Giga-Hertz Festival for Electronic Music and Sound Art 2025

7 pm, Cube
World premiere concerts of the Gigahertz production award winners 2022/2023, Lea Bertucci, Jessica Ekomane and Peter Gahn

The festival kicks off with the production award winners from the last Giga Hertz Festival in 2023 and the Giga Hertz Festival in 2022. 

American composer and performer Lea Bertucci received the Giga Hertz Production Award in 2023. She is now presenting the results of her residency and funding in a world premiere concert of "The Days Pass Quickly Immersed in the Shadow of Eternity"(2024–25). The composition for multi-channel loudspeakers, electronics, and historical flutes – featuring renowned flutist and musicologist Norbert Rodenkirchen – combines past and present into an immersive sound experience. Crystalline and minimalist structures unfold into a haunting reflection on time and memory, evoking archaic and futuristic soundscapes and providing an impressive mirror of the state of the Anthropocene. “The result is a poignant reminder of the echoes of history, which questions the perception of time and explores the fragility of humanity,” said juror Gosia Plysa.

French sound artist Jessica Ekomane was honored for her piece, Manifolds – a multilayered exploration of complex psychoacoustic spaces that translates the appeal of early analog synthesizers into a contemporary context. According to juror George Lewis, the piece illustrates Ekomane's ongoing exploration of "the perception of rhythmic structures, the exchange of noise and melody, the relationship between individual perception and collective dynamics, and the social roots of hearing." Now she is debuting "tempor incididunt" (2025), a piece for live electronics, as a world premiere concert. 

Peter Gahn won the 2022 Giga-Hertz Production Prize for his piece "De-Escalating Skies I+III", written for alto saxophone and live electronics. The piece is based on the sound of underground pipeline systems, whose civil and military structures Gahn translates into the “pipe sound” of the saxophone. The jury emphasized that Gahn's composition develops a complex system of sound codes that delves deep into social and political strata, framing music as a form of resistance. Rather than deriving its tension from virtuosity, the composition derives it from the inner workings of the sounds, which spread rhizomatically throughout the space and invite active listening. He is now presenting his work "To the Underside" (2024–25) for bass trombone, played by Karsten Süßmilch, double-bass trombone, played by Jan Termath, and live electronics, also as a world premiere concert. Sound direction: Thomas Hummel and Daniel Miska.

Moderation by Dr. Lea Luka Sikau and Jun.-Prof. Dr. Anna Schürmer

3 pm – 6 pm, Hertzlab
Workshop: Open Hertzlab "Popcorn in Training" 

Get active in the lab! In "Popcorn in Training," Canadian sound artist Darsha Hewitt introduces you to the history of DIY electronic sound experiments and lets us collectively compose using electronic means.
Free of charge, with prior registration.

7 pm, Cube
Award ceremony & concert of the Gigahertz Production Awards and the Production Award PopExperimental of 2025

In 2025, composer and sound artist Davor Vincze will receive a Giga-Hertz Production Award for his project, "Let the System Guide," in which he creates performative settings that actively engage the audience. Davor Vincze presents an excerpt from this work – manτεία (2024) – for fixed media for electronics and video. Adopting a critical aesthetic toward power structures, Vincze breaks down linear processes and creates spaces in which control is questioned and alternative forms of participation are experienced. His work explores the tension between human expression and digital systems by combining immersive technologies with social reflection. 

Jug Marković and Thea Soti will receive the Giga-Hertz Production Award for their collaborative project, "Trashold", which combines experimental music theater with electronic improvisation. With striking choreographic sensitivity and a focus on voice and physicality, Marković and Soti develop fragments and mosaics that explore collective narratives beyond the linear. Their work reflects the complexity of digital and social networks, opening up spaces for inclusive, polyphonic listening experiences. During this evening, they will present their work "Defiant Walks Barefoot" (2021), a fixed media piece for voice, electronics, and video.

Turntablist and British artist Nicole Raymond, who performs as NikNak, will receive the 2025 Giga-Hertz PopExperimental Production Award for developing new sonic practices that blend Afrofuturism and turntablism. Her acclaimed album, "Ireti", combines modular synthesis, live turntable techniques, and locally collected field recordings with audio-reactive visuals. Drawing inspiration from Afrofuturist literature and culture, Raymond creates immersive soundscapes merging narrative and sound design. Her work reflects on time as memory and future myth. The jury praised Raymond's innovative approaches to experimental sound and DJing.

The shortlisted artists are featured on the Sounding Future platform, where they offer an impressive array of contemporary electroacoustic music. Their works showcase the extraordinary sonic innovations of a new generation of composers and sound artists.

8:30 pm, Music Balcony
After-show party with DJ acts

7 pm, Cube
Award ceremony & concert of the Giga-Hertz Award for Lifetime Achievement with Laetitia Sonami

The Giga-Hertz Lifetime Achievement Award goes to French sound artist and performer Laetitia Sonami. Since the late 1980s, her visionary contributions have radically expanded the boundaries between sound and technology. A pioneer of sensor-based music performance and experimental electroacoustic composition, Sonami's work explores gestural curiosity and creates unprecedented sounds. The jury's statement reads: "Sonami's work transcends and challenges the conventional boundaries between performer, composer, and instrument maker, redefining the concept of virtuosity in electronic music. Her practice articulates a critical approach to technology – she rejects dominant paradigms of control and mastery, preferring embodied knowledge and unpredictability instead."

Using unique instruments such as the "Lady's Glove," the "Lady's Ball," and the "Spring Spyre," Sonami explores the intersection of the body, gesture, technology, and the listening experience. These custom-made interfaces are equipped with motion sensors that enable fluid gestural control of sonic and mechanical parameters. Sonami's work illustrates her vision of electronic music as a fully embodied experience. The evening features three works by Laetitia Sonami: "What Happened III – Now" (2025) for voice, live electronics, CodeCell sensor, Max/MSP and the Lady’s Ball (world premiere, ca. 20’), "A Song for Two Mothers" (2023) for live electronics and the Spring Spyre (ca. 22’), and "The Lady’s Glove" (2025), a 10-minute piece based on audiovisual archival footage.

11 am – 4 pm, meeting point: information desk
Workshop: Giga Hertz Festival Family Special – Programming music with Sonic Pi (German only)

Family Sunday: Ages 9 and up

To conclude the festival, the Sonic Pi workshop invites participants to explore live coding in a playful way and opens the stage for new generations of sound research.

Sonic Pi is a live coding synthesizer that allows anyone to experiment with new sounds and to program, compose, and perform music in a variety of styles.