photo: curtis.kennington
It’s been quite a while but we finally came up with a new edition of The Berlin Experts – an interview series that introduces you to some amazing experts of Berlin and its cultural scene including art, fashion, music, nightlife and media. As you may remember we already interviewed Finding Berlin, überlin and Johann from Circle Culture Gallery among others.
This time we want to introduce you to the Berlin radio station BLN.FM. Founded in 2009, the aim of the radio station is to provide an independent media offer with a focus on electronic music.
If you enjoy listening to electronic music of all styles you can tune into their radio stream from all over the world – 24/7. Furthermore BLN.FM runs its own web magazine, where you can read interviews, artist features and get some tips about Berlin’s city life, society, movies and art. Read the interview with the guys from BLN.FM and find out more about their recommendations for the best Berlin bands and career tips for musicians after the jump.
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by Olga | Music, People
Re-cycle Collection
It’s time for another edition of the Berlin Alternative Fashion Week – some exciting days are awaiting us! A week with lots of cool parties and catwalks which are very special and totally different from the regular Fashion Week. Young designers get the chance to present their fashion and there is no limit to creativity – on the contrary, the more outrageous and crazy the designs are, the more the viewers heart will be delighted. This week music, art and fashion merge into an alternative concept – it’s about freedom, gender roles and a new identity. Many designers offer innovative, sustainable work – and that’s a great opportunity for the young participants to be encouraged in their work and to still be able to remain free in their development and creativity.
The Berlin Alternative Fashion Week takes place for the third time in Berlin – starting on the 23rd and ending on September 27, 2015. The presentations will take place at the Postbahnhof, the opening party is at Maze and together with Apollo.tv there will be a presentation of short films and documentaries on Sunday.
Last time we had a lot of fun and discovered great new designers – we’re sure that the concept this time will be stunning as well. See the teaser by Apollo.tv and a preview of the designers and get your chance to win festival tickets after the jump.
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by Olga | Fashion
Deichkind
Next month the internationally renowned Lollapalooza festival will take place at the Tempelhofer Airport as the first European edition. 28 years ago the festival started off in Chicago – Chile, Brazil and Argentina joined a few years later. From September 12-13 you can enjoy live performances from various international artists such as Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, The Libertines and Muse or to the local heroes Seeed, Deichkind and Beatsteaks, have some nice food and enjoy many different activities.
We are very much looking forward to this selection of great artists and especially to the wild mix of different kinds of music. At Lollapalooza you can dance in step, enjoy slow beats with tears in your eyes and just have a good time with your friends. Since the Berlin Festival is no longer taking place at the Flughafen Tempelhof, it’s a big pleasure to get the chance to have a look at the premises of the airport – which has become a really rare possibility.
More about the Lollapalooza festival after the jump.
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by Olga | Music
When you put me in a room with technology, Freedom isn’t the first word that comes to mind; especially considering my comfort zone doesn’t extend much further than my laptop and DSLR. However, when I heard of the new Berlin-based audio company Raumfeld, I was intrigued by their wireless concept, sleek design and amazing sound quality. I first spotted a few sets of Raumfeld speakers at a Berlin Fashion Week show, perfectly balancing out the avant-garde aesthetic with their Bauhaus-inspired minimal design. So when Frank and I tried out a set of their Stereo M: Raumfeld speakers in his apartment I was a little intimidated by these purist-chic devices, but within minutes, I was blown away. Click on to see how these speakers truly live up to their slogan “Be Free” and find out how to win one of these treasures.
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by Frank | Music, Products
After we featured local products such as molecular popsicles, geometric handbags, home-delivery cocktails, and many more in our series Berlin Goods we have a new one for you which was “born in Kreuzberg, raised in Schöneberg and is now grown-up in Charlottenburg”. It’s probably the most cutting-edge one in our series and we are excited to talk about it here.
RAUMFELD began life as a Berlin startup back in 2008. Led by the motivation to improve the quality of digital sound the founders, Stephan Schulz and Michael Hirsch, developed a high-end wireless speaker system with multi-room streaming. Wow, that goes clearly far beyond the average hand-made design object that you normally come across here in Berlin. Since last year’s opening of the Bikini concept mall Raumfeld presents their pride and glory in their first showroom and boutique inside the new contemporary shopping paradise. We visited them in their store and talked about their impressive systems and speakers and what role the Berliners play in their work.
