When I met Max Cooper a couple of weeks ago (sorry the interview is only available in French), he told me he had a few regrets not being able to perform longer during the last Présences Electroniques Genève. And I thought instead of reminding you on how much this festival means to me, I’d quote this amazing artist to show you what an incredible experience it can be.
PEG is an experience of the perfect sound, played by sound artists (as this is how Pantha du Prince qualifies himself instead of a DJ) from all over the world.
This year, the festival will have 5 candles on its birthday cake. Which means a few gifts in store for us. The first gift is an additional day: last year, PEG lasted for 2 days, this year, we will enjoy 3 days from November 26th until the 28th.
In 2014, we went back and forth between the Bâtiment des Forces Motrices to the Zoo but in a few weeks, two additional venues will be added to the festival. The Centre d’Arts for a conference given by the actual director of the GRM on the history of sound and space. The GRM was founded in 1958 and gave birth to the Acousmonium in 1974. Afterwards, you will have to head to the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire in order to attend the spatialized audiovisual installation Niche, created by Mimetic (for the sound) and Sigmasix (for the light system. Sigmasix who collaborated with the festival last year and who will be in charge of the light system this year as well).
On November 27th and 28th, it will be time to get into the thick of it: admire the sound artists perform with the Acousmonium. What I like to call a sound monster is a sound diffusion system which consists of many loudspeakers of different sizes and shapes. The system adapts itself depending on the space: at the Bâtiment des Forces Motrices, it uses roughly 60 loudspeakers to allow you to immerse yourself in the sound. During those two days, the first part of the festival will take place at the BAT – seated concert – whereas the second part will be held at the Zoo with more of a dance floor atmosphere.
Among the guests of honour, PEG 2015 will be very generous this year. Many gifted artists are to be expected. I will share with you those that I’ve already come across with, however let me say that a Big part of this festival is to surprise you and allow you to discover other landscapes of music.
On November 27th, Pantha du Prince will be performing at the BAT (his interview is available in the French part of our blog). He will be followed by a British young prodigy at the Zoo called Nathan Fake. In the world of Nathan Fake, The Sky was Pink: this track revealed him to the electro world at the age of only 22 years old. If you love M83, you will be very fond of him.
For November 28th, (I bet that you will verify the information on the PEG 2015 website) trust me when I tell you that John Paul Jones, founder of Led Zeppelin will perform on the Acousmonium followed by Dominik Eulberg (who produced the soundtrack of PEG 2015 trailer) and Rival Consoles.
Do read the program below before we meet again in a couple of weeks…
From November 26th to the 28th
November 26th
6pm at the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Rue Charles-Galland 2, 1206 Geneva
7.30pm at the Centre d’Arts, Route de Chêne 62, 1208 Geneva
November 27th & 28th
7.30pm at the Bâtiment des Forces Motrices, Place des Volontaires 2, 1204 Geneva
11.30pm at the Zoo, Place des Volontaires 4, 1204 Geneva
Price: week-end festival from 75.-
Book online
Teaser-PEG-2015 from electron festival on Vimeo.