Lecture / Talk
[BAUTOPIA] Binetou Sylla in conversation with Adamantios Kafetzis
GLOBAL SOUTH GROOVES
Friday, October 9th
PLEX
20:00 - 22:00
Free Entrance
For the first time in Athens, Binetou will join us to share her selection from Wèrè Wèrè Music, but also to share with the audience the experience of researching, preserving and publishing the lost music from deep corners of Africa, and fighting for the rights of the authors. This session is followed by the “global south” party which brings Uganda’s Nyege Nyege back to Athens, with Kampire’s unique selection and energy. Be ready for outernational beats and latest productions from the farthest corners of the global music scene!
20:00 – 22:00 – Artist Talk
Binetou Sylla with Adamantios Kafetzis
Binetou (Music Producer / Founder / Director, Wèrè Wèrè Music) DJ set
Binetou Sylla is a French-Senegalese executive music producer and author, founder and director of the independent label Wèrè Wèrè Music, which she runs from Paris and Lagos. She spent ten years at the head of Syllart Records, the label founded by her father Ibrahima Sory Sylla, where she rebuilt the contractual base of a catalogue of more than 30,000 tracks, cleared its rights, digitised its masters and brought the label’s YouTube channel close to two million subscribers, and she went on to lead Def Jam Africa for Universal Music France. A former music columnist for Le Monde, co-author of Le Dérangeur and co-producer of the podcast Piment on Radio Nova, she works between Paris and the continent to build lasting structures for African music.
Adamantios (Teranga Beat) DJ set
Adamantios Kafetzis, visual artist, intensive record collector, DJ, owner of the Teranga Beat record label and editor of the Eligo Audio Culture website. Adamantios Kafetzis curates DJ-sets of rare power and true feeling, always presenting unpredictable recordings. After extensive research and regular visits to Senegal and its neighboring countries, he decided to establish Teranga Beat Records, bringing to the fore a well-hidden chapter of West African music. Based in Dakar, Teranga Beat started in 2010, releasing “Diamonoye Tiopité – L’ Epoque De L’Evolution”. To date, Teranga Beat has released 14 releases. Hybrid Grooves from around the world.
SONOTOPIA - The Soundtrack to Bautopia Festival
This years’ seventh edition of ECHN’s annual BAUTOPIA event is the largest to date. It is a culture and creativity festival in the true sense of the word, with numerous programs across different venues, including exhibitions, guided tours, book launches and special activities. It is only logical that it also presents its own music programming, across the venues Bios, Romantso, Latraac and Plex.
Each BAUTOPIA event is co-hosted by one of ECHN's member hubs. Under the title CREATIVE AGENCY: Sustaining Culture & Creativity in the Age of Intelligence, creative hub managers, CCSI stakeholders, artists, creative professionals, students and the general audience will explore sustainability not only from the environmental standpoint, but also the sustainability of creative professions in the face of multiple crises.
This October, our host will be BIOS in Athens, which encompasses several well-known venues and hubs, including Bios itself, Romantso, Plex and Latraac, each offering a different spatial context for exhibiting, performing and learning. With many CCSI professionals converging to Athens for the event, we decided to extend and develop the event’s music program, and give it its own identity under the SONOTOPIA banner.
You can expect four distinct music events, featuring artists from Greece, Switzerland, France, Denmark, the UK and Uganda, from playful experiments and pure noise, over eclectic dance selections, all the way to cutting-edge drum’n’bass, jungle and dubstep plates, rounded up by a party focusing on the sounds of the global south and bringing the vibes of renowned Nyege Nyege Tapes label, which recontextualized contemporary African dance music for the new generations of audiences.
The artists include the meccano master Pierre Bastien, making a comeback to Athens after 15 years since his last performance; Kampire, the lady on the forefront of the Nyege Nyege Tapes global takeover; Binetou, founder and director of Wèrè Wèrè Music which builds Bridges between African contemporary music and the world, and a producer and DJ herself; Klinical, one of the leaders of the new wave of UK bass music; Insomniac, Swiss bass and jungle DJ regularly moving around the European circuit; Ivanol, Chilean-born but Danish-based noise doctor; as well as selected local contributions from the likes of Jay Glass Dubs, K.atou, Adamantios and Cryogenics.
More confirmations are being expected, as well as a safe, easy-listening afternoon refuge at Latraac, for those wishing to move away from the noise and the crowd, and the Craft Club pop-up, in which everyone is invited to dance or chill, but one way or the other - to do some crochet!
A little bit of everything, for everyone!
Individual tickets are available via the bios/Plex website, priced at 10-15 EUR per event. All ECHN members have free entry with their conference pass, while all those who are not part of ECHN and have registered for the free admission to the conference will also need to purchase their individual SONOTOPIA tickets.
However, we are also presenting two FREE OF CHARGE parties as part of SONOTOPIA, the ATHENS DUBS event on Thursday, October 8th, at 11PM at Romantso, and the STEPPAZ & BASS with Clinical, Insomniac and Cryogenics event on Friday October 9th. Everyone is welcome!