Ume Sami Joik and Sonic Layers at Verdensteateret

Tommy Ose

Oct 19, 2018

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This year the seated concerts at Verdensteateret will take place on the Saturday during our festival week: 27^th October, 19:00-20:45.

Insomnia presents two performances to tickle your senses and your minds:

Maja Ratkje and Katarina Barruk: Avant Joik.
These two artists join forces for the first time, presenting a unique commissioned work. The work combines joik in Ume Sami, a critically endangered language, with experimental vocals and electronic soundscapes. Sami artist Matti Aikio also presents live visuals made especially for this performance, which promises to be a powerful and unique experience.

Kara-Lis Coverdale
A classically trained organist and composer, the critically acclaimed Kara-Lis Coverdale from Canada weaves intricate sonic layers, offering her audience dynamic, explorative experiences. Her work is consistently met with critical acclaim, The Guardian heralding her as the most exciting composer in North America.

With a Saturday-pass or a Festival-pass you get access, but individual tickets for just these two concerts can also be bought at the door on the night of show; 200 NOK. 

Welcome!

Read more about the artists on our artist pages:

Ratkje & Barruk

Kara-Lis Coverdale

Introduction to our Visuals and Decor teams

Jamie Bivard

Oct 18, 2018

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In addition to our musical acts, we also employ a talented mix of Visual Artists, VJs and a Decorations team who will be creating works throughout our main concert venue Driv. You can read more about each artist through the page link below, with a curatorial note from Andrea Conradsen, who brought them all together.

Become a volunteer at Insomnia Festival 2018

Jamie Bivard

Oct 9, 2018

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Volunteering is a great way to contribute and experience the festival. Available positions include clean-up patrol, runners, drivers, backstage and artist contacts. We are looking for responsible and serviceminded people who can represent the festival in a good manner.

Being a volunteer comes with many perks: You will receive free entrance to our KICKOFF PARTY this Saturday 13th October, a festival pass for your days off, an exclusive Insomnia t-shirt, meals will also be provided during your shifts, and we will even throw you all a special volunteer party at the end of it all!

Sign up today and learn more about volunteering HERE

Satellite events during Insomnia 2018

Jamie Bivard

Oct 8, 2018

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Throughout the week of Insomnia Festival there will be much to experience in town, we would like to share with you our partner events that we recommend you check out:

 

Hello X Story Laboratory

Wednesday 24th October – 19:00 / Kafe Globus

Can stories help us shape our future? We think so.

Join the Ice-9 crew: Christine Cynn (mashup artist/filmmaker), Valentin Manz (visual artist) along with the hello X creative team with: Leo Kay (dramaturg and baker of slow ideas), Ismet Bachtiar (game designer), Sammuel Ambroise (3D animator) to try and solve an augmented reality puzzle where you and a team of friends (or strangers) play a living AI and advise X, a woman living in Tromsø in 2068. Bring your iPhone 6S or above or use our test devices. We’ll be there to cheer you on. This augmented reality puzzle is the first prototype for a bigger augmented reality story experience being developed by Ice-9 for launch 2019/2020.

Not into puzzles or augmented reality? Join the conversation at hello X talkaoke, a pop-up talkshow that is open to all and controlled by none. Chill out with a beer or glass of wine and chat about the future or simply listen. Lounge among new sculptures and visuals by Valentin Manz and learn about the evolving story worlds of X, and dig into the science and real-world people and places that inspire the fiction.

hello X is a story laboratory on the future with a podcast, website, live events, and youth workshops. Check us out at www.helloX.me. Subscribe to the hello X podcast on apple podcasts, soundcloud, and all Android podcast apps. hello X is produced by by Ice-9, a Tromsø media arts organisation. The hello X experimental platform is made possible by the generous support of Framsenter, Norsk Kulturfond, Sparebank Nordnorge, Innovasjon Norge, Tromsø Kommune, and Fritt Ord. Ice-9 works in partnership with Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum and Polaria science centre.

