The first Sample Music Festival is being organized by QSU Guest Professor Alex Sonnenfeld and will take place October 11-12 in Berlin, Germany. There’s an online contest going on now to promote the festival, watch the video and read the description to get the full details. Prizes include Stanton turntables, Native Maschine, Reloop keypad, Magma DJ backpack and many more! Le Jad is producing an exclusive sample pack for the contest, click here to get it! 

Last day to enter is on October 11, so good luck! Learn more about this year's Sample Music Festival below. 

What is it?

This is an Education Music Festival held annually in Berlin, with lectures, workshops and live performances on Sample Music Culture. The Sample Music Festival aims to create an interface between sample culture and the traditional music business. Making music by means of sampling will be made more transparent and looked at from a theoretical standpoint using lectures, discussions, workshops and performances. Targeted invitations to academics and composers are intended to help extend the usual clientele.

When and Where it is?

October 10-11, 2015 at Gretchen - Berlin's number one club for contemporary club music and left field beats. Gretchen stands for great sounds and high ranking international bookings. The programme reflects the complexity of current musical trends. The club is located in the middle of Berlin-Kreuzberg and stands out due to beautiful vaulted ceiling and delicate columns.

Who’s playing?

Lectures include:

• "Concerto for Turntable" Gabriel Prokofiev (Composer) & Mr. Switch (4x DMC World DJ Champion)

Gabriel is the grandson of the world famous composer Sergei Prokofiev who composed "Peter und der Wolf". Gabriel is the composer of the orchester piece "concerto for turntable" in which Mr. Switch plays turntables. 

• "The Origins of Hip Hop DJ Culture" by Marc Hype (Dusty Donuts/Berlin)
• "History and Performance of Controllerism" by Ray Arkai (IDA Controllerism Champ 2013)
• "Showcase" by DJ Unkut (DMC Worldchamp 2011)
• "Analysis und Acoustic Consequences of DJ Playing Techniques" by Kjetil Falkenberg Hansen
• "Presentation Music Theory for Turntablism" by Alex Sonnenfeld (Qbert Skratch University)
• "Presentation Music Theory for Finger Drumming" by Tim Kroker (Drummer for Front 242)

Performances by:

• Mr. Maloke (Puppetmastaz) / first "toy group"
• DJ Unkut (DMC Champ 2011)
• Mr. Switch (4x DMC Champ)
• Hix Boson (Jupiter)
• Many more skratcher/controllerists/finger drummers from Europe

Workshops:

• "Club Turntablism" by Eskei83 (RedBullThreStyle Worldchamp 2014)
• "Machine Music Production Workshop" by Native Instruments
• "Digital DJing " by Grzly Adams
• "Finger Drumming" by Tim Kroker (Front242/Noisy Academy Berlin)
• "Controllerism" by Ray Arkaei (IDA Germany)

How did it come about?

"Instrumental work with samples is an integral part of today's music culture. What was once the guitar or drums is now, for many, the turntable or midi controller today. Hip Hop, House, Trap or Dub are the result of this musical development and find their virtuosity through live interpretation in DJing, turntablism, finger drumming or controllerism.

Despite its millions of fans, this type of music has rarely become a subject of academic studies and cannot be studied at music university. This is due to the young history of turntablism compared to other classical instrumental forms and the lack of scientific analysis, educational books and academics who are proficient musicians and who also play professionally. The practical and theoretical development of this art of Djing has been thus far unexplored andhas only been performed by people outside music universities.

My idea is to organize a festival just for turntablism, fingerdrumming and controllerism. Target invitations to academics, music universities and colleges, DJ´s & turntablisten, developer of technical equipment & music software, department of education should help to put sample music culture in a more public focus.

Furthermore Kjetil Falkenberg Hansen (PhD on analysing and modeling scratch DJ performance at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm (check out his thesis) and myself will establish the first Sample Music Society.

The aim of this association of professional and amateur scienitsts is to connect people who are engaged in questions related to DJing and sampled music: from artists to academics; practitioners to philosophers; followers to fellows. Within the Society we will discuss experiences of performing, analyses, music and technology. The Society will search to advance the art further as well as to theorize the subject. The SMS is open to anyone interested and will promote a wide definition of DJing and sample music, involving not only audio but other media such as video." - Alex Sonnenfeld

Find out more at www.samplemusicfestival.com

Related Blogs:

• Interview with Alex Sonnenfeld
• Thoughts on Turntablism