Dekmantel aan 't IJ

Alabaster Deplume / / Grote Zaal
Hailing from Manchester via London, Angus Fairbairn aka Alabaster dePlume is a saxophonist, spoken word artist and writer. Eccentric at heart, the Brit makes music that’s simply impossible to categorise, spanning the realms of performance poetry, folk, jazz and beyond. Previously described as ‘cheerfully uneasy’, a dePlume performance is somewhat like an odd and witty fairytale that’s impossible to fully dissect yet wonderful to witness—especially in a live concert setting.

Robert Henke CBM 8032 AV / / Grote Zaal
Electronic music pioneer, Ableton Live co-creator, and audio-visual artist Robert Henke assembles a lineup of restored CBM (Commodore Business Machines) for a mind-melting AV showcase. The performance, which merges contemporary concepts with 40-year-old technology, is an experiment that pushes the limits of what can be achieved with early computers, borrowing from the sci-fi, tech optimism of the 1980s. Despite their limited processing power – the microchip in today’s average domestic washing machine is around 100,000 times more powerful – the machines construct awe-inspiring, psychedelic patterns, swirling Matrix-style streams of code and flickering green images. The sonics generated are sparse but hypnotic: wavering sine waves, clicks, bleeps, and cuts.

Caterina Barbieri & Space Afrika present Last Track (w/ MFO)/ / Grote Zaal
A match made in heaven, Caterina Barbieri and Space Afrika's collaboration was first unveiled at Berlin Atonal 2023 and has been blowing minds around the world ever since. Enveloped in a magical encounter, Barbieri's eerie musical patterns meet Space Afrika’s spacious urban dub, generating entirely new sonic terrain for the respective artists. Through samples – rain, voices, traffic, poetry – a subjective narrative unfolds, projected by the audience onto the scenographic tableaus of sound; gentle, roving synth, strings, and spiralling vocal refrains.

Nosaj Thing & Daito Manabe / / Grote Zaal
Step into a cybernetic universe – a virtual reality where Daito Manabe's algorithmically generated images collide with Nosaj Thing's cosmic sound design. Longtime collaborators, in a live context, the duo's synergy is palpable, reflecting a seamless merging not only of two creative minds but also of the human body and technology, bridging the gap between real and synthetic worlds. With a background in hip hop, Jason Chang (AKA Nosaj Thing) rose to fame off the back of his 2009 album Drift. Connected to the innovative Los Angeles Leisure label, his music draws on hip hop's heavy use of samples and rhythmic potency but glides onwards to airy, softer, and more dream-like places. Meanwhile, Manabe is a multi-talented creator (composer, programmer, designer, DJ and VJ, as well as the founder of the Rhizomatiks studio) whose work reflects on the possible hybrids between man and machine..

James K / / Kleine Zaal
Step into the shadowy underworld of James K. Ethereal and eerie, her music takes shape in the nether regions of ambient, gently pulsating techno, and fuzzy shoegaze. The New York-based, multidisciplinary artist has spent the last decade slipping in and out of various internet and social media personas, joining together cyberpunk visuals with highly stylised lyrics that read like intimate diary entries. Releasing on Incienso, AD 93, PAN, and via her own label, She Rocks!, James hosts shows on NTS Radio, and has collaborated with underground royalty Yves Tumor, 3XL and Drew McDowall.

XIII / / Kleine Zaal
Released at the tail end of 2023 on Knekelhuis, Permanent Rain by XIII is best described simply as 'luminous.' The album is a concoction of mutant raga, neofolk, and Celtic fantasies, where cavernous rhythms and contemporary electronics intertwine with mysticism. XIII, also known as Alessio Capovilla, is a producer and one of the minds behind the multidisciplinary Gang Of Ducks label, on which he debuted with No (The Relative Effect of Explication) in 2015. Moving through hazy clouds, Capovilla enacts pagan rituals using sound synthesis, computer manipulation, and field recordings. Opening portals between different sonic styles, his music is elusive yet deeply entrancing, defying easy categorisation.

Loek Frey live / / Kleine Zaal
Loek Frey is one of the most exciting talents to have emerged from the Dutch scene in recent times. It’s his imaginative and textural blend of IDM, techno, breakbeat and drum & bass that’s turning heads, not least with his ‘Decipher’ album: a widescreen soundscape of varying intensities and tempos released on Woody92’s Omen Wapta imprint. What makes Loek Frey stand out among peers is his ability to veer between highly intricate and experimental to hallucinatory and emotive sound stuctures—something you’ll most definitely experience in this live Dekmantel debut.