International festival for avant-garde jazz & vibrant experimental music since 2012. An event by Louis Rastig and Karina Mertin/ABOUTNOW. In cooperation with Radialsystem. Funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe. With support from the Royal Norwegian Embassy and the Japanese Cultural Institute.
Ticket Presale at: alarmefestival.de

TEASER

Five minutes to twelve. An era is coming to an end. A L'ARME! celebrates its last edition, the finale, with Vol. XII. For over a decade, the festival has opened up new perspectives on jazz and experimental music, enabled unimagined collaborations and shaped a generation of listeners. These achievements will outlive the festival. A L'ARME! disappears to stay. In memory. As an attitude. As a space of possibility. Since 2012, the festival has been a focal point for current trends and an amplifier of contrasts. The vision of its creators Karina Mertin and Louis Rastig has made it an international reference point for transdisciplinary improvisation; with a program of music, art and performance that captures the spirit of the times and anticipates developments. The 2023 Award for Adventurous Programming presented by the Europe Jazz Network is just the latest proof of the festival's appeal far beyond Berlin. The last chapter begins on August 8 at the Radialsystem, directly on the Spree. It tells of encounters, development, transgression and change. Keiji Haino stands for the festival's special practice of presenting artists in various constellations from different perspectives: He plays two performances at the finale, once accompanied by baritone sax and drums, once as a soloist on guitar and microphone. Caspar Brötzmann and Farida Amadou continue the tradition of artistic first encounters with an electric bass summit meeting. Greats such as Mette Rasmussen and Paal Nilssen-Love, who have become A-L'ARME! residents over the years, can once again be experienced in new formations. The last evening is dedicated to Monika Döring, with a program full of innovation and energy in honor of the legendary concert organizer.

A L'ARME! is a testing ground for the possible, both aesthetically and socially. A festival for everything but the status quo and false securities. It pushes the boundaries between improvisation, experiment, noise and performance, only to dissolve them in the end. A L'ARME! is now doing the same with itself. Vol. XII, the finale, once again creates space for something new.

PROGRAM 2024

On the occasion of its final edition, the 2023 program spans an arc from black music to noise rock, A/V art and electronics to the latest varieties of what is commonly referred to as “creative music”. Plans include the latest, almost exclusively electronic live release “Antumbra” by the internationally sought-after Berlin avant-garde jazz musicians Christian Lillinger and Elias Stemeseder. The electro-acoustic formation “Ephemeral Fragments” by the non-binary electronic musician Korhan Erel from Berlin and the top improvisers Emily Wittbrodt and Florian Walter from Essen meet the Berlin A/V team Lena Czerniawska / Emilio Gordoa for the first time. After the venerable noise legend Keiji Haino from Tokyo had to turn down many festival offers in recent years due to the pandemic, the plan is to invite him back to Berlin on this special occasion for a first special musical encounter with sound artists living in Germany, as he will go on tour again for the first time in 2024. With this invitation, which will be supported by the Japanese Cultural Institute, we hope to close the circle for the finale in a particularly beautiful way, as Haino already honored our festival at the first edition in 2012. Other long-time companions of the festival are Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love and Berlin guitarist and bassist Caspar Brötzmann, who will share the Radialsystem stage with up-and-coming shooting stars such as Argentinian Berliner-by-choice and noise saxophonist Sofia Salvo, who presents a world premiere, or the Afro-American top drummer Savannah Harris from New York City, who forms the club-ready avant-garde jazz quartet “Økse” with the Haitian turntablist Val Jeanty, the exceptional Berlin bassist Petter Eldh and the Danish alto saxophonist Mette Rasmussen. The same applies to the Norwegian-German duo “Naaljos Ljom”, who have gained international recognition in recent years with their danceable update of “Nordic folk” in a microtonal context and will be hosting the after-show party for the long Saturday night. “I Like To Sleep” from Trondheim, on the other hand, is contemporary brute, semi-improvisational avant-garde rock for amplified vibraphone, baritone guitar and drums.

We dedicated the last day of the festival entirely to Berlin event organizer legend Monika Döring, who bid farewell to other spheres May 2nd this year and supported the festival for over a decade. To mark the occasion, Karina Mertin has curated a program with Monikas Berlin friends and favorite acts.

