Picnic FM is a series of music events in the open air, free of charge, using the medium of radio in a live setting to provide a communal listening experience in the Moabiter Stadtgarten, directly adjacent to the ZK/U (Center for Art and Urbanistics). Musicians and DJs broadcast through a short-range transmitter, while the audience can borrow or bring a portable radio and tune in, seated on picnic blankets spread throughout the park.
Joseph Kamaru aka KMRU is a sound artist who, besides creating field recordings and installations, produces ambient music, with recent releases such as »Peel« (Editions Mego, 2020) and »Logue« (Injazero, 2021). For Picnic FM, KMRU is presenting »redio redio«, an improvisational work that invokes the ideology of »liveness«: transmissions from the airwaves are captured and sampled in the moment, mixed on the fly with archival radio recordings for a sonic journey, exploring the potential connections of shared social realities and their real and imagined happenings.
Khyam Allami is a performer, composer and researcher who explores microtonality and different tuning systems, often playing the oud and other instruments while using digital production techniques. Recent projects include the sound installation »Requiem for the 21st Century« at Opera North (Leeds, 2019) and the generative software installation »Apotome« for CTM (Berlin, 2021). For Picnic FM, Allami will offer a DJ set that explores different tuning systems in traditional and experimental music, including some of the artist’s own new and unreleased work, such as a sound art piece and a collaboration with vocalist Nakul Krishnamurthy.
Also known as musician and audiovisual artist Wooly and the Uke, Jannat Sohail is inspired by the concept of sound as an invisible infrastructure. In her radio show for Picnic FM, Sohail will share a selection of songs that have shifted socio-political settings around the globe, while discussing how music can act as a vessel for change and empowerment.
