When two acclaimed artists in the D&B space decides to do something new and unexpected why not turn to minimal techno. The Berlin based label Horo has announced a new project called Ourea featuring Lemna (Maiko Okimoto) and Sam KDC (Samuel Wood).
Lemna, the alias of Tokyo-based producer Maiko Okimoto, is a regular at underground clubs in Japan. Since she only performs live and never DJs, her rhythmically experimental techno infused shows have become art-forms in themselves. During her teenage years, while being involved in several bands as a vocalist and guitarist, she immersed herself in music production and audio engineering. She soon became hooked on D&B and started her career as Key MC in 2006. The she began performing regularly in various parties in Tokyo and hosting “Human Elements”. She is also known as a singer and has worked with producers like Naibu, Heavy1, Ena, Velocity, and Hidden Turn. Recently, Okimoto began a new project, Lemna. Focused on leftfield techno, her live show will premiere in Berlin’s monolithic Kraftwerk building as part of Berlin Atonal later this year.
Sam KDC has been producing music since 2002 as Sam KDC, he has grown into one of electronic music’s most passionate developers of the outer edge. Most of his recorded work operates around 170 / 85 bpm but you would be mistaken to limit his music by tying it to any current sub genre. Recording primarily for ASC’s Auxiliary label and the Samurai labels, Sam has also been an integral part of the Grey Area label and sound, a creative musical pathway that ties a musical bridge between 85 and 128 bpm with crafty polyrhythms.
As further evidence of his versatility, his debut LP ‘Late Night Innominate’ Vol 1 was an entirely ambient long player which found favour across the electronic music world for its emotive power.
Okimoto and Wood’s EP together is entitled ‘Ourea I’, due for release August 25. The release is littered with shuffled poly-rhythms and showcases the razor-sharp production those who have spent some time working with fast-paced dance music seem to master better than anyone. ‘Deception at Mekone’ rumbles beneath quivering metallic textures while ‘Dysnomia’ clatters forth, blackened atmospherics undulating beneath contorted rhythms and UFO modulations.
Horo states: “Together Lemna and Sam KDC are Ourea, and Ourea I is an amalgamation of their two very singular approaches to electronic music. Polyrhythmic experimental techno with tribal rhythms that often operate at two different tempo’s at the same time, Ourea I is deceptive in it’s percussive shapeshifting, but strongly effective in the hands of the right DJ.”
ATONAL IN BERLIN
As mentioned Lemna will perform live at the upcoming Atonal fest in Berlin and in case you have missed it here’s some additional info on what you can expect.
Berlin Atonal returns this summer for the fifth edition of its modern era, inviting over 100 musicians, sound and visual artists, performers and DJs for its five day stretch between the 16.–20. August. As the first festival tickets go on sale, Berlin Atonal begins to unfold the covers on its 2017 performance programme with an initial announcement of 10 world premiere live shows, as well as a special opening night concert.
ALTAR is the surprising result of the new collaboration between Roly Porter and Paul Jebanasam. Based on a performance of ritual system music, Berlin Atonal 2017 will provide the first look at this new project uniting the creative and technical capacities of two of contemporary music’s most powerful composers. Another premiere show sees Atonal regular and electronic music enfant terrible Powell on stage performing with Turner prize winning artist Wolfgang Tillmans. The two artists have been collaborating on music which will reach ears for the first time in this live A/V show.
Chinese performance artist and composer Pan Daijing will debut her extraordinary new work entitledFist Piece, a composed live act focusing on voice and the relationship between bodies. Equally ambitious is the new live performance conceived by Swedish duo Roll the Dice. Consisting of Peder Mannerfelt and Malcolm Pardon, this theatrical and unconventional show cements the group as the spearhead of a fractured type of future basement jazz.
OKTOPHONIE is the 8-channel spatial acousmatic piece composed by Karlheinz Stockhausen as part of his monumenta opera cycle LICHT. According to the octophonic system Stockhausen conceptualised the electronic sounds (meant to represent the chaotic soundfield of modern warfare) exist in three dimensional space, with the audience listening inside a “cube of sound”. Berlin Atonal recreates Stockhausen’s octophonic set-up on its opening night for a presentation of OKTOPHONIE projected by long time Stockhausen collaborator and director of the Stockhausen Foundation for Music, Kathinka Pasveer. Contemporary composers will also be invited to create new works for the bespoke system, with further details to be released in forthcoming announcements.
Another new collaboration sees live-coding mastermind Renick Bell and expert sound-designer Fis link up in search of next-level sonic happenings. Starting with an injection of Fis’ gastric, sinuous sound into the cutting-edge expressive and compositional power of Bell’s live-coded algorithms, their performance plays on apparent distinctions between their live modalities. Puce Mary is the solo moniker of Copenhagen based noisenik Frederikke Hoffmeier. Since 2013 she has been invigorating industrial and noise music through the exquisite power of her releases on Posh Isolation and, especially, her transfixing live shows. For Berlin Atonal 2017 she has prepared a brand new live performance entitled A Feast Before the Drought.
Inga Mauer, who before now has better been known as the irrepressible and surprising DJ who honed her craft at Stackenschneider in St. Petersburg, has now turned her instinctive taste for industrial, EBM and new wave music into a first live show. Elusive producer Abul Mogard also prepares his first ever live show. With an origin story as enigmatic as the music itself, Mogard’s torturously moving tracks have caught the attention of many of the music industry’s biggest names, with a rich and strange beauty rarely found in contemporary electronic music. Sophie Schnell (aka PYUR) joins the lineup with her newest musical venture Oratorio for the Underworld – striking a balance between familiarity and an all-consuming immensity, particularly when heard on a full range sound system.
Lemna, the alias of Tokyo-based producer Maiko Okimoto, is a regular at underground clubs in Japan. Since she only performs live and never DJs, her rhythmically experimental techno infused shows have become artforms in themselves. A debut LP for Horo and the premiere live show at Berlin Atonal 2017 will propel Lemna out of the Tanizakian shadows into the international experimental music consciousness.
Event ticket information
Festival Passports are €115 and are now on sale via the Berlin Atonal website. 2017 Berlin Atonal Festival Passports allow full entry into the Kraftwerk complex for the duration of the festival (August 16 – 20), including aftershow parties. Single-day tickets, as well as further program announcements will be released on June 20.
For additional information visit the Berlin Atonal event website.