THURSDAY, August 08
doors 18:00 concert start 20:00

Set 1 Halle: LEILA BORDREUIL Solo
8:00 PM Leila Bordreuil (US)—cello, electronics

Leila Bordreuil is a Brooklyn-based cellist, composer and sound-artist from France. She accesses concepts as diverse as Noise, contemporary classical, free jazz, and experimental traditions but adheres to none of them. Her music mixes deep melancholia with harsh noisewalls at ear-bleeding levels, and was described by the New York Times as “steadily scathing music, favoring long and corrosive atonalities”. Driven by a fierce interest in pure sound and inherent texture, Leila challenges conventional cello practice through extreme extended techniques and unorthodox amplification methods, to the extent she sometimes seems to be playing the P.A system rather than the cello. Her compositions frequently incorporate sound spatialization by way of site-specific pieces and multichannel installations, and focus on neurological perception and our physiological relationship to sound and space.

http://www.leilabordreuil.com/about.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Npkqnl1Bx28&t=356s

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Set 2 Halle: NARR // STEIDLE + SAOU TV *Premiere
08:30 PM Steffi Narr (DE)—electric guitar
Oliver Steidle (DE)—drums
Saou TV (JP/DE)—live visuals
Leipzig guitarist Steffi Narr and well known Berlin drummer Oliver Steidle team up for this brand new Duo with powerful drumming and a growly guitar, the antithesis of kitch- free improvisation at its most dynamic and incisive. „You could feel the current of air forced from the basedrum over the molten rock guitar and dripping bellsounds.“ (Alison Bentley, London Jazz News)

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Set 3 Saal: STEMESEDER - LILLINGER: ANTUMBRA
09:30 PM Elias Stemeseder (AT/DE) — synthesizer, electronics Christian Lillinger (DE) — drums, electronics
STEMESEDER - LILLINGER is an electro-acoustic field of tension. Floating freely and without genre designations, the producer duo inhabits myriad border regions of contemporary music, focusing on sonic,compositional and thematic multidimensionality. With ANTUMBRA, the award-winning artists to expand their body of work. Procedural methods employed in their previous works PENUMBRA and UMBRA are revisited, newly assembled, integrated and expanded. Plucked, percussive and electronic instruments, references to sample culture, serialism or folk musics, and the elaborate post-production work imbue ANTUMBRA with its enormous richness of color, sonic saturation and utopian vision. To STEMESEDER - LILLINGER, ANTUMBRA (pre-shadow; from Latin ante, „before“, the region from which the occulting body appears entirely within the disc of the light source) is the realization of another visibility of what has not yet been shown and seen.

Set 5 Halle: HAINO / SALVO / NILSSEN-LOVE *Premiere
11:00 PM Keiji Haino (JP)—electric guitar, vocals
Sofía Salvo (AR/DE)—baritone saxophone
Paal Nilssen-Love (NO)—drums
http://www.sssalvo.wixsite.com/sofiasalvo
http://www.fushitsusha.com
www.paalnilssen-love.com

Deck: A L’ARME! OPEN AIR DECK — Spend your summer night here
6:00 PM—02:00 AM CASHMERE RADIO Live Show: PATTERN DISSECTION DJS
▪PUBLIC VIEWING A L’ARME! CONCERT FILMS
▪NATURAL ITALIAN WINE BAR by MEZZACANTINA
cashmereradio.com, patterndissection.org,
https://www.instagram.com/mezzacantina/

FRIDAY, August 09
doors 18:00 concert start 20:00

Set 1 Halle: ØKSE

08:00 PM Savannah Harris (US)—drums
Val Jeanty (US)—electronics
Mette Rasmussen (NO/DK)—alto saxophone
Petter Eldh (SE/DE)—double-bass, electric bass, electronics

Mette Rasmussen is Danish, but has had Trondheim as her base for several years. She always impresses with her rarely energetic playing! She demonstrates these qualities to the full in her recent project Økse. She and drummer Savannah Harris put this band together for the jazz festival in Saalfelden in 2022. Translated from Danish ax to English ax, a number of connotations arise: From ax - mankind's oldest tool - to ashe, which stands for the life force found in all things, the force that makes things happen and which flows through the music in suggestive rhythms and grooves . Savannah Harris is a New York-based drummer, producer and composer. She plays with, among others, Joel Ross, Christian McBride and Aaron Parks, in addition to a number of artists on the indie scene. Choose Jeanty works with electronics and turntables, in addition to being a composer, producer and professor at the renowned Berklee College of Music. She brings her background from Haiti into her music, and is known, among other things, as the originator of the electronic subgenre voodoo-electro. The bassist Peter Eldh originally comes from Sweden, but has been based in Berlin for the past ten years. He has an eclectic musical work that combines different genres and expressions, with jazz as a starting point. Koma Saxo, Gard Nilssen Acoustic Unity & Supersonic Orchestra are just some of the projects Petter Eldh is active in.

