LEV FESTIVAL 2019 / Newsletter nº1

The Visual Electronics Laboratory reveals the first names of the 13th Edition of the LEV Festival – Gijón

The Visual Electronics Laboratory continues to explore the cutting edge of digital creativity, offering in the 13th Edition of the LEV Festival – Gijón a suggestive program full of innovative audiovisual experiences.

The already unavoidable cultural event will take place from May 2 to 5 in different spaces of Laboral Ciudad de la Cultura and the city of Gijón, and is co-produced by the Government of the Principality of Asturias, the Gijón City Council, LABoral Centro de Arte and the Datatron collective.

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The first preview of the LEV Festival program includes several world premieres of projects by international artists whose work advances electronic sound creation and new artistic currents constantly emerging at a global level. Premieres such as the performance ScanAudience and the projects ex(O), Delta-T or Synspecies, are co-produced by LEV through artistic residencies at Laboral Centro de Arte.

Alex Augierreturns to the LEV together with another Festival regular, Alba G. Corral, to present ex(O), the second part of a poetic audiovisual diptych inspired by the biological world, a living and evolutionary piece in which sound, image, space coexist and time. The LEV Festival will host the world premiere of this project, co-produced with Arcadi and La Muse en Circuit.

ex(O)_AlexAugier&AlbaGCorral

Inspired by virtual ecologies, Elías Merino and Tadej Droljc will offer the world premiere of the live audiovisual Synspecies in Gijón. Abstract architectures and algorithmic sounds provoke states of confusion in a virtual universe, a kind of synchronized chaos that will bring us closer to spaces in a perpetual process of disintegration.

Synspecies_Elias Merino & Tadej Droljc

Another world premiere of the LEV: Delta-T. Matthew Biederman and Pierce Warnecke join forces to explore the latest research and theories in quantum physics, gravity and relativity, challenging classical compositions based on timelines. The result: a powerful sound and visual experience whose last stage will take place at LABoral Centro de Arte.

Delta-T.Matthew Bierderman & Pierce Warnecke

If last year the Schnitt duo captivated us with their artistic research on visual memory, in 2019 Marco Monfardini and Amelie Duchow return to Gijón, accompanied by Gianluca Sibaldi, to offer us the world premiere of ScanAudience, a performance that proposes the scanning of the public . Spectators will thus become the protagonists of this interactive show, while enjoying the visual and auditory experience generated by the three artists in real time.

ScanAudience_SCHNITT and Gianluca Sibaldi

The Berlin collective Transforma also returns and does so with Manufactory, an audiovisual performance with music by Sascha Ring (the great Apparat, who accompanied us in the first editions of LEV). An amazing mix of choreography, live video, field recordings and concert, developed in different formats, to pay tribute to manual labor, from artisanal processes to factories and production cycles of the industrial era. This piece, the result of a call from the ENCAC network, is co-produced by the Visual Electronics Laboratory in collaboration with The Barbican, TodaysArt Festival, Schauspielhaus Bochum and Stereolux.

Manufactory_Transforma@Barbican London

One of the most captivating moments of the 13th edition of the LEV will be the presentation of the first collaboration between the sound researcher Caterina Barbieri and the visual artist Ruben Spini, an audiovisual piece with which the Italians have fascinated at the Atonal festival in Berlin and with in which the public will be able to explore a sound landscape, rigid and delicate, while admiring the beauty of real, decontextualized landscapes.

Caterina Barbieri@Morkevicius

The abstract and corrosive techno of the futuristic Monolith, an audiovisual direct from Lanark Artefax developed together with Shaun Murphy, will flood the Teatro de la Laboral. It will be an opportunity to enjoy live one of the great revelations of contemporary IDM, highly applauded by critics and the public since its debut with the prestigious Whities label.

Lanark Artefax

Elizabeth Walling’s first performance in Spain was at the LEV in 2015. She returns, in the 13th edition, with her artistic project Gazelle Twin and her latest work, Pastoral. La Nave de LABoral will host the presentation of this new performance, a soundtrack for turbulent times composed by Walling after the disappointment caused by Brexit. Pastoral is anything but bucolic and, live, voice and samplers merge to show the bitterness that underlies green… and pastoral England.

Gazelle Twin

The LEV Festival will host the presentation in Gijón of Bliss Signal, the tremendous project by James Kelly (Wife, Altar of Plagues) and Jack Adams (Mumdance) that goes beyond Kelly’s black metal and the sound universe of Mumdance to project a kind of transcendent fury.

Bliss Signal

Hiro Kone’s tense techno, industrial minimalism and audacity are condensed in his latest LP, Pure Expenditure (Dais). The American composer will show her most emotional work in Gijón, woven into a labyrinth of electronic patterns.

Hiro Kone@Anna Drvnik

One of the great audiovisual creators of our time, the Australian Robin Fox, visits the LEV Festival for the first time, presenting his latest work, Single Origin, premiered at the Unsound in Krakow, the third in his series of works for laser and sound with which explores the possibilities of mechanically induced synesthesia.

Single Origin_Robin Fox@Bruno Destombes_Mutek2018

Also new to LEV’s programming is London producer Keith Tenniswood (50% of the legendary Two Lone Swordsmen), with his historic project Radioactive Man, focused on electro, bass music and robotic sounds.

Radioactive Man

Veteran producer Oliver Ho will visit the LEV with his most experimental project: Broken English Club. In this live show, the audience will be able to get closer to the industrial and post punk sound of his latest album, White Rats, published on the LIES label.

Broken English Club

In the fantastic world of Mamu, the London artist Iglooghost creates and develops his personal universe, full of music, videos and delirious images. The LABoral Nave will host a piece of Mamu, inhabited by strange gods and floating giants, a fantastic world that has its own language and morphology and expands with each record release. Without a doubt, it will be the most unique soundtrack of LEV 2019.

Iglooghost

Also part of the poster are the electronic textures of Klara Lewis, a Swedish composer whose debut album, ETT, was critically acclaimed. This expressive and intuitive sound sculptor makes her original music fit into found audio and recordings. On this occasion she will present her new audiovisual project.

Klara Lewis@HampusHogberg

This first preview of the LEV Festival is completed by brothers Tom and Ed Russell (Truss and Tessela), with their project Overmono and their powerful live performance in which they offer expansive experiences overflowing with intensity and passion for techno. Robust, powerful and penetrating sound to listen to and dance to in the LABoral Nave.

Oversuit

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TICKETING

Tickets available starting Thursday, January 17.

2-day BONUS (Friday and Saturday): €50. Advance sale only.

Do not miss them!

Tickets for specific activities, such as those scheduled on Sunday, May 5 at the Botanical Garden or at the La Laboral Theater stage box, will go on sale soon.

Stay tuned for new confirmations.

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LEV 2019 | VISUAL ELECTRONICS LABORATORY | Edition 13 (preview)

Lanark Artefax“Monolith” Live A/V [Whities. UK]

Transform“Manufactory” (w/ music by Sascha Ring) [DE]

Gazelle Twin“Pastoral” [Anti-Ghost Moon Ray.UK]

Robin Fox“Single Origin” [AU]

Caterina Barbieriw/ Ruben Spini Live A/V [Important Records. ITEM]

Bliss Signal[True Panther Sounds x Profound Lore Records. UK]

Radioactive ManLive [UK]

OversuitLive [XL Recordings. UK]

Klara LewisLive A/V [Editions Mego!. HE]