Diamanda Galás, Le1f and More: RBMA Bass Camp Berlin in Photos
Four days of Bass Camp at Funkhaus Nalepastraße and a series of club nights, lectures and concerts
For 17 hand-picked participants from all across Germany, RBMA Bass Camp Berlin meant a rare chance to peek into the recording and broadcasting temple of the former GDR. At Funkhaus Nalepastraße in Berlin’s Treptow-Köpenick district, they worked together on tracks in the beautiful studios on the Funkhaus premises, attended lectures with Alec Empire and KitschKrieg and saw a spellbinding performance from Diamanda Galás.
Check out Samuel Smelty and Camille Blake’s photos from all four days below, which also include impressions from our club nights with Le1f, Cakes Da Killa and Dengue Dengue Dengue!, and our public lecture at Meistersaal with Alexander Hacke and Gareth Jones.
Intro Session & BBQ
Following a brief introductory session, where the Bass Camp participants got to know each other and their music a bit, we toured the studios with our team of tutors, which included Dorian Concept and Branko. Afterwards, it was time to enjoy some treats from the grill – right on the bank of the Spree.
A Conversation with Alexander Hacke and Gareth Jones @ Meistersaal
On Thursday, May 11th, Alexander Hacke and Gareth Jones took a seat on the lecture couch at Meistersaal – in the very room where they recorded some of Einstürzende Neubauten’s most enduring work, back when it was still “Studio 2” of Hansa Tonstudio.
The duo shared plenty of anecdotes from the wild days of 1980s Berlin and expanded on their love of working with analog gear. Watch the full lecture here.
Dengue Dengue Dengue!, Branko, Kahn & Neek and more @ Gretchen
As the first day of RBMA Bass Camp Berlin drew to a close, we made our way over to Gretchen in Kreuzberg for a night of global bass music with Peru’s Dengue Dengue Dengue!, Portugal’s Branko and England’s Kahn & Neek.
Studio Sessions & Lectures
Around the recording sessions in the state-of-the-art studios at Funkhaus, our program also included two lectures for the Bass Camp participants. The lecture on Friday saw German production team KitschKrieg opening up about their creative approach and their work with rising German rap stars like Haiyti.
On Saturday, Alec Empire of Atari Teenage Riot fame shared stories from Berlin’s electronic music scene in the early days of German reunification and detailed his ongoing commitment to taking a political stance through music.
Le1f, Cakes Da Killa, OK Lou and more @ St. Georg
On Friday, we brought Le1f and Cakes Da Killa to St. Georg in Kreuzberg, where the two progressive and dynamic performers led us through a steamy night of boundary-pushing rap and club music. The bill was rounded out by KitschKrieg, OK Lou, Mobilegirl and a selection of local DJs.
Diamanda Galás @ Funkhaus Nalepastraße
Diamanda Galás – idiosyncratic vocalist, pianist and performer – is an avant-garde force. For the closing event of RBMA Bass Camp Berlin, we were thrilled to welcome Galás to Funkhaus for her first Berlin performance in years, presented in cooperation with CTM. Her forceful renditions of songs from her recent All the Way LP and favorites from throughout her remarkable career left the sold-out “Studio 1” at Funkhaus spell-bound.
Before the concert, Galás also presented her Schrei 27 installation in “Studio 1” and afterwards, RBMA alumni Pan Daijing played a set downstairs in the “Foyer.”
