Kevin Blechdom
Joshua Kit Clayton
Fan Club Orchestra
(k-raa-k)3
- Köhn
- Dilemma (aka DJ Kern)
- Ovil Bianca
- Benjamin Franklin
Christoph Kummerer (+workshop)
[rocher]~[sillon]
qubo gas
Roving Walter Walter
Anne-Marie Schleiner (+workshop)
Scratchrobot
Andrea Wilkinson

   
Kevin Blechdom  
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Kevin Blechdom is a singer-songwriter who sounds the way singer-songwriters should. Forget about Tori Amos and Alanis Morisette and open your ears and eyes to Blechdom’s electronic love songs and torch songs. Listen while she bares her soul in instant evergreens like ‘Interspecies Love’, ‘Talkin’ Tech’ or ‘Mr. Miguel’. Admire the way she so naturally rhymes ‘heart’ with ‘private part’ and watch, fascinated, as she effortlessly adds an eccentric laptop to a guitar, banjo and piano in her musical melting pot. Blechdom hails from indie rock (once a member of Shimmy Disc Band Adult Rodeo) but nowadays is more on a par with artists like Peaches, Le Tigre and Chicks on Speed. In fact – certainly since Blectum From Blechdom split – she’s created her own niche.

http://kevyb.com/
   
Joshua Kit Clayton  
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“I was born in 1974 / I live in San Francisco . I make sound / I make computer programmes / that’s all”. Not a man of many words this Joshua Kit Carson, but he makes up for it with his music. 20 self-penned titles and with a track on just as many compilation albums. He’s involved with two of his own labels, Cytrax Records for minimal techno and Orthlorng Musark for experimental electronic music, and his recent project ‘The Mimic and the Model’ couples sound and image, because Joshua is an adept of Max/Msp. This busy guy operates out of his cellar in California where he’s constantly commuting between computer screens, operating systems, software and just plain musical enjoyment. The thread running through the whole thing is the written code and when he performs live Clayton uses his laptop: improvisation, via sound file manipulation and recombination. The result is a melancholy dub with noise and techno beats as building blocks.

http://www.musork.com/
   
Fan Club Orchestra  
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Guitars, harmonicas, mouth organs, trombones, turntables and of course Gameboys: in a nutshell, the Fan Club Orchestra. Laurent Baudoux (brother of Nicolas, who together form Scratch Pet Land) conducts his ensemble with an overhead projector reminiscent of an AGM. He draws, sets the BPM, sketches musical themes to which the ensemble can improvise and manipulates the mixing table which is the collecting house for all the sounds. The orchestra numbers 10 and sometimes more with guests, but with a view to touring in Germany, it’s been sized down to a manageable five piece.

http://www.sonig.com/main/spl/bio.php
   
(k-raa-k)3  
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The guys of (k-raa-k)3 have been working hard in recent years, and the proof is there for all to hear: a series of surprising releases of young home-grown electronic talent has seen this West Flemish label making its mark internationally. Square has asked them to fill BEDROOM POLITICS 2’s late night programming, and they have ensured tailor-made sounds for the theme: Ovil Bianca and Köhn, Benjamin Franklin and Dilemma, will profess their bedroom politics in the flesh.
http://www.kraak.net/
   
(k-raa-k)3 Köhn
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What brings a blend of electronica, noise, pop, avant-garde and dance?
Rabbits!!! Köhn is the electronica-project of Jürgen De Blonde. He played on
all prominent European festivals such as Pukkelpop, Earational. Supported
Sonic Youth, Fennesz... Köhn_s tours left a memory for those who witnessed
this cyclone of sounds. His original approach brings him not only on top
alongside f.i Autechre/Aphex, but also Stockhausen/Mendelson, Ikeda/Noto and
Mohr/Notwist. His outlandish albums have been cheered by the international
press.
   
(k-raa-k)3 Dilemma (aka DJ Kern)
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One of the best dark techno/analogue electronica and plingplong DJ's around
Belgium guarantees a bewildering atmosphere and moving legs on the floor.
Dilemma and Kern are the alter egos of Ostend-boy Ken Dutrieu. As Dilemma he
delivered the album "chip-tunes" on the renowned label Irdial Discs, a CD at
his best with a gameboy in one hand, and a self-shaken cocktail in the
other. He's currently working for follow-up of this album which delivers a
more cheerful kind of electronica than his darker Chain Reaction alike style
albums as Kern on the obscure Trim recs. His DJ-sets which are directed
towards electro, analogue beats and occasionally old-style acid, flavoured
with weakness for Devo, Lux Nigra and cheesy synths.
   