Blest!

Saturday 27th October – 16:00 / Tromsø Domkirke

Arctic Sinfonietta will perform a newly written work by internationally award winning composer Knut Vaage, presented by Tromsø Internasjonale Kirkefestival. The piece invites the audience to reflect over the human relationship to the elements and nature. Wind and storm. It does so by exploring soundscapes in the border between improvisation and composition. The piece is performed by Sten Ivar Frydenlund (trumpet), Ola Rokkones (saxophone), Hallgeir Pedersen (electric guitar), Odd Kyrre Alsvik (percussion), Hijoo Moon (organ), Knut Vaage (grand piano) and Torje Fagertun Spilde on electronics, who participated in Insomnias own Cloud Exit project last year. Children from the local culture school will participate, and Tuve Frydenlund will read texts written by Eva Jensen. Expect a complex and artistically unique performance. The concert is supported by Fond for Lyd og Bilde.

Tickets can be bought at Aurora billett or at the door. Ordinary: 250kr/ Student: 150kr/ Insomnia wristband: 100kr

 

Countdown for Kickoff!

Jamie Bivard

Oct 7, 2018

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Insomnia is ready to kick off this year’s festival!
Saturday 13th October @ Café Sånn 21:00 – 03:00

Get your dancing shoes on and join us as we warm up for the year’s biggest event for innovative electronic music and art in Tromsø.

You can read more about the lineup on our facebook event or on our artist page

If you buy your festival pass in advance, you will get free entry to the kickoff.

Get your tickets here!

Insomnia Festival 2018 Video

Jamie Bivard

Oct 2, 2018

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Insomnia Festival
24 – 27 October 2018
Tromsø / Norway
Music.Movement.New Ideas.

The program is now complete:
https://www.insomniafestival.no/artists-2018/

Buy your festival pass here now

Tromsø Soundline Launch

Jamie Bivard

Oct 2, 2018

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Insomnia is stoked to be collaborating with Tromsø Soundline, an art project curated by Hanne Hammer Stien, produced by Tromsø Municipality and supported by Public Art Norway (KORO). Together we will host an opening event for Tromsø Soundline at Lhensmottet on Saturday 13th October from 14:00-16:00 as well as several guided tours during the festival week.

Tromsø Soundline works against a dualistic approach that separates tradition from modernity by mutually being inspired by indigenous methodologies and new technologies. Through an app designed by The Arctic As, six commissioned sound pieces are available. By moving around in the city, the audience activates the sound pieces through the app and collects a playlist that they can bring with them wherever they go. Artists contributing to Tromsø Soundline includes Margrethe Pettersen, Simon Daniel Tegnander Wenzel, Geir Jenssen, Charlotte Bendiks, Marit Følstad and Peder Niilas Tårnesvik.

You can read more about the Soundline launch event and guided tours here

 

Final artists release – get your tickets now!

Jamie Bivard

Sep 26, 2018

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It’s time for our final artists release, and with it this years program is now complete!

Now would be a good time to buy your festival pass if you haven’t already. This years festival is going to be bigger than ever…

Stian Balducci and his techno-aligned +plattform alias exist in the opaque regions between genres, ideologies and theoretical thought. A practitioner of improvisation and techno he crafts alien, evocative landscapes of unfamiliar dimensions from the endless possibilities of sampling as a musical instrument. A modern futurist, he challenges the limitations of contemporary thought in music.

Beatrice Dillon  works with diverse styles of music, comfortable with African rhythms, layered IDM and dubby dance music, maintaining an experimental, arty edge. With an eclectic approach, her curiosity is ever present as she is not afraid to include a variety of elements in a playful bricolage manner, be them from minimal techno, glitch or more experimental veins.

OL is a DJ and producer from Moscow, and a leading member of Gost Zvuk records. The rich tradition of the Soviet contemporary electronic music composition is the basis for the mood changes and sound in OL’s tracks. Oleg’s productions sounds like they’ve been born in Detroit or Berlin. Deeply drawn to hip-hop and avant-garde jazz, he is most heavily influenced by all types of Soviet-era art and media. OL experiments with a mixture of electronic and live sound trying to find a balance between club and home listening sound.

