WHEN: Friday, December 6th 2024
WHERE: MONOM Studio - Funkhaus, Nalepastrasse 18, 12459 Berlin
WHAT: For this edition of the Adventurous Music Plateaux, MONOM will host an artist talk and a Q&A session with the featured artists.
TIME: 17:00 - 20:30
WHO: Albert Stensen, Antonina Car, Łukasz Czekała, Pawel Pruski, William Russell, Daniela Huerta, Júlia Koffler
(Free entry)
Join us on Friday, December 6th, for a workshop at MONOM Studios, Berlin. As part of the AMP project, this 3-hour workshop will feature seven 30-minute talks, each led by one of the participating artists. Free and open to the public, this session is designed as an intimate conversation, with very limited capacity, where attendees will have the opportunity to listen and engage with the artists as they share their insights, experiences, and creative processes in relation to improvising music within the 4DSOUND system. Attendees can expect an enriching experience that fosters understanding and appreciation of the artists’ practices while allowing for a 30-minute session for questions and discussion at the end.
Adventurous Music Plateaux (AMP) is a platform dedicated to showcasing Polish musicians in Europe and fostering collaboration between jazz and electronic artists from Poland and six other countries involved in the project. Leveraging Poland's rich jazz heritage, AMP aims to create lasting partnerships among emerging musicians and music professionals across Europe. The project focuses on building cross-border connections through a gradual, sustained process, encouraging the formation of enduring multinational music groups and networks. On this edition of the AMP, Monom will host an inspiring lineup of artists and collaborative sessions.
Program
16:45 Studio Doors Open
17:00 - 20:00 Artist Talks
20:00 - 20:30 Q&A session with the artists
About the partners:
The Plateaux Foundation, established in 2006, is one of the most dynamic entities promoting modern culture and audiovisual art in Poland. Our activities are largely focused on the promotion of electronic, avant-garde, jazz and electroacoustic music, audiovisual forms combining both elements (audio and video) as an inseparable whole. Several organized concerts, festivals and exhibitions were widely commented on, and described as extremely important and “fresh” events on the cultural map of Poland.
MONOM is a collective of artists, technologists, studios, and venues exploring spatial sound as an artistic and experiential medium. From sound art and music to theatre, opera, dance, and the immersive realms of virtual and augmented realities, our mission is to provide space and time for anyone who wants to expand the dimensions of their creative practice and enrich communal and individual experiences of sound and art.
About the artists:
Albert Stensen is a composer with a passion for the cornet and upright piano, known for his distinctive approach to blending a wide range of musical spaces — from illustrative music and free jazz to ambient, hardcore, folk, and sound design — into innovative, contemporary compositions. Enthusiastic about writing in the third person, Albert has an extensive portfolio, collaborating with various artists and bands and contributing music and sound design to dozens of audiovisual projects, commercials, documentaries, and theater productions.
His talent has been recognized in numerous composition competitions, most recently with the Grand Prize at the 2023 Oticons Faculty International Film Music Competition. When he's not composing, Albert spends time with his cat, who, in his words, is an uncredited muse for his creative endeavors.
Antonina Car is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and sound artist dedicated to exploring new sound worlds and sound design. Her work has been distinguished by creating rich, immersive experiences that weave together complex soundscapes and diverse textures. She combined ambient, experimental and neoclassical music elements, creating an ephemeral atmosphere inspired by Icelandic sounds.
One of her latest projects is “TOÑ,” a collaboration with Nika Jurczuk, combining contemporary electronic sounds with traditional elements of the Polish-Belarusian borderland, such as white singing and violin. The project was created thanks to the initiative of the Up To Date festival in Bialystok. Antonina has also participated in conceptual projects such as “Black Room,” inspired by the Experimental Studio of Polish Radio and Kazimir Malevich's work “Black Square,” creating Poland's first sound gallery with installations by national and international artists. The artist regularly collaborates with musicians from all over the world, participating in various projects.
Łukasz Czekała is a violinist known for his distinct and resonant tone on both acoustic and electric violins. A versatile musician, he creates evocative melodies, immersive soundscapes, and intricate string arrangements, showcasing his expertise as a composer for theatre and film. Łukasz is also an accomplished improviser and session musician, collaborating widely across genres from jazz to pop and rock.
Beyond performance, he is passionate about recording techniques, studio microphones, and the art of capturing sound, as well as photography, literature, and embracing a slower pace of life.
Paweł Pruski is an electronic music producer and composer specializing in ambient and experimental sounds. For years, he has been creating unique compositions that blend organic elements with subtle synthetic layers and field recordings. His music, synonymous with depth and immersion, has gained recognition from both listeners and critics alike. Pruski’s work takes various forms—ranging from concerts and gallery exhibitions to film soundtracks and producer albums. He has released seven albums to date, collaborating with labels such as Whitelabrecs (UK), Crisalisound (Italy), and Four Tapes Rec (Poland).
