GUDRUN GUT (BERLIN) in association with Goethe-Institut
Gudrun currently runs the Berlin-based Monika Enterprise Label, was an early member of Einstürzende Neubauten and most famously founded the 1980s band Malaria!_Gut became practically a thread unto herself in Berlins underground art and music scenes. She explored cross-sections of new wave, techno, spoken word, multimedia art, and experimental rock in bands like Mania D, Matador, and Project Miasma. There have been film scores, radio plays, videos projects, gallery exhibitions, remixes, a record label, DJ gigs, and the eclectic, collective radio show "The Ocean Club".
Featured in prestigious UK magazine ‘The Wire’ recently: “This is a story about a’ geniale dilettante’; a punk and a No Waver and an early adopter of computer pop; a girl from German heatherlands who moved to Berlin to become one of the city’s central figures – feminist agitator, festival organizer, entrepreneur. Plus of course musician, performance artist, DJ, radio presenter, club organizer, cultural ambassador and label owner. She has done all of this largely by maintaining her independence. Not in the rejectionist strain that characterizes knee-jerk American individualism, but rather by creating and attending to niches and spaces of possibility in the interstices and the margins.”
http://nz.youtube.com/gudrungut
http://www.myspace.com/ggut
DISASTERADIO (WGTON)
Consisting of just one man, Luke Rowell, Disasteradio is a warped combination of 80s synth pop mixed up with the latest electro sounds of today.
Since befriending the first family computer (the Commodore 64) at age 6, Luke has been fascinated with the possibilities of synthesizer sounds and pop melody. Somewhere in a bedroom deep in the Hutt Valley, Luke Rowell and Computer, better known as DISASTERADIO, have put together around 150 songs on 6 albums and sometimes leaving said bedroom, touring nine times and taking in close to 200 shows.
While many synthesizer bands of the current age prefer snooty vintage equipment and methodologies, Rowell prefers to use nothing but the latest and cheapest in computer technologies, and produced the latest album entirely from his bedroom mainly using open- source softwares. "Visions", the most recent release was honoured to have the top New Zealand spot on Real Groove magazines Top 50 albums of 2007.
By day Luke is a part-time stained glass artisan while Computer performs various clerical duties. They have also scored a large number of short films, participated in award-winning fringe festival shows and provided equipment and curator assistance to two NZ Film Archive exhibitions of vintage computers.
http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=KFoTFXxcrrw
http://www.myspace.com/disasteradio
MR HAYDAY (AK)
Imagine the Teletubbies dropping acid while locked in a studio created by imaginative movie director Michael Gondry and you come close to just how infectious Mr Hayday is. Full of synth riffs, wonky squelches and electronic experiments that will put a smile on your face and a skip in your step almost instantly.
James Hayday grew up in Matakana, which was once a small rural town outside Auckland. Here he played in school bands and messed with computerised beats and electronic beasties. After school he studied audio engineering, spent time at a recording studio in Brisbane and worked on short films with students there.
During an assignment at audio school, James made good friends with a Roland SH101, the synth provides most of the required filterwangs and tubby bass on the debut EP. James studio is tucked away in a concrete room within St Kevins Arcade where his meddling is occasionally interrupted by a smoke alarm when he forgets about his toast.
http://www.myspace.com/mrhayday
