Dissonanze returns to Rome for the eighth year running on 9th and 10th of May 2008 and will once again distinguish itself as one of Europe’s foremost events for electronic music and multimedia art – a space in which music meets experience, and gives rise to new expressions of sound and art, in the astonishing historic environs of Rome.
With an impressive line up of internationally renowned artists collaborating on unique projects, DISSONANZE 08 features exclusive performances from MODEL 500 , CARL CRAIG , MADLIB & J.ROCC , THE BUG , PREFUSE 73 , SWITCH , LUCKY DRAGONS , NO AGE , FUJIYA & MIYAGI , MURCOF , EROL ALKAN , CARIBOU , ALEXANDER ROBOTNIK and ARRAY DANCE COMPANY plus visual artists including CYPRIEN GAILLARD , SPARTACUS CHETYWND , SUSAN PHILIPSZ and much more still to be announced, DISSONANZE offers a frontline in which music is both the starting point and the arrival, a community where artists of the Avant-garde and over 16,000 spectators from all over the world meet to immerse themselves in the infinite possibilities of sound, visual art and an array of expressive forms in evolution.
The 2008 edition of DISSONANZE will also involve new spaces. The historic and architecturally acclaimed PALAZZO DEI CONGRESSI and L’AUDITORIUM PARCO DELLA MUSICA (which last year hosted the great Karlheinz Stockhausen: first and foremost) will remain this year but another extraordinary space, the museum of the ancient l’ARA PACIS, will be added to the list.
Open from the early afternoon for video work and gatherings, at sunset it will be transformed into an exceptional stage for performances from great names in international art, among those the highly anticipated new star of the French art scene, Cyprien Gaillard.
With the arrival of Dissonanze Night, the event moves to the PALAZZO DEI CONGRESSI where, on Friday 9th, ITALO & COSMIC DISCO will take the stage: a production dedicated to the revolution of Italian music and costume from the 80s: a revolution of the beat of the electronic drum and its conspicuous associated “look” and pastel colours among which were the active protagonist DANIELE BALDELLI at the helm of Baia degli Angeli and Cosmic, and ALEXANDER ROBOTNIK the electro-pop icon with his classic “Problèmes d’amour”.
Sharing the DISSONANZE stage with BALDELLI and ROBOTNIK, will be FRANCISCO and RODION the two young flag-holders of the new Italian scene. On the evening of Saturday 10 May, the hot sounds of BRAZILIN TIME will take over a multimedia project that had its debut in San Paolo and that will be presented for the first time in Italy . Protagonists of the production are MADLIB and J.ROCC DJs, producers and MCs, representatives of the first stage of American Hip Hop and among the legendary generations of Jazz and of Brazilian Music.
The DISSONANZE journey of sound after Italy and Brazil will then arrive in the States: exact location Detroit , the city where the robots of Kraftwerk were transformed into cyborg, and electronic music became techno. This takes the form of the festival’s closing event, which has been entrusted to an exclusive live performance by the legendary MODEL 500 – Juan Atkins and Mad Mike Banks (Founders of the UNDERGROUND RESISTANCE) and a DJ set by CARL CRAIG .
This year, DISSONANZE also opens itself to the medium of dance, with special presentation of OUTRE a performance by ARRAY DANCE COMPANY . Founded by DARREN JOHNSTON , recently defined by the British Theatre Guide as “one of the most innovative and visionary young talents”, Johnston has collaborated with Squarepusher, Aphex Twin and the film director Chris Cunningham. At the AUDITORIUM PARCO DELLA MUSICA (Friday 9 and Saturday 10 at 21.00) DARREN JOHNSTON, with OUTRE, will explore an innovative approach to creative live performance, with particular attention to integrating visual art and sound.