WSK 2019

WSK celebrated its 10th edition from 15–27 October 2019, together with Nusasonic. This edition presented an overview of the intersections of art and technology in Manila and the reasons, issues and challenges the platform has faced in its decade of existence through a variety of programmes. Within the festival, Nusasonic hosted a weeklong MusicMakers Hacklab, as well as talks, concerts, and club nights. Berlin-based artist Laure Boer, who was awarded the Musicboard Berlin supported 2019 Nusasonic Residency in Manila, also performed at the festival.

Artists

Auspicious Family

Auspicious Family is an aural & visual collagist who explores abstract concepts in music through an approach which is both vicarious and subversive.

Bastard Of Beats ©

Bastard of Beats

Jon Romero a.k.a. Bastard of Beats / Tribal Control is part of Children of the Cathode Ray, one of the oldest experimental groups in the Philippines, and Elemento. He is also the co-founder of the long-running experimental music platform "Ruthless Expert Trip Mental Music" at Today X Future.

Bombo Pluto Ova ©

Bombo Pluto Ova

Known for their frenetic energy and devil-may-care attitude during live sets, Bombo Pluto Ova is the longest, if not the only, rock n roll band that pushes the limit between static and sonic (or between noise and nuance) in Cebu’s current music scene.

Cari Padu ©

Children of Cathode Ray

Children of Cathode Ray was established in 1989 and regarded as one of the earliest experimental sound art groups in the Philippines. Its original members were: Tad Ermitano on video, visuals, bass, synthesizers, electronics, efx, computers; Jing Garcia (a.k.a. autoceremony) on audio, synthesizers, electronics, efx, computers; Blums Borres on lead guitars, efx, graphics, computers; Peter Marquez on lighting effects, electronics, photos, and visuals; Regiben Romana on percussions, efx; Magyar Tuazon on visual effects, bass, electronics

Chris Murillo ©

Chris Murillo

Chris Murillo is an artist, sculptor, and designer.  An avid explorer of the possibilities of sounds – he has been on a constant quest to find any of the infinite number of varied sound sources and sounding materials around us.

Erick Calilan ©Erick Calilan

Erick Calilan

Sound artist, hardware hacker, and experimental musician whose works mainly focus on the illogical use of consumer-based electronic devices and the reverse-engineering of technology. His practice includes sound, kinetic and interactive installations, sound-based compositions, and field recordings.

Joee and I ©Joee and I

Joee and I

Joee & I is an electronic music act by musician and multimedia artist Joee Mejias and various collaborators. Her music combines field recordings, traditional and found instruments, electronics, and voice, forming songs that evoke inner memories, altered dream states, and fragments of real or imaginary journeys.

Dignos and Adrianne ©

Dignos x Adrianne

Adrianne and Dignos are residents of Manila’s queer night, Elephant, and club XX XX, and proud members of the LGBTQI community. They have trail-blazed the local dance community for many years.

Eric Tuban / Libya Montes ©

Eric Tuban / Libya Montes

Erik Tuban is a producer/publisher who runs PAWN Records and PAWN Press.

Escuri ©

Escuri

Jett Ilagan is a music producer and sound and visual artist from Laguna, Philippines. He actively performs original musical soundscapes under the moniker of ëescurií.

.GIFKIDS ©

.GIFKIDS

.GIFKIDS /dot-jif-kids/ ist ein Animations-Duo, das mit glitzernden 3D-Illustrationen & Animationen spielt. Sie stellen zufällige und skurrile Ästhetik und Storytelling mit dynamischen Frames und anregenden Bewegungen nebeneinander.

Ignaz Schick ©

Ignaz Schick

Als Turntablist, Klangkünstler, Komponist, Kurator und bildender Künstler begann Ignaz Schick seine musikalische Ausbildung zunächst mit dem Saxophon und trat in Free Jazz- und Avant-Rock-Bands auf.

Lafidki ©

Lafidki

Lafidki is the moniker of London-based Saphy Vong, who has been releasing experimental electronic music since 2008. The London-based sound/visual artist is also founder of Chinabot, a platform and collective created to change the dialogue surrounding Asian music. 

Laure Boer ©

Laure Boer

Berlin-based multi-instrumentalist and singer Laure Boer is inspired by electronic and traditional folk music.

Madam Bwakewa x extreme meth in my bloodstream ©

Madam Bwakewa x extreme meth in my bloodstream

Madam Bwakeva as The Karaoke Superstar is essentially rooted from the magic charm of BOHOVEE; the grand alter ego of Martin de Mesa. Martin is a Filipino Interdisciplinary Artist who has core practices in performance art, addressing issues about BOHOVEE.

Mariano Batocabe ©

Mariano Batocabe

Mariano Batocabe is an artist-curator that is primarily influenced by history, culture, and identity. He practices across different mediums such as drawing, installation, and photography.

Mark Omega ©

Mark Omega

Mark Omega is a self-titled experimental musician based in Roxas City, Capiz, Philippines. He primarily works in the field of noise but frequently drifts into numerous mediums of sounds such as improvisation, dark industrial, and environmental ambient music which focuses on his intent to visualize his inner sub consciousness and explore his natural environment through field recordings.

