Suleika Mueller
AYA at Heart of Noise: Sunday 05.06. 10:00 p.m. – Greenhouse Tower
Anyone who says Donaufestival and Elevate must also say Heart of Noise. Incidentally, also Unsafe + Sounds and Hyperreality. Lucky little country to have such a variety of interesting festivals. At the latter, the grandiose opening edition of Hyperreality under the new management of the SISTERS association, a concert highlight of the year happened a few days ago in Vienna, which will now also come via Innsbruck on the first weekend in June, namely the performance of Aya.
It’s almost impossible to describe Aya’s music in a few words in a meaningful way. In her head, the North Briton seems to be building houses, entire bridges, towers, winding structures of rhythm, beat constructs of the utmost complexity, only to collapse them the next moment, fold them together and stretch them out once more, like twisting a finger (removing the thread ) or with the convertible children’s play set consisting of chopsticks and magnetic balls. The way Aya’s head thinks up and transforms these rhythm constructs in a matter of seconds is breathtaking, but then there are also her improvised announcements over the microphone, in deepest Mancunian, crowd surfing, jumping into the crowd, crawling on the floor, dancing on the DJ booth, her wit and charm.
Live, Aya’s set is extremely danceable and much less abstract than on her very good debut album “Im hole”, which was released on Hyperdub in autumn. Great recommendation!
Under this year’s motto “Love Action”, much, much more is happening at the Heart of Noise on the first weekend in June, more precisely 34 program items at 10 events at 4 venues. Created as a headliner, for example Mouse on Mars beat-tinkering science fiction pop with the help of an AI, Drill & the Club of Gore design their jazzy, melancholic soundscapes in the direction of Doom or Ambient and The Bug feat. Flowdan presents his latest, bloodcurdling album “Fire”, a partial adaptation of the Grenfell Tower fire in London five years ago: dubstep and dancehall from the Hellmouth as flamethrowers once morest the unbearable present.
The trio PLFconsisting of Peter Kutin, Lukas König and Freya Edmondes aka Elvin Brandhi – the first letters of their first names form the band name – combines guitar feedback loops, explosive rhythm motifs and Freya’s exuberant, brutal vocal improvisations into a noisy, changeable kind of pop music, and the new Star in the cyber sky of local club music, Kenji Arajipresents his freshly pressed debut album, just released on Affine Records.
And then some. The epitome of dancefloor genre bender (think: gqom plus whalesong, rave, dancehall, dub and church bells), the Dutch icon of eclecticism DJ Marcelle travels to Innsbruck as well DJ Diaki from Mali, from the environment of the always good Nyege Nyege label, which DJ Marcelle calls the “Discovery of the Century” according to the program: breakneck footwork, high-speed drumrolls, sirens, confetti.
There is also an exhibition of the artist in the RFDI at the Landestheater Carmen Brucic and an accompanying performance by various artists from the legendary Tbilisi club “Bassiani”a dance performance at Brux/Freies Theater Innsbruck called „melted snow & rising heroes“, and much, much more. Anyone who knows the Heart of Noise knows that, above all, it has an audience that it can rely on: friendly and enthusiastic, the people trust their festival and take part in every musical journey. Great recommendation!