By Chesney Hearst, Senior Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – For its ninth uninterrupted edition, the Festival Multiplicidade will continue to spotlight the future of creative technology use in audio and visual performances. The festival will take place on Thursday, August 29th at Oi Futuro Flamengo and will include digital activities for younger attendees, a book launch and two special guest performers.
The main attractions are set to be the German electronic music pioneer Atom™ and American electronic musician Daedelus, who will release his giant robotic mirror sculpture known as Archimedes.
“If I had to chose one thread for the artistic contents selected for 2013 I would call it ‘tridimensional shuffling’,” said curator Batman Zavareze. “It would be a scrambling of ‘inputs’, a mixing of languages and risks taken in pursuit of what is new.”
This year the festival will begin on the first floor of Oi Futuro Flamengo at 4PM with “Multi_KIDS”, a youth program with various digital activities to entertain, inspire and educate the younger attendees of the festival known as “Generation Z”.
At 8PM in Oi Futuro’s theater, Atom™, born Uwe Schmidt, will begin his HD performance. Considered the father of of electrolatino and aciton (also known as acid-reggaeton) music, the German composer, producer and electronic musician began making music in the early 80s and has been credited under many names in numerous projects.
In his career Schmidt he has also remixed and collaborated with a wide variety artists including Depeche Mode, Air, Towa Tei, Fernanda Takai, and Ryuichi Sakamoto. His show on Thursday will be an audiovisual exploration of the musical aesthetics between man and machine with a musical mix that includes classic 80s electronic sounds, works from today and many things in between.
In Oi Futuro Flamengo’s outdoor patio beginning at 9PM, American electronic artist Daedelus will begin his show. Born Alfred Darlington, the artist explained his moniker to The Rio Times by saying:
“Daedelus as my alias is from ancient Greek mythology, as the greatest inventor of his age Daedalus is credited with many wondrous creations including waxen wings, but he also is cursed with a hand in his son Icarus’ death amongst other ills.”
“Such a mythical life full of ups and downs gives one lots to write about… A kind of Saudade [longing] right? Even if that life and mine are different there are many places I can relate all too much,” he shared.
Daedelus has numerous creations to his name with twelve albums released since he began his career as an electronic musician in 2001. A 13th entitled, Drown Out is scheduled for release on September 17th.
During the show on Thursday, Daedelus will perform with Archimedes, a 10ft tall by 19ft wide wall of robotic mirrors that Daedelus created with the help of visual artist Emmanuel Biard and engineer David Leonard. Controlled during the upcoming show by an operator, the mirror panels will twist and rotate in connection with the music.
Daedelus uses Monome interface devices to create and control his musical creations during performances. He met the line of devices’ creator Brian Crabtree in 2003 during prototyping and said of the meeting:
“I feel very fortunate. It changed the entire course of my musical career to find someone who was creating an instrument that I really felt that I could express myself on and now others have as well. It’s incredible. It’s rare.”
Trained in classical music on bass clarinet and the double bass in his youth. Daedelus became a fan of jazz and then world music which eventually lead him to discover Brazilian music. In 2006 he tried to capture the country’s energies in his Denies The Day’s Demise album.
“I’m so incredibly flabbergasted that I’m able to present this show in Rio because [Archimedes] hasn’t traveled that much. It’s huge,” said Daedelus who is bringing the robotic structure for the first time to the city. He last performed in Rio in 2007 and in São Paulo on Sunday, August 25th.
What: Festival Multiplicidade
with Atom™ and Daedelus
When: Thursday, August 29th, 4PM until 10PM
Where: Oi Futuro Flamengo, Rua Dois de Dezembro, 63 – Flamengo
Tickets: Theater R$20 (R$10 half-price for students)
Available at the Oi Futuro Flamengo box office and online at Ticket Fast