IMA_lounge: Raime & snd

The first IMA_lounge of 2013 bridges the gap between experimental sounds and contemporary electronic dance music.

With »Raime« one of the most mysterious and hip acts of the innovative London club scene comes to Baden-Württemberg for the first time. Raime is known for its bass tones and dark sounds enriched by intricate rhythms and reduced sound design, all present in a fulminating audio-visual show.

With »snd«, a duo from Sheffield, two ‘veterans’ of electronic music will also making a premier appearance in a Karlsruhe premiere at the ZKM. In the 1990s, snd made a decisive mark on the sound of the »Clicks & Cuts«, by producing abstract beats and driving rhythms in a distanced, quasi-scientific form. The duo had already been on tour with big names in the genre such as Autechre.

The evening is supported by Karlsruher DJ team »Redlock & Friday Dunard«, who deejay before, in between and after concerts (Kraut, Techno, Synth). The IMA_lounge is something for both legs and ears!

snd was founded by Mark Fell and Mat Steel in Sheffield (UK), in 1998. Fell and Steel met while at art school, and had already worked on various projects together. Their first, somewhat low-key 12” record entitled »TPlay«, released under their own label of the same name, was followed by three critically acclaimed albums under the label »Mille Plateaux« – meanwhile having gone bust – and propelled snd to the pinnacle of the new digital minimalism. Following their album »Tender Love« (2002), the duo appeared disillusioned by the treadmill of production and the proliferation of the genres, and dedicated themselves to other projects such as solo works, the curation of events, remixes for Ryuichi Sakamoto, for example, or sound design for »The Designers Republic«, similarly from Sheffield. After a five-year break in recording, snd returned in 2008 with the release of “4,5,6”. The triple vinyl limited edition set of 350 copies worldwide was practically sold out overnight and shot directly to several best-of charts 2008. Their fourth album »Atavism« was released in March 2009 under the label Raster Noton. The experience of a snd performance can have an alienating, captivating, dynamic and merciless effect; each event is a unique investigation into the relationship between performer, public, software and context.

Raime are Joe Andrews and Tom Halstead, an enigmatic duo from London in search of the renewal of electronic composition which is both physically as well as emotionally curious. Their debut album »Quarter Turns Over A Living Line« was released in November 2012 under the perceptive label »Blackest Ever Black«, which appeared in conjunction with a breathtaking new audio-visual live show. With over three completely sold out EPs and a series of select, powerful live recordings as well as gigs with prominent musicians such as Hype Williams a Cut Hands, Raime have evolved an entire realm of shaded aesthetics. Their music contains a creeping, inevitable acoustic truth, which persistently and mercilessly pours forth from the loudspeakers and weaves together huge waves of beautifully convoluted and artistically industrial sound with stomach-convulsing rhythmic circles.

The Karlsruhe producers and DJs Redlock and Friday Dunard regularly organize »Kabelkraut« parties in Radio Oriente and »Echo Waves« in Vanguarde, both night clubs in Karlsruhe. Intoxicated by James Holden, Four Tet, Caribou and others, they create a diverse range of sounds between surfaces, wackiness and rave. They belong to the Karlsruhe artist’s collective nil, and founded the record label Syff at the end of 2012.