Gisle Meyer is a Norwegian media artist. His work for stage, screen and new media is closely integrated with – and dealing with the challenges of – new technology, social media and digital culture. Questions are raised in a surreal, quirky and playful aesthetic, where apparent naive escapism glides on the surface of serious, contemporary undercurrents. At Insomnia he will perform his work Atrophy In The Key Of Dreaming Books, a musical work based on the sound of knowledge -books, paper, words, shelves, libraries.

You can read more about each act on our artist page.

Buy your festival pass here now!

Sign up for our exciting workshops!

Jamie Bivard

Sep 22, 2018

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Would you like to learn how to make software instruments out of sounds you hear in your everyday life? How to intertwine a guitar riff into your electronic beats? Maybe you want to learn about the usage of voice as an instrument? Or perhaps you are the party goer who thinks the visuals are the “make or break” factor of the night?

Through our many collaborative projects, Insomnia strives to support the electronic music community in Tromsø, and one of the key things we do each year is to host several workshops covering the realm of electronic music production, however, this year we have a workshop program that know will appeal to the music makers of all genres. We will also step outside of the music production sphere, and offer a beginners workshop for those who would like to explore the world of making visuals, a key element in creating a good party.

Spaces are limited, so remember to sign up here

 

MAKING VISUALS TO MUSIC – VJ HAUST

Workshop – Sunday 14th October – 15:00 / Small Projects

Would you like to be a Video Jockey or are you curious about the creation and manipulation of imagery in real-time through technological mediation, in synchronisation to music?

In this workshop you will get an introduction to VJing and the technologies used in creative image manipulations. After a short theoretical part by workshop leader VJ Haust, you will be guided through using VJ software for the full process of preparing images, to performing your own VJ sets with music.

 

 

THE POSIBILITIES OF FIELD RECORDING – GISLE MEYER

Workshop – Wednesday 24th October – 13:00 / Tvibit

In this workshop we invite those of you with some experience in music production to discover the possibilities of field recordings: How to create music from the sounds. The workshop will focus on both the technical and artistic/creative part of creating music with field recordings.

 

 

 

 

ACOUSTICS IN ELECTRONIC MUSIC – JESSE

Workshop – Thursday 25th October – 13:00 / Tvibit

In this workshop you will join Finnish band Jesse in discovering how acoustic instruments can be used and intertwined with electronic music. They will show techniques to integrate guitars and percussion into the electronic world. By participating in this workshop you will learn about the possibilities of the interaction between electronic music and more traditional instruments, and what gear to use for this purpose.

 

 

 

VOCALS & ELECTRONICS – UMBRA

Workshop – Friday 26th October – 13:00 & 16:00 / Tvibit

The aim of this workshop is to explore the transfer of the voice from the body to the electronics.
We will investigate the sounding, articulation, processing, as well as treatment of the voice as an instrument – percussive, melodic, textual, etc. In the course of a two hour session, a small group of participants will be guided in creating a short probing piece for voices and electronics.

 

Time to announce our SHAPE platform​ artists

Jamie Bivard

Sep 17, 2018

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As an aspiring artist, getting a platform to perform, reaching your audience, getting media exposure or developing your talents can be challenging.

SHAPE is a platform for innovative music and audiovisual art from Europe which aims to make this easier. It consists of 16 European festivals and art centres whose aim is support, promote and exchange innovative and aspiring musicians and interdisciplinary artists with an interest in sound. Artists get a plattform to perform and grow, receive media support and are offered educational activities and workshops to support their careers as artists.

