| Info |  |
Netaudio London Festival | ||||||||||||
| |
 Netaudio '06 was the London instalment of the Netaudio festivals, following Netaudio '05 in Berne and Netaudio V2.05 in Cologne, and spanned two days (15-16th September). Netaudio '06 itself was / is a non-profit venture organised by Cenatus Music Projects, as well as many partners and participants, and took place at the Candid Arts Centre in Angel, an accessible venue with enough space to support the activities throughout the weekend. The basement was used as a performance space, whilst upstairs included an installation and the ground floor held coffee table discussions. The night-time sessions took place at Electrowerkz, a club in the same building.  Some major netlabels were represented by artists who have work on Camomille, OpenLab Records, 1bit Wonder, no-response.org, after-dinner, Hippocamp and many more: read the full programme links to all the artists. For more resources on the event, www.netaudiolondon.cc is a mine of information, with articles and links about event. There's also a great Flickr pool. The performances in the basement throughout the day formed a key part of the event. Most of the performances had accompanying visuals, and the turnout varied depending on the popularity of other activities within the festival. Planet Boelex played an excellent set, which you can download. Gagarin's set was also notable, and relatively unique as he played mostly away from a laptop using a drum pad with his hands moving at a pace that drew onlookers closer as the set went on. The Hyperlanguage live installation housed upstairs was a surprise to wander into. The lighting, layout and atmosphere somehow encouraged the audience to explore what the performers were doing, so as I walked around I naturally checked out their laptop screens. What made the installation interesting was the interaction between the performers and it was obvious they were working together, producing abstract and sometimes challenging music, but it was hard to see how.  The evening saw laptop sets played live within Electrowerkz, replete with faux-militerary stylings and projected visuals. During the start of the night a few technical glitches didn't prevent the musicians from playing, and the atmosphere was no different from a typical (albeit underground) club night. The visuals were strong, better than most London clubs I've been to, and the performances varied. I expected more people to dance, and wondered if they were warn out by the day's activities—but I expect future events might promote tickets for the evening designed for a broader audience as well as the attending netaudio community. As well as performances, the event featured an education and exchange programme. This aimed to provide resources for learning about the technical sides of music production and exploring the cultural impact of netaudio, through workshops and coffee table discussions. I took part in a coffee table discussion on free culture, hosted by Andrea Rota and Jonas Andersson. The discussion was relaxed and informal, and the hosts managed to keep it on topic. The major themes covered the quality of free culture, monetisation (whether through taxes or license fees), web 2.0, the popularity of broadband, and the meaning of the term "network" as applied to free culture. The discussions were great ice-breakers: they encouraged attendees to talk to each other, share ideas and explore the cultural phenomenons relating to netlabels.  Netaudio 06 seeks to bring the netaudio community together, primarily inolving activists, academics and musicians. Ultimately, this meant that many attendees were taking part or performing at the festival, which created a great community atmosphere. The event was also excellently organised, which made it feel both open and professional. The performances were well hosted for the most part, with a lot of thought put into visuals and supporting the artists' needs. The fact the Netaudio festivals exist pushes netaudio further into the mainstream and supports the existing community, making Netaudio '06 both encouraging event and worth attending in the future. Photographs by Netaudio London Banner image by Alex Young Review by Alex Young
|
|
|||||||||||