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by Frank | Products, Shops
Last year I had a really exciting project I would love to tell you more about. For the album release of the band Pitchtuner fashion photographer Marlen Stalhuth and I created an animated Gif-Fashion Story. Pitchtuner, that is Japanese Miki Yoshimura und Johannes Marx from Germany. The two Berliners-of-choice released their fourth album “Ready to go” via RAR, marketed by Motor Entertainment. Pitchtuner is a unique combination of Indie-Pop and DIY-Dance-Electronic.This combo mixes the eccentricity of Japan and the German inventiveness. If you want to experience their unique concerts (we had them as main act to our 7 years anniversary party) I have good news for you. They will be playing on Friday the 23 here in Berlin together with the Dj -Team JeansTeam. Enjoy the fashion story inspired by the street styles of Tokyo featuring young designers from Germany and Japan and check out the concerts infos here.
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by Claudio | Music
No city has a deeper connection to electronic music than Berlin. To describe it in the words of Techno legend Dimitri Hegeman, founder and owner of Tresor: “East and West celebrated the new freedom to the sound of electronic music. Berlin became the place for uncompromised youth culture and Tresor was the centre of this movement.”
Right next to Tresor electronic music will discover its avant-garde spirit this week with the Berlin Atonal Festival. The permanent home of this event which had its debut back in 1982, is an abandoned power plant called Kraftwerk Mitte. With several artistic installations it has been turned into a darkly majestic industrial complex for the duration of the festival.
We heartly recommend to check out the line up of this unique celebration of contemporary music and maybe discover one pearl or another between the several highlights. Also we think that the location and its audio-visual installations are an incredible source of inspiration for the music and light artists presenting their work there. After the jump we show you some of the most impressive pictures of the location.
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by Claudio | Music, Party
Our new guest contributor and talented photographer Ole Ukena has a very unique way of exploring and viewing the world surrounding us. For iHeartBerlin.de he discovered a totally different side of Fusion Festival, far away from the big dance floors and main stages. Enjoy his captivating pictures and his thoughts.
It’s been 4 years since my last Fusion. It’s been quiet a journey with this festival which started in 1997. Like most festivals it started really small and it’s goal is to create a “parallel society” without borders, vacation communism (Ferienkommunismus) as they call it. You can dive in on many different levels, watch acrobatics, learn finnish tango, dance to techno, discover amazing bands from all parts of the world, watch art installations or just get as fucked up as possible and stumble around. The choice is yours. More pictures and thoughts after the jump.
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by Guest Author | Photos, Stories
This is yet another shout-out to one of my favorite musicians of all time: Tori Amos. She is virtuosic piano player and incredible songwriter with a voice made of honey – although she herself describes it as the sound of a fairy on crack. Last week she published her 196th studio album (okay I exaggerated, it’s the 14th, but still!) and tomorrow she will be playing live here in Berlin at Tempodrom. I realize that probably many of you, especially the younger ones, are not familiar with her. But I’m telling you, if you like magical piano sounds and fairy voices, you will love Tori. Her concerts are always very moving and often strike a nerve and reduce me to tears, in a good way.
The new album titled Unrepentant Geraldines has chosen a quite poppy and easily approachable style compared to the previous two that were very classical in sound with orchestras and all that jazz. From all her records this could very well be the least confusing one with friendly melodies and gentle arragements. For me as a die-hard fan it’s actually a little bit to smooth, I like it more crazy. But I have some dear favorites on the record already such as Selkie which she already performed here in Berlin at a press preview a few weeks ago where I also had the chance to shake her hand, as well as Oysters which is a total Tori classic that could easily be on one of her early records, and the amazing duett Promise with her daughter Tash who has such a brilliant jazz voice with so much soul in it. Can’t wait for the concert tomorrow!
After the jump a few samples from the new album Unrepentant Geraldines, a photo of my meet and great with Tori as well as some interview snippets that I really liked. If you want to educate yourself a bit more about her music you have to check this older article of mine with some of her best music videos. Read on…
by Frank | Music
Berlin is the perfect meeting place for creative people. They come here from all over the world with many ideas, some they share and than they start projects together. Music producer Robar from Australia and vocalist and songwriter Dominique from the USA went through exactly that and have their own Berlin baby that was born sometime last year. Forsthays is its name and I like to describe it as “Future RnB” because it walks a unique path between RnB vocals and electro pop music. Last year a small series of singles and remixes for other artists where released that caught my attention and admiration. And even though the two of them went seperate paths – one of them staying here in Berlin and the other one going to the United States – they continued their work over the long-distance and created their first EP titled Begins With You that was released just a few days ago. You can listen to 3 of the 5 songs after the jump and if you like it, you should buy the EP over at their bandcamp.
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by Frank | Music
