Hear The Sound Of Berlin Atonal From 1982 To Now With These Essential Playlists

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id: 5185a3b2-628b-44c3-9489-1bebd7e9e75a
blueprint: article
title: 'Hear The Sound Of Berlin Atonal From 1982 To Now With These Essential Playlists'
date: 2017-08-15T09:40:57+02:00
wp_id: '138230'
slug: berlin-atonal-then-and-now-playlist
teaser_image: legacy/berlin-atonal-then-and-now-playlist/Berlin-Atonal-Festival-Cover-Photo.jpg
contents:
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    type: text
    text: '<p>This weekend will kick off the latest edition of&nbsp;<a href="https://berlin-atonal.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Berlin Atonal</a>, one of the German capital&rsquo;s two major experimental festivals alongside <a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/icas-festival-announcement/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ICAS network</a> affiliate <a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/contemporary-experiments-collide-with-pioneers-at-ctm-2016/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">CTM</a>. This edition, the sixth, follows what we playfully last year dubbed the&nbsp;<em>second</em> fifth edition because the first fifth edition happened in 1990, when Atonal founder and <a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/marhsall-jefferson-tresor-house-sublabel/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Tresor</a> nightclub proprietor <a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/all-of-a-sudden-noise-was-music-dimitri-hegemann-on-the-legacy-of-berlin-atonal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Dimitri Hegemann</a> hosted the last one&nbsp;before discontinuing the series. (You can read about Atonal 1990&nbsp;<a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/all-of-a-sudden-noise-was-music-dimitri-hegemann-on-the-legacy-of-berlin-atonal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>.)</p><p>Throughout the &rsquo;80s Hegemann booked many now-iconic talents from the local industrial, new wave and noise-oriented scenes, like <a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/the-feed/tape-performance-atonal-festival-1982-amazing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Alexander Hacke</a> of Sprung Aus Den Wolken, Gudrun Gut&rsquo;s project <a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/gudrun-gut-beate-bartel-on-mania-d-berlin-experiment-vol-5/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Malaria!</a>, Psychic TV and <a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/memories-from-berlins-iconic-1980s-punk-bars/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Einst&uuml;rzende Neubauten</a>.</p><h2>The Sound Of Berlin Atonal, 1982-1990</h2><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">YouTube Video (videoseries)</a></p><p>In 2013 Laurens von Oswald, Harry Glass and Paulo Reachi resuscitated Atonal Festival and brought it to the huge and beautiful <a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/the-feed/tresors-kraftwerk-will-house-berlins-first-techno-museum/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Kraftwerk</a> complex, and since then it has become bigger than ever. This year involves five days of avant-garde music, audio/visual performances and DJ sets that run the gamut from a night of &ldquo;experimental hardcore&rdquo; to industrial noise live jams to all manners of hard and ambient techno stylings.</p><p>In fact, it would be hard to have a <em>more</em> distinct and developed&nbsp;sonic identity than Atonal does, especially because it has built up a stable of legacy artists who return multiple years. Some are artists who performed at Hegemann&rsquo;s Atonal decades ago, like Clock DVA and Mark Reeder, who recounted his memories of the inaugural edition <a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/mark-reeders-atonal-adventures-and-avant-garde-vs-functional-music/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>.</p><p>Other artists have become regulars to the revived version, like affiliates of the labels Blackest Ever Black, Northern Electronics, PAN and <a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/black-humor-an-interview-with-powell/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Diagonal</a> as well as individual artists like Shackleton, Puce Mary, Alessandro Cortini and Demdike Stare.</p><p>In fact, Atonal launched <a href="https://www.discogs.com/label/886965-Berlin-Atonal-Recordings" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">its own record label</a> in 2015 to gather its core musicians and present associated music as well as live recordings from their performances at the festival.</p><h2>The Sound Of Berlin Atonal, 2013-Now</h2><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">YouTube Video (videoseries)</a></p><p>Check out our whole archive of Berlin Atonal coverage, including <a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/end-notes-an-interview-with-the-organizers-of-berlin-atonal-part-3/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">interviews with the new organizers</a>, <a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/the-feed/watch-rare-footage-from-1983s-berlin-atonal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">footage from the 1983 edition</a> and reviews of the festival in <a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/thunder-lightning-a-brick-in-the-face-berlin-atonal-2014-reviewed/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2014</a>, <a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/berlin-atonal-festival-2015-review/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2015</a> and <a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/berlin-atonal-2016-review/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2016</a> <a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/tag/berlin-atonal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>. Cover photo via Berlin Atonal&rsquo;s <a href="https://www.facebook.com/berlinatonal/photos/a.998798356808233.1073741847.569899856364754/998798986808170/?type=3&amp;theater" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Facebook</a>.</p>'
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