Heroines of Sound: microtonality, noise, and drones on an all-female artists’ stage
In ten years, Heroines of Sound has presented over 150 female or non-binary artists, in a dialogue between contemporaneity and ‘heroines’ of the electronic music scene
Heroines of Sound, the 2023 edition of the music festival in Berlin
Heroines of Sound is an electronic musical festival entirely dedicated to women, which takes place every year in Berlin. Now in its tenth edition, the festival aims at supporting the presence of women artists in the art and music worlds and creating connections between different genres.
Scheduled from 6 to 9 July 2023, this year’s edition focuses on the thematic spectrum of microtonality, noise and drones. The location is Radialsystem, a former pumping station situated in the center of Berlin, overlooking the Spree River, which in 2006 has been turned into a venue for contemporary performance art. During the festival the entire building and its grounds are turned into a stage.
Ten years of all-female electronic music at Heroines of Sound
Curated by Bettina Wackernagel and a group of artists, Heroines of Sound Festival first started in 2014 with the aim to discover and rediscover women pioneers of electronic music, making their work known to a wider public. «Some women artists, such as Laurie Spiegel, American composer and pioneer in applying technology to music, have been spoken of back in their days – in the Seventies, Eighties, Nineties – but who knows about them today?».
The festival wishes to promote a dialogue and a connection between early heroines of the electronic music scene and contemporary artists, who switch up on stage in a variety of performances and projects meant to explore uncharted musical territory and push the audience to rethink current sound practices and investigate new forms of dialogue.
Heroines of Sound has presented over 150 female or non-binary artists from 24 countries
Heroines of Sound aims to strengthen the proportion of woman artists in the music branch both nationally and oversea. «I think we need this exchange, because Berlin is an international city, with lots of migrants’ communities, but they tend to organize their own events separately. We are interested in musical connections, but we are also aware of diversity, which is one added value for our festival. That is to say that we do not choose foreign artists just because they come from abroad, but we are also glad of such melting pot».
This is why the festival did not stop even during the pandemic – with online live streaming performances both in 2020 and 2021 – and also sets up events outside Berlin (Aarhus, Den Haag, and Istanbul up to now).
Artists are chosen every year mainly according to the focus of the current edition: «Many artists I have known personally for years and we also accept suggestions from artists we already worked with, but the final decision depends on whether we can adapt an artist’s work to the current edition’s focus».
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The gender gap in the music world: Heroines of Sound’s mission
Heroines of Sound started as a mission to give a voice and a stage to women in the electronic music field, but, according to Bettina Wackernagel, the gender gap is still a problem common to all the music world: «Whether we consider pop music or contemporary classic, we always see the same situation: just about the ten percent of artists and producers are female». However, thanks to initiatives such as Heroines of Sound Festival, which has also been awarded a two-year supporting grant from the Berlin Senate in 2015, the female musical community in gradually growing worldwide.
«There is still a sort of blindness when it comes to recognizing the contribution of female talent to the music world. Anyway, we do not want our artists to have a voice just because they are women, but because of their art. Some of us may be feminists, but that is not the point. We have different identities and we do not want to be classified for race, gender or event certain forms of music. I think it suits better the artists and the audience as well to see contexts and connections rather than labels. This is also why we decided to have one ticket per day».
This year’s edition features ten concerts and a sound art exhibition, with performances by over fifty artists from twenty different countries.
The opening concert of Heroines of Sound 2023: Black Page Orchestra and Elisabeth Schimana
The opening concert of the festival’s tenth edition has been assigned to the Black Page Orchestra, an ensemble founded in Vienna in 2014, who plays radical music using electronics, video and new technologies to reach beyond a conventional classical concert situation. Their set list includes compositions by Rojin Sharafi, Eva Reiter, Billy Roisz and Maja Bosnićs, all meant to make pulsing sounds physically perceivable.
The Black Page Orchestra’s opening concert is introduced by a concert installation by Austrian sound pioneer Elisabeth Schimana, founder of the IMA Institute for Media Archaeology, dedicated to analog and digital media focusing on women’s production. After training as a singer, she studied composition, computer music, musicology and ethnology. Her works and interdisciplinary projects explore the nexus between composition and free improvisation, reflecting on questions of space, communication, or the body in its absence, as well as the mediation of compositional concepts.