Miko Revereza ©

Miko Revereza

Miko Revereza is a filmmaker based in Manila, Philippines. His upbringing as an undocumented immigrant in the United States informed many of his films; DROGA! (2014), DISINTEGRATION 93-96 (2017), No Data Plan (2018) and Distancing (2019).

marum © Filipe Baixinho

Marum

Rooted between Berlin and Lisbon, marum’s unashamed worship sessions of hypnotic, acidic techno, thoughtfully binding fast-paced rave beats with meditative soundscapes, have been spreading throughout numerous parties, clubs and festivals.

Cheryl Ong © Cheryl Ong
Singapore

Cheryl Ong

A Singaporean percussionist who is active in music performance and education, Cheryl Ong regularly performs with avantgarde rock group, The Observatory. She has also played with SA, a trio that fuses traditional Chinese instruments and electronics.

Gabber Modus Operandi ©

Gabber Modus Operandi

Gabber Modus Operandi was accidentally founded by Kasimyn and Ican Harem following their fad staging at an underground punk concert in Denpasar. After some DJ- and MC-ing, Kasimyn began producing tracks for the duo using the smallest musical instrument: the Mini Synth Teenage Engineering OP-1, while Ican Harem provides vocals and joke-filled improvisation.

Peter Kirn © Maria Kuzmina

Peter Kirn

Peter Kirn is an audiovisual artist, composer/musician, technologist, and journalist. He is the editor of CDM (createdigitalmusic.com and createdigitalmotion.com) and co-creator of the open source MeeBlip hardware synthesizer (meeblip.com).

Tad Ermitaño ©Tad Ermitaño

Tad Ermitaño

Tad Ermitaño is a key figure in new media art in the Philippines and Southeast Asia. His sphere of influence reaches back to the late 1980s, when he co-founded the media collective Children of Cathode Ray, one of the first experimental sound art groups in the Philippines.

The Observatory

The Observatory –a name that may suggest passive objectivity, but which really describes a band whose music is an impassioned response to the society it is enmeshed in. A world where politics have failed us, power and greed rule us, and hate and ignorance divide us.

Kasimyn ©

Kasimyn

Originally from a ghetto in North Jakarta, and now a resident in Southern Bali, Kasimyn has been cited by Fact magazine stylistically as “a mayhem of anti-aesthetic fun”. He has also been featured in Boiler Room’s Pure Rave Article and contributed a mix for its’ Global Hard Dance Mix no 9.

C-drik © by Andrea Kriszai

C-drík

Born in Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo), and currently based in Berlin, C-drík is a musician, activist, curator, DJ and author. He runs Syrphe, a recording label focusing on electronic and noise music from Asia and Africa, and establishing connections between different disciplines and media. 

Noisebath ©

Noisebath

Noisebath PH is a loose collective of noise and experimental artists based in Metro Manila. Started by Ryan Pangilinan (Hibernation) as an online platform for experimental artists to share their works and discuss things about experimental sound art and everything in between.

Pisitakun © Keith Jones

Pisitakun

Thai experimental artist Pisitakun Kuantalaeng is a purveyor in noise, folding personal loss with the fraught recent political upheaval of his native Thailand.

Cari Padu ©

Rambo

Using self-built music machines as modular synths, effects pedals, and circuit-bent instruments, Rambo’s musical arsenal is comprised of an array of electro-acoustic oddities. His instruments are built using recycled cheap and low-cost materials, or what he terms “dirtronics.” 

Sooncrazy ©

Sooncrazy

Sooncrazy is Oduns, Oduns is Sooncrazy - a name inspired by the Apocalypse comic by Yuu Kuraishi and Kazu Inabe. Born in Gianyar, Bali, he has been active in the region’s experimental music scene since 2013 and consistently producing releases.

Spaaawn ©

Spaaawn

spaaawn is a sound art project based in Iloilo City, Philippines. Exploring the subtleties of nature with electronics, stitching together an amalgamation of the past and present static into the daily stream of noise in the internet age.

Tin Titus ©

Tin Titus

Tin Titus is the alter ego of Lawrence Ang, a producer and performer of minimal techno and experimental electronic music. Tin Titus explores the grey area between organic and artificial modes of composition and sound design, drawing inspiration from captured sounds across various cultural contexts and experimenting with nature-based media to randomize the creative process.

Tusa Montes ©

Tusa Montes

Tusa Montes is a percussionist, ethnomusicologist, and educator who specializes in the musics of the Philippines, Asia, West Africa, and Latin America. She graduated in 2012 with a MM Musicology degree at the University of the Philippines College of Music.

Joee and I ©Joee and I

Joee and I

Joee & I is an electronic music act by musician and multimedia artist Joee Mejias and various collaborators. Her music combines field recordings, traditional and found instruments, electronics, and voice, forming songs that evoke inner memories, altered dream states, and fragments of real or imaginary journeys.

Bruder ©

Bruder

Bruder is the music manager of Manila nightclub XX XX, as well as hobby DJ playing music ranging from electronic, downtempo, psych, world music, experimental & more.

Elemento

There is fine art, with its highly elite conceptualizations and strict inclinations towards the academic on the one hand, and on the other end, there is folk art, which takes inspiration from popular culture or pop art.