The 67th edition of the Venice Music Biennale, aka the International Festival of Contemporary Music, runs from 16 to 29 October 2023. Titled ‘Micro-Music’, the event is dedicated to digital sound; its complexity and beauty, and the new compositional possibilities it brings.
Invited artists from all around the world will come together at the event to captivate audiences with their digital musical masterpieces. We’ve scoured the programme to get an idea of what to expect from the festival – here are five unique artists and music performances that have caught our attention…
NERO’s Night – Loraine James, Kode9 and NERO
‘NERO’s Night’ will feature all the sounds that define electronic dance music: think house, techno and club music in its infinite glory. All the artists in this performance hail from Britain. First up is NERO, a dubstep trio, who will deliver a carefully curated selection of tracks that connect dance music and avant-garde sounds. Musician Loraine James will give a live performance based on experimental sounds, followed by a DJ set from Kode9, an electronic music artist inspired by the ‘hardcore continuum’ of British dance music (jungle, grime, dubstep and drum and bass).
Kali Malone – Trinity Form
Kali Malone is an American composer, sound artist and organist based in Stockholm. She works a lot with pipe organs, and her performance ‘Trinity Form’ has been composed and conceived specifically for the church of San Pietro di Castello. Malone herself will play the church’s pipe organ with Lucy Railton on cello and Stephen O’Malley on acoustic guitar (two artists Malone has collaborated with previously for her piece ‘Does Spring Hide Its Joy’).
Brian Eno – Ships
British musician, composer, producer and visual artist Brian Eno will receive the Golden Lion Award for lifetime achievement at the Venice Music Biennale 2023. Over the course of Eno’s career, he’s helped top artists like David Bowie, Coldplay and U2 define and reinvent their sound. At the festival, he’ll present his project ‘Ships’ in a performance featuring the Baltic Sea Philharmonic orchestra.
Francesca Verunelli – Songs&Voices
Francesca Verunelli is an award-winning Italian composer set to premiere her expansive musical masterpiece ‘Songs&Voices’, a composition which explores the absence of song and illuminates the vibrant, vivid silence of an imaginary singer’s echo. This musical journey unfolds between two extremes, between absence and presence, the interplay of song without voice and voice without song.
Robert Henke – CBM 8032 AV
A digital artist from Germany, Robert Henke writes code and builds hardware to craft music, audiovisual installations and computer graphics. He’ll present his project ‘CBM 8032 AV’, a digital artwork and audiovisual performance. It will allow the audience to focus on the interaction between a simple technical structure and the artistic concepts evoked via a dialogue with limitations.
The complete programme for the Venice Music Biennale 2023 can be found here. For more articles about what’s going on in the world of arts and culture, check out our Journal. There, you’ll also find some great reads for music entrepreneurs. Start with ten tools for artists or musicians that’ll shape your sound or how to market your music (and find your groove).