose progressive compositions reveal a singular way of blending rhythms and musical moods. Kangding Ray uses both machines and « real instruments » to create a subtle, rhythmic suite incorporating noise, distortion, booming bass lines, vocals and field recordings – a complex alchemy of techno rhythms and mysterious textures, surfing the border between club and experimental music.
http://www.kangdingray.com
ANALOG AFRICA
Head of the Analog Africa label, Samy Ben Redjeb compiles African music treasures from the 70s and 80s. In search of sonic nuggets, AA offers us a raw, funky and psychedelic set to (re)discover an unexpected or forgotten African heritage.
http://analogafrica.bandcamp.com/
DEENA ABDELWAHED
Deena injects a dose of innovation and experimentation into Electro Dance Music.
A product of the Tunisian alternative scene and former member of the Arabstazy collective, she combines urban rhythms with her own personal touch, distorting her voice on stage and offering a particularly energetic avant-garde sound.
Today, she embodies a new generation that is transforming the codes of electronic music. Pursuing her quest for futuristic Arab club music, she settled in Toulouse and has played all over Europe in a variety of formats: live sets, DJ sets, radio creations and film concerts.
SALEM
Based in Paris, Salem Jabou is a Tunisian DJ and producer who maintains close links with Lyon’s electronic music scene, co-producing the Zukunft nights with Kaïs (Mad In Lyon) at Terminal Club, thus enabling the discovery of cutting-edge artists from their network. Through the creation of the Overview Music platform, during his visit to Switzerland, Salem expresses his vision of the current musical panorama with each new episode, offering exclusive mixes by emerging artists.
He recently signed a dub-influenced remix of Monotronik to Underground Source Records.
http://www.residentadvisor.net/dj/salemjabou
PPE
Epi, electronic music rich in sounds from all horizons. A minimalist rhythm surfing on a wave of funk, rock, jazz and classical influences. A music where everything mixes, everything gets lost and where the journey is simply guaranteed. Khalil Hentati, whose real name is Khalil Hentati, began his classical training at the age of 8. He blossomed into a fusion of funk, hiphop and soul at the age of 16, when he joined the Jazz School. Finally, it was at the School of Sound and Audiovisual that Epi began to manipulate machines, producing a sound that is both energetic and rich, reflecting the times.
OUSSAMA MENCHAOUI aka SAMĀ’
Samā’, a young Tunisian producer who studied sound engineering in Paris, has shaped his ear through pared-down, distorted sounds. Influenced by the Western experimental environment, he never leaves the lyrical fiber represented by Eastern and tribal harmonies. Samā is an Arabic word referring to the notion of spiritual hearing. It also designates a sacred gyratory dance performed by the Mevlevi Sufi whirling dervishes in the semahâne. The samā is part of the spiritual practices that constitute a particular modality of divine invocation within these brotherhoods.