Set 2 Saal: EPHEMERAL FRAGMENTS & 1:∞ GORDOA -CZERNIAWSKA *Premiere

09:00 PM Korhan Erel (DE) — synthesizer, Florian Walter (DE) — tubax, Emily Wittbrodt (DE) — cello, Emilio Gordoa (MX/DE) — snare, electronics, Lena Czerniawska (PL/DE) — drawing
Ephemeral Fragments is an electro-acoustic improvisation trio based in Essen, Cologne and Berlin. Following their meeting at an ad hoc concert in 2019, Florian Walter, Emily Wittbrodt and Korhan Erel decided to build up on the common language they created during their first concert and embarked on a period of rehearsals, concerts and recording sessions throughout 2020. The three musicians, who are successfully and internationally active in multidisciplinary projects, contribute to the total sound by interpreting the potentials of their individual "home" genres, but without confining themselves in their respective borders. Their music is characterized by an enormous density of textures and depth in sound without wandering too far away from a solid sense of control and reduction.

https://florianwalter.yolasite.com/ephemeral-fragments.php
https://www.emiliogordoa.com
https://lenaczerniawska.weebly.com

Set 3 Halle: I LIKE TO SLEEP
10:00 PM Amund Storløkken Åse (NO)—vibraphone, electronics
Nicolas Leirtrø (NO)—baritone guitar
Øyvind Leite (NO)—drums
I LIKE TO SLEEP are a young and energetic powerjazz trio based in Trondheim. The trio were brought together by a common interest in modern jazz language, free improvisation and 70’s jazz/prog-rock, as well as a passion for energetic and extreme music. The product of these wide-ranging musical influences can now be experienced through the unique combination of vibraphone, baritone guitar and drums that is I LIKE TO SLEEP. They specialise in heavy riffs, extensive improvisation pushed to its limits, and well-written melodies – a style labelled “powerjazz to the people”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy03VawzPbc

Set 4 Halle: YEXXEN *Premiere
11:00 PM Sofía Salvo (AR/DE)—baritone saxophone
Claire Nico (CA/DE)—lap steel guitar
Guido Kohn (AR/DE)—electric bass
Bobby Glew (UK/DE)—drums, electronics

Born and raised in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina, but based in Berlin since 2019. Currently working on her first baritone solo material to be released on Relative Pitch Records. Her active projects include "Revuelta de ave" with Lorena Izquierdo, "Seriously? Wow", with Margaret Unknown and Guido Kohn, and "SSS,sss?S!!" with dancer Siri Salminen. Also a recent past project, "CATARAT" with Claire Nico, Helli Nova and Marta Masternak. She's also part of "Fallen Crooner" with Robert Lucaciu, Pascal Klewer, Shannon Barnett, Moritz Baumgaertner and Laura Totenhagen, and Christian Kuhn's "Kuhn Fu". As the alternative Berlin scene is a very important part of her life, she also co-curates "Revuelta Series" with Lorena Izquierdo, a mainly FLINTA* oriented concert series. Some of the festivals she played in Europe include Jazzwerkstatt Bern 2023 (Sola set), Leipziger Jazztage 2022 (with Chris Pitsiokos and Frank Gratkowski) and 2021 (with Fallen Crooner) and Pancevo Jazzfest 2022 (with Kuhn Fu).

https://sssalvo.wixsite.com/sofiasalvo
www.cuntroaches.bandcamp.com
www.guidokohn.wixsite.com/website
www.guttersnipe.bandcamp.com

Set 5 Saal: NAALJOS LJOM *Aftershow

00:00 AM Anders Hana (NO) — mouth harp, fiddle, Hardangerfiddle, langeleik
Morten Joh (NO) — analog synths, drum machine, Norwegian folk drum

Last year, Naaljos Ljom released their self-titled debut album, a bold reimagining of Norwegian folk music using contemporary electronic methods. If a local folk musician from 1820s had stepped into a time machine and materialized into the present day, listening to this album would certainly have caught their ear: the microtonality and rhythms are broadly similar, but the atmosphere is distinctly modern. The project is a collaboration between old friends Anders Hana and Morton Joh, who are well known for their work as MoHa! and as part of Oslo experimental metal vanguards Ultralyd. And while neither artist is well trained in traditional music, their background in noise and musique concréte provides them with enough ballast to shuttle archaic sounds into the digital age.

