Yogyakarta | Nusasonic experimental sound and music festival

Nusasonic is a multi-year project, an initiative of the Goethe-Institutes in Southeast Asia, that plunges into a broad spectrum of experimental sound and music cultures in Southeast Asia, enabling dialogue within the region, with Europe, and beyond. It kicks off 2–13 October 2018 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, beginning as a multi-day lab where new artist pairings, a hacklab, and a sonic wilderness group play together and create new musical works, ideas, and possibilities. Later in the week and weekend, the festival showcases the results of these works within a programme that also includes concerts, a club night, guerrilla outdoor events, and daytime programme of talks, panels, and workshops.

Nusasonic takes its title from “Nusantara,” an ancient Javanese term which is nowadays used to address the multiple connections between Southeast Asian countries. Nusasonic will incorporate a mix of formats such as artistic labs, commissioned works, concerts, installations, festivals, lectures, publications and more to look at how contemporary sound practices enable connections and dialogues within the Southeast Asian region and with Europe, all while paying critical attention to local contexts and ongoing global asymmetries. In addition to presenting outstanding artistic voices to the public, the initiative will aim to support artists in their practice, to strengthen local networks, to encourage cross-border and inter-cultural cooperation, and to contribute to broadening the understanding of contemporary sound practices.

Adopting a multi-perspective approach, the project is collaboratively created by Yes No Klub (Yogyakarta), WSK Festival of the Recently Possible (Manila), Playfreely/BlackKaji (Singapore), and CTM Festival for Adventurous Music & Art (Berlin).

Following the kick-off in Yogyakarta, Nusasonic will take different shapes and formats and visit Manila, Singapore, and other locations in Southeast Asian over the coming years. The initiative will also connect to Berlin and to some extent the globe.

Nusasonic is an initiative of the Goethe-Institutes in Southeast Asia.