(k-raa-k)3 Benjamin Franklin
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Benjamin is one of the greatest talents from Belgium. His mix of contemporary electronica, joyful beats and introspective sound clashes gave him a reputation which for now only was available for a live-audience. Imagine a mix of Jacques Tati, Lowfish and Mego and you're coming close. His debut-album will be released during 2002 on (k-raa-k)3 after building lots of live-experience as support act for Kšhn on European tours.
http://www.bfkn.be.tf
   
(k-raa-k)3 Ovil Bianca
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Ovil Bianca is by and large accepted (f.i. by Fennesz) as one of the major
talents in the electronica-field. Processed guitars being mutilated into a
world of his own; dirty grooves matching the synchronic field of glitch and
emotions. He_s currently working on a new CD which will be released early
2003, while his debut CD _Gravity=Love_ still ranks high internationally.
Appearances on Earational, Toonfestival and Pukkelpop showed he is able to
entertain a live-audience as well.

http://www.ovilbianca.com
   
Christoph Kummerer  
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Pocketnoise version 0.0b is audio software especially written for the Nintendo Gameboy card with the aim of transforming the young consumer’s most important entertainment device into a noise machine. Christoph Kummerer has put together an absolutely non-intuitive interface that will undoubtedly fan the flames of the potential users’ curiosity and sharply reduce his product’s marketing potential. True to his own motto, ‘why settle for more?’, Kummerer has built a unique 4-Bit sampler using a mixture of carefully chosen lo-fi sounds and unpredictable software ‘bugs’. In his own words: “This buggy piece of code will never leave the alpha stage. Meaning, the User is in a mental state of feeling lost, like a confused lab rat, and, at a later stage, may enjoy a world of buzzing noises.” Pocketnoise version 0.0b promises to be a challenge to the user, musician and listener again and again.

During BEDROOM POLITICS 2, Christoph Kummerer will be holding a workshop dedicated to Pocketnoise version 0.0b. He will explain and demonstrate the programme to a small group and give lessons in its use. Participants will also get an introduction in other media related open source software like ‘pure data’. Joining the workshop, which will be given in English, doesn’t mean participants necessarily need software experience.
Maximum number of participants: 15.
Information and (compulsory) registration: sonicsquare@skynet.be

http://pilot.fm
   
[rocher]~[sillon]  
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Eclectic Beats from famous Brussels e-zine publisher. [sonic]square's house
dj for Bedroom Politics.

www.brdf.net
   
qubo gas  
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It all began with apparently haphazard digital collages that were the result of patient work in Photoshop. However it wasn’t long before the trio from Lille got into Flash and other on-line possibilities to use their graphic design in search of the same affinities and qualities as their music, soul and city-mates DAT Politics. qubo gas’ surrealistic sounds and landscape images can be admired on their website. Their video clips for DAT Politics and Scratch Pet Land are in the ‘Love my Computer’ self-service video library they put together last year and which square will expand with recent work during BEDROOM POLITICS 2.

http://www.qubogas.com
   
Roving Walter Walter  
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His code name is GG_01_2AS. The name he’s known by is Roving Walter Walter He’s the first Autonomous Artificial Artist of his kind and like every other artist he is brimming over with authenticity and charisma. His costume comprises 4 wheels, 2 microphones, a camera and a laptop. His output: smelling images using sound. He records/analyses audiovisual data, and breathes down visitors’ necks with his real time compositions (schmaltz old and new).

http://mxhz.org/rww.html
   
Anne-Marie Schleiner  
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Anne-Marie Schleiner is an artist / cyberanthropologist and lectures at the Cadre Institute in San Jose, California. For some time she’s been concentrating on the culture of the computer game and has a soft spot for it. Now that games are linked more and more to on-line data, they offer – in contrast to commercial television – a form of entertainment in which there is room for a creative contribution by the user. According to Schleiner, the time is ripe for critical intervention by artists, theoreticians and Lora Croft fans so as to hack the game industry. She’s set the ball rolling with a series of game mods. Mods (short for modifications) are small items of software that supplement existing games. These additions are part of the marketing strategy of the producers of ‘Quake’ and ‘Marathon’. You can download the extras, subject to payment, via the Internet. On the other hand Schleiner’s mods are intended to disorganise the game. This means a parasitic plug-in can at any given moment replace the macho protagonists of a popular shoot-me-up game with lethargic gawks or androgynous animals. This truly interactive intervention offers innumerable possibilities for a critical view of the traditional conventions of the ‘corporate’ computer game. How this hacking at the same time forges new paths for game interaction, navigation and narration can be seen from the exhibition that Schleiner curates on the net: ‘Cracking the Maze: Game Plug-ins and Patches as Hacker Art’ compiles her ‘patchwork’ and that of her colleagues.

During BEDROOM POLITICS 2 Anne-Marie Schleiner will be giving a two-day workshop on game mods. In a small group she’ll sketch the history of the ‘genre’ and go more deeply into the aspects of computer game culture and Hacker Art. The workshop, given in English, will be both theoretical and practical (on the computer) but participants don’t necessarily need software experience.
Maximum number of participants: 10.
Information and (obligatory) registration: at sonicsquare@skynet.be

http://www.opensorcery.net/
   
Scratchrobot  
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Stijn Slabbinck has built a robot powered by e-mail. You send a mail to robot@spess.com and this incredible being will transform your message into sound by scratching on a turntable all on its own. Within 24 hours you can listen to your own mail on the spot or on the website.
http://scratchrobot.com/
   
Andrea Wilkinson  
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American graphic designer and artist currently living and working in Antwerp. Schooled in traditional media, the digital world soon became a hobby and bread-winner. More recently she has been exploring the internet as a means for personal exploration, storage, and exposition space.

http://www.andreawilkinson.com
   
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