http://www.naaljosljom.bandcamp.com/album/naaljos-ljom-2

Deck: A L’ARME! OPEN AIR DECK — Spend your summer night here
6:00 PM—02:00 AM CASHMERE RADIO Live Show: PATTERN DISSECTION DJS

▪PUBLIC VIEWING A L’ARME! CONCERT FILMS

▪NATURAL ITALIAN WINE BAR by MEZZACANTINA

cashmereradio.com, patterndissection.org, https://www.instagram.com/mezzacantina/

SATURDAY, August 10

doors 18:00 concert start 19:00
LONG LIVE MONIKA! A NIGHT FOR MONIKA DÖRING, 05.03.1937— 02.05.2024

Set 1 Saal: hÄK/DANZEISEN
07:00 PM Bernd Nobert Wuertz (DE)—electronics
Philipp Danzeisen (DE)—drums
Set 2 Halle: KEIJI HAINO Solo
08:00 PM Keiji Haino (JP)—electric guitar, vocals

Born in Chiba on May 3, 1952. Inspired by Antonin Artaud, he aimed for the theatre, but an encounter with The Doors stimulated him into music, where he has examined and absorbed a wide range of expressions from the early blues, especially Blind Lemon Jefferson, or European medieval music to popular songs across the world. In 1970, he joined a group Lost Aaraaf named after Edgar Allan Poe’s poem as a vocalist. Meanwhile, he started to work on home recordings and learned the guitar and percussion autodidactically. In 1978, he formed a rock band Fushitsusha, and since 1988, after a recuperation period from 1983 to 1987, he has been internationally active in various forms including solo, groups such as Fushitsusha, Nijiumu, Aihiyo, Vajra, Sanhedrin, Seijaku, Nazoranai or The Hardy Rocks and DJ as “experimental mixture,” as well as in collaboration with artists from different backgrounds, drawing the performance of the guitar, percussion, hurdy gurdy, string instruments, wind instruments, local instruments from across the world and DJ gears to the extreme through idiosyncratic techniques. He has released more than 200 recordings and performed live at least 2,000 times.

http://www.fushitsusha.com
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Set 3 Halle: GUDRUN GUT (Monika Enterprise)
08:30 PM Gudrun Gut (DE)—electronics, voice
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Set 4 Saal: JOHANSSON / JELINEK
09:30 PM Sven-Åke Johansson (SE/DE)—percussion
Jan Jelinek (DE)—modular
Set 5 Halle: FRANK BRETSCHNEIDER (raster)
10:00 PM Frank Bretschneider (DE)—modular

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Set 6 Halle: BYETONE (raster)
10:30 PM Olaf Bender (DE)—modular AV *Premiere

Set 7 Halle: CASPAR BRÖTZMANN BASS TOTEM / AMADOU
11:00 PM Caspar Brötzmann (DE)—long scale electric bass, vocals
Farida Amadou (BE)—electric bass
https://faridamadou.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i1G5OCoQaY

Berlin-based CASPAR BRÖTZMANN is one of the most unique and innovative guitarists of the last forty years. With his trio Massaker he has pioneered an entirely new, autonomous approach to songwriting, merciless atmospheric pressure. For BASS TOTEM expect ultra-heavy riffs, unhinged beats, ominous vocals, and raw physicality. RELEASE of BASS TOTEM LP, get it on site!

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Set 8 Saal: GRISCHA LICHTENBERGER (raster)
00:00 AM Grischa Lichtenberger (DE)— electronics/AV
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Set 9 Saal: LIPPOK / GUTIERREZ AV

00:30 AM Robert Lippok (DE)—drum machines, computer
Lucas Gutierrez (AR)—visuals
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Sets 10/11/12 ELECTRIC INDIGO (female:pressure) / MIEKO SUZUKI
Saal: (raster, Morphine) / ARA (Kookoo)
01:00 AM Electric Indigo (AT) )—DJ Set
Mieko Suzuki (JP/DE)—Hybrid DJ Set
Ara (DE)—DJ Set

Don't miss the last dance on our after party! Lights will be low and spirits high as we vibe the Berlin way—together! With kickin' tunes, sparkles of light, and good drinks. Summer doesn't last forever.

Deck: A L’ARME! OPEN AIR DECK — Spend your summer night here
6:00 PM—02:00 AM CASHMERE RADIO Live Show: PATTERN DISSECTION DJS

▪PUBLIC VIEWING A L’ARME! CONCERT FILMS
▪NATURAL ITALIAN WINE BAR by MEZZACANTINA
cashmereradio.com, patterndissection.org,
https://www.instagram.com/mezzacantina/