Pruski’s performances are unique, improvised sonic experiences that harmoniously integrate with visual spaces. He has performed at numerous festivals in Poland and abroad, including the Ambient Festival, Freeform Festival, and Tauron Festival, as well as in China, Italy, Germany, Norway, and the Czech Republic. In his creative process, Pruski combines practical musicianship with a solid theoretical foundation, utilizing a self-designed modular system that gives his sounds a distinctive character. His theoretical interests include probabilistic relationships, which he weaves into his compositions, introducing elements of surprise and unpredictability. In addition to his concert and production work, Pruski is actively involved in music education, leading workshops and sharing his knowledge with other electronic music enthusiasts. He is a recipient of numerous artistic and academic scholarships (including from the National Science Center).
William Russell is a spatial sound artist, creative director, founder and lead spatial sound designer of MONOM. Born in Australia, William Russell has emerged as an important figure in the realm of spatial sound design and performance. In 2017 he co-founded MONOM in Berlin, Germany, a studio, known for its residency and exhibition programme utilizing state-of-the-art 4DSOUND spatial sound technology.
At MONOM William has has collaborated with over 200 artists to produce new works utilizing the 4DSOUND system. As an artist, Russell's focus is profoundly tied to the interplay between human experience and natural phenomena, using spatial sound to explore this relationship. Exploring this work, William has worked with the New York Times Climate Hub, UCL Multimedia Anthropology Lab, Apple, and Google on various projects aimed at increasing awareness of humans profound relationship to nature. His contributions extend to various festivals and installations worldwide, showcasing his versatility and commitment to the development of new ways to express and experience sound and space.
Daniela Huerta is a Berlin-based multimedia artist, DJ, and sound therapist. She holds a BA from Central Saint Martins in London and has completed Sound Therapy training at the Sound Healing Academy in Cornwall. Currently, she is furthering her studies at the Center for Deep Listening, founded by composer Pauline Oliveros. With mythology at its core, she explores modes of storytelling that shift between the real and the imaginary, attempting to understand the realm of the human psyche. Her focus lies on the origins of consciousness, archetypes, ritualistic forms, and collective memory. Huerta approaches her work with the perspective that research is a form of action, and action is a form of research. She composes hyperrealistic sound-spheres, creating emotive and immersive sonic explorations by combining field recordings, sound archives, deconstructed rhythms, and live sampling. Huerta has performed at events and venues such as MUTEK México, CTM Festival, Heroines of Sound, Radical Sounds Latin America, Berghain, Kiezsalon, Neue Nationalgalerie, Roter Salon, and Silent Green, among others. Her commissioned projects and residencies include CCD (Centro de Cultura Digital), Musée d’Orsay, Centre Pompidou, MOCA Geffen Warehouse, Musée du Luxembourg, ArteBa, Paso de Fauna, MONOM Berlin, Sternhagen Gut, Goethe Institute, Aki Aora, and Amplify Berlin. Her other collaborations and interdisciplinary projects include Lucrecia Dalt, Soundwalk Collective, Christina Mackie, Iván Argote, Vincent Moon, Ash Fure, Ale Hop, Concepción Huerta (Huerta Ensamble), Cornelia Pierce (Prima Materia), and Natalia Escobar (Koaxula).
Júlia Koffler is a vocalist and sound artist from Hungary, currently based in Berlin. Her work is informed by vocal research, an interest in timbre and technology, and the relationship between voice and its varied cultural articulations, taking shape through different formats such as installation, video, spatial audio pieces, and performance. Her live shows comprise the use of voice, tape, and electronics to explore how vocal expression and its technological mediation unfold in a spatial setting.
Disclaimer:
Please be aware that the sessions will be video-recorded for promotional and documentation purposes. By attending the event, you consent to be filmed and photographed and agree that these recordings may be used in future promotional materials. If you do not wish to be filmed, please inform our staff upon arrival.
FAQ
What will happen in the MONOM lounge?
Beverages will be served in the lounge before and after the workshop.
Which payment method is accepted in the lounge?
Cash only.
Can I bring my dog?
Dogs are not allowed in the space.
Who is this workshop for?
Ideal for anyone interested in live collaboration and improvisation techniques within a Spatial Sound system.
PLEASE NOTE
We recommend arriving 30 minutes before the start of the workshop.
Cell phone use is not permitted during the sessions.
Photos are allowed before and after the experience.
MONOM has a zero-tolerance policy for any form of abuse, harassment, or discrimination.
Ramps will be available in the studio for wheelchair users. While the lounge isn't directly wheelchair accessible, if you need assistance entering, the MONOM team is here to help and ensure a comfortable experience.
Public task financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland within the grant competition “Public Diplomacy 2024–2025 – the European dimension and countering disinformation”.