October 25, 2016: Completing a fantastic, diverse line-up for the Red Bull Music Academy North Stage at Magnetic Fields festival are genre-bending DJ and label boss Matias Aguayo, Istanbul-based disco connoisseur Barış K., experimental techno producer Helena Hauff and Indian producer FILM. Last month, Red Bull Music Academy announced its first wave line-up for the festival, where it will host a stage for the second year in a row, which included the likes of electronic music heavyweights Floating Points (DJ), Roman Flügel and Pinch.
Magnetic Fields will be held from December 9-11 this year, at the 17th century palace-turned-hotel, Alsisar Mahal. For the first time, the festival will also feature jazz performances and storytelling sessions, apart from the North Stage, South Stage, the Desert Disco and a Resident Advisor secret party returning.
Matias Aguayo:
Born 1973 in Santiago de Chile, Matias Aguayo spent the whole of the 90s in Cologne, contributing to the city’s thriving electronic music scene as a club kid and a DJ at various clubs, the legendary Liquid Sky among them. He also organised his own nights and hooked up with local key players Michael Mayer and Dirk Leyers to form the production outfits Zimt and Closer Musik, respectively. Touring from disco to disco to perform his live sets, eventually took him to Buenos Aires where he ended up staying for some time to organise temporary free club spaces like Juventud Clandestina or Hoy Club – and he never really left. He now lives between Buenos Aires and Berlin, where he keeps himself busy DJ-ing, producing and playing concerts, solo as well as with Marcus Rossknecht as BROKE!. What really sets him apart from his peers though (besides his exceptional feel for percussive, raw yet upbeat body music, that is), is bumbumbox: a series of free, intimate open air raves that he sets up in the streets of Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Asunción, São Paulo, Medellín, Santiago de Chile, and many other South and Central American metropolises. At bumbumbox, Matias lives his own post-minimal dance music utopia: a place where everybody is welcome, and you’ll find him chanting and playing various instruments with his friends to the futuristic house music tracks of his Cómeme clique, and mixing them up with everything from dark disco gems to cumbia-fuelled techno scorchers.
Barış K.
This committed wax-collector got his grounding in hip hop breaks from over a decade of producing his own weekly shows on Istanbul’s Dinamo FM and Açık Radyo. Inspired by revolutionary Turkish rock icon Baris Manco, Baris K then turned his crate-digging powers closer to home, and uncovered a treasure trove of spaced-out psych rock and hashish-stained disco. With supersized bass lines and popping guitars, held together with spacey echoes and Turkish woodwinds, Baris has cornered a dancefloor sound that’s all his own. Baris blurs the boundaries even further with his improvised folk band Insanlar, a collaboration with saz player Cem Yildiz and a rotating group of guest artists. The band’s first single Kime Ne has been causing dancefloor goosebumps with its mixture of hypnotic tones and slow-build rhythms, and inaugurated Baris’ own Aboov! imprint. Combine that with 2011’s Istanbul 70 series on New York’s Nublu label, and a website exploring the history of Turkish music, and it’s clear that Baris’ heart is where the homeland is.
Helena Hauff
Helena Hauff likes the dark. In the DJ booth, the Hamburg selector seamlessly weaves together gritty bits of acid, electro, techno, post-punk, EBM, goth, industrial and more, a combination she first honed as a resident DJ at beloved DIY venue Golden Pudel. The ramshackle place is known for its raw punk spirit, and Hauff’s musical outlook follows along similar lines, both as a DJ and a producer. 2013 was a breakthrough year, as Hauff’s debut solo EP, Actio Reactio, was issued via Actress’s Werkdiscs label, while an EP from Black Sites, her collaborative undertaking with fellow Golden Pudel DJ F#x, popped up on PAN. Around the same time, she linked up with a revitalized version of Hypnobeat, a project spearheaded by James Dean Brown that concocted an influential brew of acid- and electro-tinged proto-techno in the 1980s. Amidst all this activity, Hauff’s ascent as a solo artist continued unabated, partially due to a smattering of EPs and cassette releases, but mostly thanks to her rapidly ballooning reputation as a top-flight DJ. She may embrace gritty, unpolished sounds, but Hauff’s technical prowess and no-holds-barred approach in the booth has quickly garnered legions of followers.
FILM
Sanil Sudan aka FILM lives suspended between two worlds. Oscillating between deeply moving, emotional electronic music, with a sonic vision that pulls together elements of house and techno with influences from hip-hop, jungle and even pop music. Productions range from straight-up dance floor jams to low-slung ambient tracks and more abstract compositions.
Red Bull Music Academy North Stage: The Full Line-up
The full line-up for the Red Bull Music Academy North Stage at Magnetic Fields reads as follows:
Floating Points (DJ)
Roman Flügel
Matias Aguayo
Helena Hauff
Pinch
Baris K
Oceantied
FILM
About Red Bull Music Academy
The 18th edition of the Red Bull Music Academy is in progress in Montreal, which began on September 24 and will continue through to October 28, 2016, bringing together 70 hand-selected producers, vocalists, beat-makers, instrumentalists and DJs from 38 countries.
More than 1,500 musical luminaries have participated in past incarnations of the Red Bull Music Academy. Former lecturers include Brian Eno, Philip Glass, Erykah Badu, Ryuichi Sakamoto, D’Angelo, Nile Rodgers, Frankie Knuckles, Giorgio Moroder, Questlove, Steve Reich, M.I.A., and pioneering synth inventors Bob Moog, Don Buchla, amongst many others. Plenty Academy alumni have gone on to become true figureheads of their scenes like LA soul singer Aloe Blacc (“I Need A Dollar”) and experimental electronic music producer and beat music innovator Flying Lotus; Hudson Mohawke, the Scottish producer behind the beats of Drake and Kanye WesOther notable alumni include Nina Kraviz, Jamie Woon, TOKiMONSTA, Jackmaster, Axel Boman, Evian Christ, Deradoorian, Objekt and Onra.
In its 18 years since being established, the Academy has curated stages at some of the most forward-thinking festivals across the world, including Barcelona’s Sonar Festival for 12 consecutive years, Berlin’s Fete de la Musique, Bestival in the UK, Longitude Festival in Ireland and Splendour In The Grass in Australia.
For more information on the Red Bull Music Academy and to access thousands of lecture videos, mixes, and exclusive tracks visit www.redbullmusicacademy.com
About Magnetic Fields
Magnetic Fields is an independent festival that was founded by artists for like-minded people. It is produced by Wild City, WeThePPL, Undercover Agents, THOT and Alsisar Mahal with support of Red Bull Music Academy, Embassy of Israel, Austrian Cultural Forum and Luxembourg Export Office.