117 Chironians & Hydras all over the place

HÜMA UTKU (TUR / GER, live set) ///
JULIA JUST (AUT, live set) ///
CAPTAIN MÄNDY & CONTAINA // DIE HYDRA (AUT, dj set) ///

Fr, 24 Novem­ber 2023, 8.30 pm ///
Wirtshaus zur Schießhalle, Waldeg­gstraße 116, Linz ///_

This evening it’s all about the right amount of Bum­Bum. Some­times, as with Hüma Utku, this Bum­Bum comes across as a com­plex struc­ture to enable an arche­typ­al expe­ri­ence in C. G. Jung’s sense, which trans­forms field record­ings, acoustic instru­ments and atmos­pher­ic ambi­ence into tran­scen­dent har­mon­ic noise and raw rit­u­al rhythms. Oth­er times the Bum­Bum booms through the room as Julia Just mix­es haunt­ing drones with pul­sat­ing, creak­ing and rever­ber­at­ing noise to ham­mer her musi­cal style between post-indus­tri­al, dark ambi­ent and elec­tro-acoustic music into the souls of the audi­to­ri­um. And then there’s this Bum­Bum, with which Cap­tain Mändy & Con­taina from Hydra trans­form the dance floor into a slide in best (club) man­ner, because the sweat flows in streams. Wirtshaus zur Schießhalle is the place to expe­ri­ence it all on 24 Novem­ber — embed­ded in the d*sign week 2023 orga­nized by Pota­to Pub­lish­ing and servus.at, which takes place from 21 to 26 Novem­ber (pro­gramme at dsignweek.servus.at).

Tick­ets: pre-sale 12 Euros / box office 15 Euros / pre-sale via KUPFticket.com

humautku.com
soundcloud.com/jul_just
holyhydra.at

Hail­ing from Istan­bul, the Berlin based elec­tron­ic music com­pos­er and sound artist HÜMA UTKU explores the pos­si­bil­i­ties of how sound tex­tures and rhythm can be used to evoke a sense of ancient with­in advanced elec­tron­ic music. With an over­all dis­re­gard for gen­res she fus­es field record­ings, acoustic instru­ments, atmos­pher­ic ambi­ence into har­mo­nious noise and harsh rit­u­al­is­tic rhythms as means to uti­lize sound and music as tools for sto­ry­telling. Com­bin­ing her prac­tice of music with her stud­ies in psy­chol­o­gy Utku’s works draw inspi­ra­tion from human con­di­tion, mys­ti­cism and folklore.

In August 2018 “Şeb‑i Yel­da” was released by Karl Records, which pre­sent­ed Utku (as R.A.N.) with an evolved sound and strong theme to a wide audi­ence. Fol­low­ing the inter­na­tion­al suc­cess of her EP, she released her debut full-length album under her own name Gno­sis in July 2019 via the same label. This release gained Utku recog­ni­tion for her unique approach of cre­at­ing son­ic sto­ry plots by merg­ing con­cepts with exper­i­ments in elec­tron­ic music. Her sopho­more album “The Psy­chol­o­gist” was released on Edi­tions Mego in May 2022. This album has been cit­ed as Utku’s most ambi­tious, authen­tic and com­plex work yet in which her back­ground in psy­chol­o­gy and her cur­rent prac­tice as a con­cep­tu­al music com­pos­er are intertwined.

Since 2016, Utku has pre­sent­ed her work in fes­ti­vals and insti­tu­tions includ­ing Berlin Aton­al, CTM Club Trans­me­di­ale Fes­ti­val Berlin, Haus der Kul­turen der Welt in Berlin, Radi­al­sys­tem in Berlin, Salon IKSV in Istan­bul, Donaufes­ti­val in Krems, Musikpro­tokoll in Graz, Son­ic Acts Bien­nale in Ams­ter­dam, Lunch­meat Fes­ti­val in Prague, Insom­nia Fes­ti­val in Trom­sø and many oth­ers. Her work has received notable press from plat­forms such as The Wire, Noisey, Rolling Stone, Red­bull Music, Groove Mag, Gonzo Cir­cus, Bant­Mag, Scene Noise among oth­ers, as well as get­ting broad­cast­ed by sem­i­nal radio sta­tion and plat­forms such as BBC Radio 3, ORF, TRT, NTS radio, RAI 3, Res­o­nance FM, YLE and Sveriges Radio. In 2021, Utku was select­ed as a SHAPE artist (Sound, Het­ero­ge­neous Art and Per­for­mance in Europe).

Julia Just’s work explores the idio­syn­crat­ic elec­tron­ic sound­world of haunt­ed drones, puls­es, creaks, and rever­ber­a­tions. The Vien­na-based artist deploys field record­ings along­side gran­u­lar syn­the­sis and var­i­ous dig­i­tal FX chains via a mod­u­lar set­up – but the result is con­sis­tent­ly sur­pris­ing and mired in a deep sense of dark­ness. Abstract jour­neys from the inter­sec­tion of post-indus­tri­al, dark-ambi­ent and elec­troa­coustic music.
Her lat­est appear­ances include Unsafe+Sounds Fes­ti­val, Son­ic Ter­ri­to­ries Fes­ti­val, Venster99, l i c c h t and Château Rouge (all in Vien­na).

Lore­na Höll­rigl and Aman­da Augustin are part of the Linz-based art & cul­tur­al ini­tia­tive Hydra. The many-head­ed crea­ture fights day and night for the sub­cul­ture in Linz and all over the world. Hydra’s home­base is at Raumteil­er Linz and once a year the col­lec­tive is curat­ing and pro­gram­ming an event called Holy Hydra at a church in Linz. As Cap­tain Mändy & Con­taina, the two deliv­er DJ sets between spher­i­cal sounds and hard beats, always with a dig­ni­fied lev­el of bumbum.

Pho­tos: Johan­na Schwaiger