The international electronic scene portrayed at Heroines of Sound
This year the festival features a series of live sets by various artists of the international electronic scene to offer a panorama of contemporary experimental music.
These includes Argentinian pioneer of electroacoustic and acousmatic music Beatriz Ferreyra; Austrian DJ, composer, musician and producer Susanne Kirchmayr aka Electric Indigo, known for transforming abstract dance music into electronic music; Australian artist and composer Jasmine Guffond, who engages with social, political and technical issues through live performance, recording, sound installation and custom-made browser plug-ins; Polish interdisciplinary artist Martyna Poznańska, whose focus is on field recordings that represents an ongoing investigation of visual tools, such as video, her own body, drawings or text.
Moreover, a concert by Ensemble KNM Berlin presents recent compositions by, among others, Monika Szpyrka (Poland), Bergrún Snæbjörnsdóttir (Iceland) and Kirsten Reese (Germany).
The festival also welcomes for the first time as guest Tine Surel Lange, Norwegian artist whose concert installation portrays Arctic landscapes conceived as sound-ecology.
A focus on the electric guitar for Heroines of Sound 2023 opening and finale
A large segment of the 2023 edition focuses on the electric guitar. Already during the opening, the sound of seven electric guitars is presented to the public as an electro-magnetically controlled sound sculpture entitled Relegation, an award-winning installation by Catherine Lorent first presented in 2013 at the Venice Biennale.
Catherine Lorent is a Luxembourgish artist who now lives in Berlin and combines visual art with music and performance. She studied painting, history and graduated with a Ph.D. in art history. In her music she experiments with electric guitar, drums, bass, piano, harmonium, and voice.
The electric guitar is also protagonist of the festival finale, with performances by Ale Hop, Chra, Maya Shenfeld and new works by Ann Cleare, Katherine Young and Yoko Konishi.
A spotlight on Pascale Criton: electroacoustic music
A spotlight is also on French composer Pascale Criton. After studying composition and undergoing a training in electroacoustic music in Nice, she completed a musical computing course for composers in Paris and earned a doctorate in music and musicology of the Twentieth century.
Specialized in microtonality, in her music she explores the fine details of sonic variation and uses specific tunings and computer programs to bring acoustic effects and spatial listening into focus.
Younger artists supported at the 10th edition of Heroines of Sound
Heroines of Sound also welcomes younger artists, such as Marina Khorkova, Stepha Schweiger and Maja Bosnić, who all use a sound language from traditions of microtonality and musique concrète to explore a spectrum of oscillating frequencies that merge into metallic hardness or raw noise.
Marina Khorkova is a Russian artist who now lives and works in Berlin. She studied composition in Russia, Germany and the United States.
Stepha Schweiger is a German avant-garde composer, pianist/keyboardist and singer/songwriter, whose music moves between minimal, experimental, industrial, free jazz and song. She studied musicology, philosophy, linguistics and composition, and derives inspiration from spectral music.
Maja Bosnić is a Serbian composer and performer, who writes pieces for solo instruments, chamber ensembles and orchestra as well as for electronics and smartphones in interactive settings.
Not just music: panels and films on female gender
Besides live music and performances, Heroines of Sound also offers discussions, film portraits, a sound bar, and sound art: «Everyday there is a panel dealing with the topics of the festival, such as electronic guitar or strategies of microtonality. The opening panel is about female gender, where we are and where we go, what has changed and what not. We like to invite visitors and artists to our discourse program to promote connection and exchange. We even have student groups».
From July 5 to 12, the public can also visit an exhibition of current Portuguese sound art, realized in cooperation with the group Errant Sound.
Heroines of Sound, Berlin
Heroines of Sound is a festival dedicated to female artists of the electronic music scene, which takes place every year since 2014 in Berlin. Located in Radialsystem and curated by Bettina Wackernagel, the festival hosts live concerts, performances, discussions, film portraits and exhibitions with female and non-binary artists from all over the world. The 2023 edition, scheduled for 6-9 July, focuses on microtonality.
