In Berlin, experimental music is called Echtzeitmusik, or real time music. Today, it encompasses a great variety of genres: free jazz, improvised and new music, noise, rock, experimental pop, electronica, sound art and everything in between.
There is a pool of highly skilled Echtzeitmusik musicians with an international reputation. The scene is constantly growing, organising and defining itself, and offering a huge variety of concerts every day of the year.
A friend of mine was recently here and went out to concerts every night and she said, 'Berlin today is like a 1000 flowers blooming'.
‘There is an international flavour to this city but at the same time it’s not as stressful as New York, where you are running around all the time to get your money together,’ says Gregor Hotz, curator and founder of stalwart venue Ausland Berlin. ‘If you think about the speed in the streets and the noise—in certain areas it's so calm and so quiet you don't even think you're in a city.’
‘All these factors I think are positive for your personal work, if you try to play good music or if you try to make good art.’
Even though Berlin is increasingly affluent, it's still affordable compared to other capitals in Europe. The beginnings of the Echtzeitmusik scene in the mid 90s were closely linked to the squatting movement after the fall of the Berlin Wall, mainly in what was formerly East Berlin. These squats were often centres for cultural activities with galleries, theatres, music venues and independent cinemas.
Listen: From Berlin, words and music
‘It all started for me really in this club that was in my squat that I used to live in, in [Berlin neighbourhood] Prenzlauer Berg,’ says Conrad Noack, a music curator who grew up in Berlin. ‘It was a very art oriented squatting scene.’
‘The bar was called Anorak and it was basically the birthplace for what is now called the Echzeitmusik scene. Maybe it was a little bit like NY in the 80s, in the Anorak in the 90s.’
‘We did have problems with fascists in Prenzlauer Berg—on the May 1 we had to barricade our windows and there were three incidents where our house was set on fire.’
The history of Berlin as a place with strong oppositional political and artistic movements started a long time ago. It's different to any other city in Germany, and a lot of the music coming from Berlin in the '70s and '80s had a big impact.
‘It’s absolutely corrupted this city, completely, in terms of economics and politics,’ says Hotz. ‘I’m sure this is because of the history, that the West Berlin part was always financed by external powers, as well as the east part because both parts for both systems for both states were showcases. That's where they were competing.’
‘So there was always an underground movement and it’s not here only because of the unification. It was there before, absolutely.’
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There are a growing number of Australian musicians moving to Berlin, and many are active members of the Echtzeitmusik community.
Toby Buck, drummer for experimental Sydney jazz band The Necks, has lived in Berlin since the mid '90s.
‘A friend of mine was recently here and went out to concerts every night and she said, “Berlin today is like a 1000 flowers blooming”.’
‘I think it’s a very poetic and quite accurate summing up of the scene today.’
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