• Thu 11 04 2019 •
In Between Spaces Mediterranean Crossings

With concerts by ETHIOPIAN RECORDS & AZMARI SYNTHESIS, STILL "GOVERMENT" feat DEVON & FREWEINI (live av) and the film NEGUS (Regie: INVERNOMUTO)

20:00

Venue: Stadtgarten, Venloer Straße 40, 50672 Köln
In English language
12€ / 8€ (reduced)


A cooperation of ZAM Zentrum für Aktuelle Musik e.V. with Akademie der Künste der Welt/Köln and the Europäischen Zentrum für Jazz und Aktuelle Musik im Stadtgarten.
Curated by Thomas Gläßer.



The first edition of IN BETWEEN SPACES: Mediterranean Crossings - explores the Mediterranean as connection and fluid border between Africa and Europe. Concerts and a sonic lecture, films, talks and discussions address colonial history and the current state of the EU’s border regime, cross-cultural connections and future perspectives.

Negus, a conceptual documentary by Italian duo INVERNOMUTO starring Lee 'Scratch' Perry, explores the convergence of history, myth and magic through the complex and competing legacies of Ethiopia’s last emperor Haile Selassie I. In Italy during the fascist rule of Mussolini, Selassie was portrayed as a black devil, justifying Italy’s atrocious invasion and occupation of Ethiopia. During the same period the religion of Rastafarianism emerged in Jamaica and claimed Selassie as their living God and as black Christ resurrected. Negus is powered from the void between these two irreconcilable realities.

The evening is opened by AZMARI SYNTHESIS, the new project of musician and producer ETHIOPIAN RECORDS which mixes his electronics with the traditional Ethiopian instruments masinqo, washint and kebero. A pivotal figure of the experimental electronic scene in Addis Ababa, he creates an exciting hybrid music with traces from Ethio-Jazz stalwarts Hailu Mergia and Mulatu Astatke to Mala or J Dilla.

In his experimental dub project STILL (“I”, PAN, 2018), Simone Trabucchi conveys the research threads to Ethiopia and Jamaica emerging in “Negus”: Using the medium of language, the record is multi-layered with meanings contemplating the historical weight of words. Between the sonic and semantic layers of the project, a dense resonance between the past and the present emerges, a tapestry of computerized riddims, deep bass and the polyphonic voices of several African-Italian MCs.


Presented by WDR COSMO & Stadtrevue

Funded by the TURN fund of the German Federal Cultural Foundation