Dutch promoter and report label Dekmantel return to ship their flagship occasion to Amsterdam for Dekmantel Pageant’s eleventh version, going down from July thirtieth to August third on the wooded Amsterdam Bos, and different particular places throughout Amsterdam.
Presenting one other rigorously curated choice that balances heritage acts with rising expertise in underground music, the Dekmantel 2025 lineup boasts a powerful billing exceeding 150 artists. Forward of this 12 months’s occasion, these six performances absolutely warrant blocking your busy competition schedule for.
Moritz Von Oswald presents ‘Silencio’
The Efficiency: Dekmantel’s opening live performance takes place in Amsterdam’s Thirteenth-century Oude Kerk, that includes an unique presentation of Moritz Von Oswald’s groundbreaking Silencio mission with a 16-voice choir.
Why This Issues: The Primary Channel founder has developed a novel mission with Silencio, exploring the connection between human and synthetic sound. Working with Vocalconsort Berlin, Von Oswald examines “the variations and similarities between oscillations generated by vocal cords and synthesiser voices.”
The method concerned Von Oswald composing items in his Berlin studio utilizing basic synths (EMS VCS3, Prophet V, Moog Mannequin 15), which had been transcribed into choral notation by Finnish composer Jarkko Riihimäki. The choir recordings had been then reintegrated into the digital framework, creating dialogue between natural and artificial parts.
Drawing from composers like Varèse, Ligeti, and Xenakis, Silencio positions digital music inside modern classical traditions. The Oude Kerk setting ought to present acceptable acoustics for one of these experimental work.
Richie Hawtin DEX EFX X0X
The Efficiency: The techno pioneer presents his newest stay idea, a radical evolution of his groundbreaking ‘Decks, EFX & 909’ mission.
Why This Issues: Richie Hawtin’s newest mission takes a intentionally stripped-back method to stay digital efficiency. Somewhat than counting on visible parts, DEX EFX X0X focuses totally on sound and lighting design.
The idea builds on Hawtin’s earlier Decks, EFX & 909 work, the place he modified data with results whereas incorporating TR-909 percussion. This up to date model emphasizes improvisation: “Transferring away from exhibits giving precedence to picture relatively than sound, DEX EFX X0X brings the viewers again into an immersive sound and lighting expertise.”
The improvised nature means every efficiency develops in a different way, with Hawtin utilizing fashionable know-how to create what he describes as “a novel sonic narrative.” Following displays at Motion Detroit and Sónar Barcelona, the Dekmantel efficiency continues this touring idea.
Jeff Mills Cinemix of Metropolis
The Efficiency: The Detroit techno legend performs his third interpretation of Fritz Lang’s 1927 dystopian masterpiece Metropolis at EYE Movie Museum.
Why This Issues: Jeff Mills has been growing soundtracks to Fritz Lang’s 1927 movie for over twenty years, with this marking his third interpretation. His method treats the visible and audio parts as interconnected: “To me, the visible rhythm of Metropolis is much like the way in which music is thought of by a DJ.”
This newest model, developed since 2023, focuses on “the imaginative and prescient of the machines,” providing Mills’ perspective on the movie’s technological themes. The efficiency combines stay digital music with the restored silent movie, creating a up to date soundtrack for Lang’s futuristic narrative.
The EYE Movie Museum setting offers an acceptable cinema setting for one of these audio-visual presentation, the place Mills can synchronize his techno compositions with the movie’s visible rhythm.
B12 Current Electro-Soma
The Efficiency: British digital music duo Mike Golding and Steve Rutter carry out materials from their legendary 1993 debut album, the fourth launch in Warp’s seminal Synthetic Intelligence collection.
Why This Issues: B12’s Electro-Soma serves as a key doc of early UK digital music, demonstrating how British producers interpreted Detroit techno influences. Mike Golding and Steve Rutter initially launched this materials below numerous pseudonyms (Musicology, Redcell, Cmetric) earlier than Warp compiled it for his or her Synthetic Intelligence collection.
The duo’s method mixed Detroit’s melodic sensibilities with extra advanced programming and strange time signatures. Their mysterious presentation (restricted pressings with cryptic etchings, minimal interviews) led many to imagine they had been Detroit natives, highlighting their genuine interpretation of Motor Metropolis sounds.
Tracks like “Obsessed” and “Metropolis” showcase their means to stability emotional depth with technical precision, creating music that works each for house listening and membership environments. The fabric has confirmed influential for subsequent generations of digital producers.
Polygonia Presents: Dream Horizons Dwell
The Efficiency: Munich-based multidisciplinary artist Lindsey Wang, AKA Polygonia, debuts an unique stay rendition of her newest album Dream Horizons, launched on Dekmantel Data.
Why This Issues: Polygonia operates on the intersection of a number of digital genres, shifting between ambient and deep techno whereas incorporating downtempo and experimental parts. Wang approaches her compositions as a multi-instrumentalist, recording her personal voice, saxophone, flute, violin and percussion alongside digital manufacturing.
Dream Horizons presents twelve distinct compositions, every exploring totally different atmospheric territories. Tracks like “Gate To Amygdala” keep away from standard techno buildings in favour of tension-based sound design, whereas “Mindfunk” employs intentionally off-kilter rhythmic patterns.
The stay format permits Wang to reveal her multi-instrumental capabilities inside an digital framework, showcasing an method that extends past typical DJ units or laptop computer performances.
WSNWG (Rødhåd & Fadi Mohem & JakoJako)
The Efficiency: Three of Berlin’s most revered techno artists unite for a totally improvised stay set, representing the leading edge of up to date European digital music.
Why This Issues: This collaboration brings collectively three established figures from Berlin’s techno scene for an improvised efficiency. Rødhåd is thought for his prolonged atmospheric units, whereas JakoJako brings experimental parts to the combo. Fadi Mohem contributes his method to loop-based compositions, as heard on their WSNWG008 EP.
The improvised format means the efficiency will develop organically, with every artist contributing their particular person fashion to a collective stay composition. Earlier collaborations between numerous pairs inside the trio (reminiscent of JakoJako and Rødhåd’s “In Vere”) counsel they already work fairly properly collectively in smaller configurations.
Their shared curiosity in deeper, extra spacious techno types ought to translate successfully to Dekmantel’s out of doors forest setting, the place prolonged units and affected person set growth are likely to all the time land exceedingly properly.
These performances reveal Dekmantel’s continued concentrate on artists who push digital music past standard membership codecs. Von Oswald’s choral integration, Polygonia’s multi-instrumental method, Hawtin’s technology-focused minimalism, Mills’ cinematic scoring, B12’s historic significance, and WSNWG’s collaborative improvisation every symbolize totally different approaches to increasing digital music’s prospects.
The number of venues, from Amsterdam’s medieval church buildings to the competition’s forest setting, offers acceptable contexts for these numerous displays. Every efficiency affords one thing distinct, whether or not by way of technological innovation, collaborative course of, or historic perspective.
Dekmantel Pageant 2025 takes place July 30 to August 3 throughout Amsterdam venues and Amsterdamse Bos.
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