For this years festival, we have selected eight artists who will all perform live during Insomnia, spanning genres like video game music, ambient, modular techno, drum and bass and more. Musical scholar Caterina Barbieri​ (IT) has already been making waves across Europe and beyond with her mesmerising modular techno shows, while CATNAPP​ (AR/DE) just got a nice boost when Rhianna played two of her tracks during her show at the New York Fashion Week. EOD​ (NO) from Trondheim got top marks for his debut album on Bjarki’s bbbbbb label, as this unique talent finally gets his due. Yamaneko (UK) recently debuted his unique sound in a live-set at the SHAPE showcase at the Nyege Nyege festival in Uganda, and will also bring custom visuals for his Insomnia performance, while Nene H.​ (TR/DE) has her own mind-bending melange of middle eastern influences and hard techno. One of the most fresh sounds on the SHAPE roster comes from Golin (JP/BE). She brings a twinge of vocal pop with Asiatic inspired soundscapes. With roots in Congo, percussion rests close to the heart of Kimyan Law​ (AT), also reflected in his clever and subtle take on the much tested drum and bass genre. Our neighbour Sissel Wincent​ (SE) will certainly keep the neighbours well awake with her powerful, minimal and dark patterns, while making our dance floor heave.

Check out their music and read more about them on our artist pages:

 

 

An introduction to our daytime events

Jamie Bivard

Sep 13, 2018

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Music and Politics – Identity and Belonging – Activism and Hope

In addition to our concerts, we also have an exciting lineup prepared for our daytime programming, which will include workshops, seminars, a keynote speech, and a film screening.

This years seminars are gathered in a one day event on the Saturday afternoon at Tromsø Bibliotek & Byarkiv that will touch upon the themes of music and politics, identity, belonging, activism and hope.

We will start the day with a panel by the research group “Russian Space: Concepts, Practices, representations” (RSCPR) from UiT/The Arctic University of Norway who is currently preparing a book on popular music and recent Russia-Ukraine relations. The panel will be based upon their findings from their forthcoming book release, including topic such as song wars, the music of the Ukrainian revolution, answer songs at war and the re-interpretation of the Russian national anthem.

RSCPRs session will be followed by the panel  “The Idea of a European Identity” moderated by editor and writer Lisa Blanning. Panelists from all across the continent will try to tackle some of the central questions about what it means to be European. Do we have a common identity? In this continent made up of so many diverse countries, peoples, languages, and traditions, is the idea of European identity doomed to fail? On what do we base our sense of belonging, does it expand beyond our national borders?

To wrap up the day, Croatian philosopher Srecko Horvat will have a keynote titled “What if the Apocalypse already happened?”. As the general public now also starts to feel that the apocalypse is here, whether it is climate change or the increasing number of people on the run from war, how can we counteract and revive hope?

On Friday the 26th we will be screening the documentary “Conny Plank: The Potential of Noise”   at Verdensteatret. The film details the search for the person and producer Conny Plank, a journey through music history, a son getting to know his father and a soundtrack that has influenced millions of music fans over three decades.

You can read more about each event on our Daytime Program page.

Exciting acts presented within the We Are Europe collaboration

Jamie Bivard

Sep 10, 2018

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We are delighted to present the We are Europe programme at Insomnia Festival, made in collaboration with c/o pop Festival, c/o pop Convention, Resonate and TodaysArt.

The Legendary Amp Fiddler feat. A Drummer from Detroit brings soulful funk straight from the Motown to move both our hearts and feet. Fatima Al Qadiri‘s new live show “Shaneera” is both a audio-visual extraordinary treat and gender politically potent. Glaswegian Lanark Artefax is on fire right now with his advanced rhythmic layers and strobes, and we think Noga Erez‘s eclectic pop should make her a star. Umbra from Belgrade brings her enthralling vocal works, while Cologne Sessions stalwart MK BRAUN brings his vinyl bag full of Acid House, Techno, Electro.

The installation of Bat-Erdene Bachuluun from Mongolia will certainly transfer you to other dimensions, while we also wonder if Tromsø is ready for the outrageously cool performance of FAKA…

If you haven’t already, its time to get your tickets here!