February 15–19, 2022
Mediterranean Futures is a five-day radio festival on Movement Radio that focuses on the sounds of the Mediterranean, searching for geographical connections and alternative timelines through its culture, its ideas and its people.
The festival will kick off a season of online and physical events focusing on the music and cultures of the Mediterranean.
Drawing inspiration from the idea of crossing boundaries between genres, borders and generations, it will highlight the junctions of music, culture and politics in the area.
The festival aims to function as a sonic and cultural map, reflecting the fluidity of the exchanges that have shaped the region. While disrupting the official historical timelines, it will unveil hidden stories and narratives through sound, and unearth the collective memory of the past, so it can forge a link to the future through our shared experiences.
The programme features
A lineup consisting of Deena Abdelwahed, Azu Tiwaline, Bill Kouligas, STILL, Muqata’a, Alan Bishop, Jay Glass Dubs, Lennifer Jopez, Liliane Chlela and more, with music running across all the diverse threads that make up the sonic tapestry of the basin. Futuristic, dance-oriented bass, deconstructed club and hip-hop drawing from traditional elements; music from the Balkans getting a contemporary treatment through detuning and distortion; retrospectives of traditional genres and historic figures, including Algerian RAI, Moroccan gnawa, Jani Christou and Oum Kalthoum.
In more detail renowned Tunisian producer Deena Abdelwahed broadcasts an exciting hybrid of traditional elements blended with cutting-edge contemporary sounds looking towards the future of electronic music, while Jay Glass Dubs documents the vivid contemporary electronic scene of Cyprus. Jacob Moe paints a sonic portrait of the region through a pastiche of live radio recordings and selected tape archival recordings. Christina Hazboun envisions a decolonised, equal future through the combination of Zar rituals, the trance-like sounds of Moroccan Gnawa and afrofuturist music. Tasos Stamou focuses on the sound of the Balkans through his glitched, detuning treatments, and Maria Pappa brings the explosive sound of Greek and Albanian trap to the forefront. DJ Bwana traces the paths of Greek musicians in the US in the post-World War II era and the new music hybrids that emerged from their encounters. Peak Nick flies the freak flag of folk, prog and synth Italian beat; Lennifer Jopez adjusts her focus on the musically rich contemporary Marseilles scene and Azu Tiwaline traverses both ancient and contemporary landscapes, introducing the concept of the Afrofuturism of the North. Yannis-Orestis Papadimitriou discusses with thinker Iain Chambers on his book ‘Mediterranean Crossings’; Voltnoi Brege and Panos Hanjaras delve into the recent past of the region, with retrospectives on Oum Kalthoum, Jani Christou and Pascal Comelade.
All shows will be broadcasted live on movement.radio and will then be archived on the radio’s website.
About Movement Radio
Movement Radio is an international online radio station based in Athens and is produced by Onassis Stegi. It explores the cross-cultural interactions, political and theoretical discourses, and reflections of movement of people from the Mediterranean and beyond, through a series of commissioned pieces, thematic mixtapes, interviews, DJ sets and more. The artistic directors and co-founders of Movement Radio are Voltnoi & Quetempo, an artistic and curatorial duo. Their practice incorporates installations, music, performance, net art and curatorial projects. Their work has been exhibited at Documenta 14, Transmediale, Athens Biennale and in various galleries and institutions. They have performed at the ICA in London, Mapping Festival in Geneva and the Athens and Epidaurus Festival, just to name a few.
