Dutch promoter and report label Dekmantel return to ship their flagship occasion to Amsterdam for Dekmantel Competition’s eleventh version, going down from July thirtieth to August third on the wooded Amsterdam Bos, and different particular areas throughout Amsterdam.
Presenting one other fastidiously curated choice that balances heritage acts with rising expertise in underground music, the Dekmantel 2025 lineup boasts a powerful billing exceeding 150 artists. Forward of this yr’s occasion, these six performances certainly warrant blockading your busy competition schedule for.
Moritz Von Oswald presents ‘Silencio’
The Efficiency: Dekmantel’s opening live performance takes place in Amsterdam’s Thirteenth-century Oude Kerk, that includes an unique presentation of Moritz Von Oswald’s groundbreaking Silencio mission with a 16-voice choir.
Why This Issues: The Primary Channel founder has developed a singular mission with Silencio, exploring the connection between human and synthetic sound. Working with Vocalconsort Berlin, Von Oswald examines “the variations and similarities between oscillations generated by vocal cords and synthesiser voices.”
The method concerned Von Oswald composing items in his Berlin studio utilizing traditional synths (EMS VCS3, Prophet V, Moog Mannequin 15), which have been transcribed into choral notation by Finnish composer Jarkko Riihimäki. The choir recordings have been then reintegrated into the digital framework, creating dialogue between natural and artificial components.
Drawing from composers like Varèse, Ligeti, and Xenakis, Silencio positions digital music inside up to date classical traditions. The Oude Kerk setting ought to present applicable acoustics for any such experimental work.
Richie Hawtin DEX EFX X0X
The Efficiency: The techno pioneer presents his newest dwell idea, a radical evolution of his groundbreaking ‘Decks, EFX & 909’ mission.
Why This Issues: Richie Hawtin’s newest mission takes a intentionally stripped-back strategy to dwell digital efficiency. Relatively than counting on visible components, DEX EFX X0X focuses totally on sound and lighting design.
The idea builds on Hawtin’s earlier Decks, EFX & 909 work, the place he modified data with results whereas incorporating TR-909 percussion. This up to date model emphasizes improvisation: “Shifting away from exhibits giving precedence to picture slightly than sound, DEX EFX X0X brings the viewers again into an immersive sound and lighting expertise.”
The improvised nature means every efficiency develops in a different way, with Hawtin utilizing fashionable know-how to create what he describes as “a singular sonic narrative.” Following shows at Motion Detroit and Sónar Barcelona, the Dekmantel efficiency continues this touring idea.
Jeff Mills Cinemix of Metropolis
The Efficiency: The Detroit techno legend performs his third interpretation of Fritz Lang’s 1927 dystopian masterpiece Metropolis at EYE Movie Museum.
Why This Issues: Jeff Mills has been creating soundtracks to Fritz Lang’s 1927 movie for over twenty years, with this marking his third interpretation. His strategy treats the visible and audio components as interconnected: “To me, the visible rhythm of Metropolis is just like the best way music is considered by a DJ.”
This newest model, developed since 2023, focuses on “the imaginative and prescient of the machines,” providing Mills’ perspective on the movie’s technological themes. The efficiency combines dwell digital music with the restored silent movie, creating a recent soundtrack for Lang’s futuristic narrative.
The EYE Movie Museum setting gives an applicable cinema surroundings for any such audio-visual presentation, the place Mills can synchronize his techno compositions with the movie’s visible rhythm.
B12 Current Electro-Soma
The Efficiency: British digital music duo Mike Golding and Steve Rutter carry out materials from their legendary 1993 debut album, the fourth launch in Warp’s seminal Synthetic Intelligence collection.
Why This Issues: B12’s Electro-Soma serves as a key doc of early UK digital music, demonstrating how British producers interpreted Detroit techno influences. Mike Golding and Steve Rutter initially launched this materials beneath varied pseudonyms (Musicology, Redcell, Cmetric) earlier than Warp compiled it for his or her Synthetic Intelligence collection.
The duo’s strategy mixed Detroit’s melodic sensibilities with extra complicated programming and strange time signatures. Their mysterious presentation (restricted pressings with cryptic etchings, minimal interviews) led many to imagine they have been Detroit natives, highlighting their genuine interpretation of Motor Metropolis sounds.
Tracks like “Obsessed” and “Metropolis” showcase their potential to stability emotional depth with technical precision, creating music that works each for house listening and membership environments. The fabric has confirmed influential for subsequent generations of digital producers.
Polygonia Presents: Dream Horizons Dwell
The Efficiency: Munich-based multidisciplinary artist Lindsey Wang, AKA Polygonia, debuts an unique dwell rendition of her newest album Dream Horizons, launched on Dekmantel Information.
Why This Issues: Polygonia operates on the intersection of a number of digital genres, shifting between ambient and deep techno whereas incorporating downtempo and experimental components. Wang approaches her compositions as a multi-instrumentalist, recording her personal voice, saxophone, flute, violin and percussion alongside digital manufacturing.
Dream Horizons presents twelve distinct compositions, every exploring completely different atmospheric territories. Tracks like “Gate To Amygdala” keep away from standard techno buildings in favour of tension-based sound design, whereas “Mindfunk” employs intentionally off-kilter rhythmic patterns.
The dwell format permits Wang to exhibit her multi-instrumental capabilities inside an digital framework, showcasing an strategy that extends past typical DJ units or laptop computer performances.
WSNWG (Rødhåd & Fadi Mohem & JakoJako)
The Efficiency: Three of Berlin’s most revered techno artists unite for a completely improvised dwell set, representing the innovative of up to date European digital music.
Why This Issues: This collaboration brings collectively three established figures from Berlin’s techno scene for an improvised efficiency. Rødhåd is thought for his prolonged atmospheric units, whereas JakoJako brings experimental components to the combination. Fadi Mohem contributes his strategy to loop-based compositions, as heard on their WSNWG008 EP.
The improvised format means the efficiency will develop organically, with every artist contributing their particular person type to a collective dwell composition. Earlier collaborations between varied pairs throughout the trio (corresponding to JakoJako and Rødhåd’s “In Vere”) counsel they already work fairly nicely collectively in smaller configurations.
Their shared curiosity in deeper, extra spacious techno varieties ought to translate successfully to Dekmantel’s out of doors forest surroundings, the place prolonged units and affected person set growth are inclined to all the time land exceedingly nicely.
These performances exhibit Dekmantel’s continued concentrate on artists who push digital music past standard membership codecs. Von Oswald’s choral integration, Polygonia’s multi-instrumental strategy, Hawtin’s technology-focused minimalism, Mills’ cinematic scoring, B12’s historic significance, and WSNWG’s collaborative improvisation every symbolize completely different approaches to increasing digital music’s prospects.
The number of venues, from Amsterdam’s medieval church buildings to the competition’s forest setting, gives applicable contexts for these numerous shows. Every efficiency gives one thing distinct, whether or not by means of technological innovation, collaborative course of, or historic perspective.
Dekmantel Competition 2025 takes place July 30 to August 3 throughout Amsterdam venues and Amsterdamse Bos.
Join with Dekmantel: Instagram | Twitter | YouTube | Spotify | Web site