This lovely black and white movie was much better than I expected it to be.  It was so exciting to see the first film made by one of my all time favorite photographers Anton Corbjin. Each shot was more gorgeous than the last and the acting was really impressive.  It was so true to life, at times I thought I was watching a documentary.  I can’t wait to see what Corbjin comes up with next.
www.corbijn.co.uk

I ended up having more fun at the smaller festival Mutek because of the intimacy of the events. We were only there for the last two days of the festival. Saturday night we headed over to Metropolis for an amazing line up. I was excited to see Chloe live but for me the best act of the night was a debut dubby set by Code 9 and Space Ape. This normally isn’t even the kind of music I like but there was something really transcendent about their performance. After their set ended DJ Olive said “Wow that was like Sun Ra!”

The real highlight of the weekend was the outdoor Picnic Electronique with Mathias Kaden & Onur Özur djing together. We danced all day in the foggy wet light rain. No one seemed to be phased by the crappy weather because the music and the vibe was so unbelievably good. In their totally creative set Mathias Kaden & Onur Özur mixed strings and horns into techno tracks. Plus they were super cute to watch as they picked records to play and danced together.

Here is David Last’s amazing photo documentation of Mutek 2008 on Flickr

Me and my new fellow pink haired new artist friend Megan, we instantly became friends after I walked up to her. Photo by my dear friend David Last

We arrived at Metropolis right when the night started, the empty dance floor filled up soon thereafter. Photo by Seze

The visuals were gorgeous and totally different for each act. Photo by Seze

Bunker Bryan with Philip Sherburne, one of my favorite music writers and a super nice person as well. Genevieve & Matt (Portland Techno Promoters Kulture Szene) and Derek are behind them.
Stupid snapshot by Seze

How lucky we are! We danced under a Calder sculpture all day in the rain.
Photo by Seze

I love the pee pee dance logo by Picnic Eletronik
Photo by Seze

Last Friday The Bunker presented a Raster-Noton label showcase. Carsten, Frank, and Olaf performed separately, with their own accompanying projected images, and then together as Signal. Their visual and audio work has been a huge influence on me for over a decade and I was super excited to see them live. They exceeded my expectations and did not disappoint. Here are some of my favorite photos I took from the event:

photo by Seze Devres

photo by Seze Devres

photo by Seze Devres

photo by Seze Devres

Full gallery at The Bunker Site

Friday May 16 Beyond Booking Presents
Raster-Noton Showcase:
Signal (Raster-Noton | Berlin) live pa
Carsten Nicolai aka Alva Noto (Raster-Noton | Berlin) live pa
Frank Bretschneider aka Komet (Raster-Noton | Berlin) live pa
Olaf Bender aka Byetone (Raster-Noton | Berlin) live pa
with opening a/v set from:
Morgan Packard & Joshue Ott (Anticipate, Microcosm | NYC)

Bryan’s Press Release for his night:
We don’t think it is an understatement to say that Raster-Noton is one of the most important record labels in the world. Formed when Carsten Nikolai’s “noton.archiv für ton und nichtton” record label merged with Frank Bretschneider and Olaf Bender’s Raster Music label in 2000, it quickly gained international acclaim with the ARS Electronica award winning “20′ to 2000″ series of 12 cds released monthly in 1999, featuring 20 minute sound pieces from electronic music heavyweights like Wolfgang Voigt, Ryoji Ikeda, Mika Vainio, and Thomas Brinkmann alongside the core R-N artists. They have gone on to release many dozens of amazing projects since then, building a core group of fans who pretty much buy everything they put out. The sound of the label is decidedly minimal, composed of micro-elements, glitches, bleeps, static, and electronic interference sounds. Their sound is extremely different than most of the music which has been called “minimal techno” (pretty much a completely meaningless term at this point) in the past 5 years or so. It is deep and experimental, but not without humor and funk.

We have been wanting to present a Raster-Noton label night at The Bunker ever since we saw the same line-up we have for this show in Mutek back in 2004, which completely floored us. For various reasons, we were never able to connect with the label and pull it off on their visits to the USA. Then, back in October, we were at a small Raster-Noton show for Bender and Kangding Ray and Bunker photographer Seze found a cell phone on the floor. She got a panicked call on the phone from the German guy who lost the phone and told him to come back to the venue and get it. He was extremely grateful and bought us a few drinks and started talking to us. He was in town for his opening at Pace Wildenstein Gallery (this is a blue chip gallery for those of you not familiar with the visual art world). We were in disbelief when we put 2 and 2 together and realized the cell phone guy was Carsten Nikolai, and quickly invited him and the rest of the crew to the Thomas Fehlmann show at The Bunker that week. Well, he showed up and had a great time, agreed to come back for a Raster-Noton showcase, and everything fell into place.

blurry photo by me, from the balcony.

I was lucky enough to see Spiritualized perform. Their songs brought tears to my eyes, must have been his voice, a reminder of endless adolescent listens to Spacemen 3.