The experimental music event, which has been taking place for 15 years in Rio de Janeiro, will feature, among other attractions, a Japanese heavy metal band and an electroacoustic trio
The first São Paulo edition of Festival of New Frequenciesdedicated to experimental music, begins this Monday 8 with performances at Artistic Culture Theaterin the central area of the city, and at Sesc Avenida Paulista. With 11 attractions, the festival, which has been taking place in Rio de Janeiro for 15 years, brings together artists from countries including Brazil, Canada, Japan, Mexico and Chile.
Opening at Cultura Artística (see the full program), Canadians Kara-Lis Coverdale, organist who oscillates between acoustic and electronic music, and Sarah Davachi, performer who investigates the subtle relationships between timbre and time. On the 11th, the same theater welcomes the electroacoustic trio Algol, formed by Christian Lillinger (Germany), Elias Stemeseder (Austria) and Camilo Ángeles (Peru).
At Sesc Avenida Paulista, 9, Los Thuthanaka, a collaborative project by Bolivian-Aymara brothers Chuquimanani-Condori and Joshua Chuquimia Crampton, artists based in the United States, uses non-traditional sound structures in Andean rhythms.
Japanese heavy metal band Birushanah will also perform on the 9th, at the same Sesc Avenida Paulista, which combines heavy metal and pan percussion. In addition to the unusual sound, the reversal of course attracts attention – it is usually Brazilian artists who go to Japan, and Japanese music is little known here.
This will be the first time that the trio formed in 2002, in Osaka, comes to Brazil. Chico Dub, creator and curator of Novas Frequências, gives information on the presentation of the group, which preserves the “garage” style.
“I can say it easily: their show is absurd. It took place in Rio de Janeiro on the 3rd and I came away impressed. It’s a brilliant combination of drums with metallic tones coming from the pans, with very heavy and meditative rock, in slow motion,” he explains, citing this year’s edition of Novas Frequências in Rio, which took place between December 3 and 7.
The commissioner draws a comparison with one of the most famous metal bands in the world. “It’s as if Sepultura was born in Japan at the foot of a Buddhist temple.”
Two Brazilian artists are on the program. Flutist and researcher Marina Cyrino, who currently lives in Berlin, Germany, and is dedicated to improvisation, and harpist Marina Mello, based in Zurich, Switzerland, who explores the sonic paradoxes between silence and noise.
Festival ‘on the run’
Dub says that after 15 years in Rio de Janeiro, it was necessary to bring the festival “in the race” to São Paulo.
“I tried for years and years to make Novas Frequências with a minimum of resources, structure and media reach, until at some point I gave up. Arriving now — and completely in the race, in fact — has to do with 15 years. I thought that, even with all the difficulties, we should make a worthy edition, celebrating the fact that an experimental music festival, without concessions, takes this huge step”, says Dub.
He also has an eye toward the future. “Who knows, by coming to the city, bringing the festival to life, showing people how it works and how wonderful it is, we won’t be able to pave the way for other editions here as we should.”
The challenge is precisely to show that artists completely outside the mainstream, making instrumental music, can attract the public.
For Dub, the explanation is simple. “Think of the Biennale, small galleries, museums, large cultural centers with successful exhibitions. There is an infinitely vast universe between these extremes, isn’t there? So why, in music, does everything seem to work differently? Why only mainstream artists and festivals with thousands and thousands of people?” he asks.
The full program and links to ticket sales, which cost between R$18 and R$120, can be found on the Festival Novas Frequências website.
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