KREUZTANBUL@Worldtronics

For the last three years, the Kreuztanbul-Festival has built a bridge between the Spree and the Bosphorus. In collaboration with Alexander Hacke, bassist of Einstürzenden Neubauten, WORLDTRONICS presents the second evening of Worldtronics with the creative Berliner Urgestein. For years Hacke has been deeply influenced by Turkish music. Fatih Akin's "Crossing the Bridge" impressively documented Hacke’s fascinating journey through Istanbul’s music scene. At WORLDTRONICS 09, he brings his psychedelicnoisy guitar bands and other noisemakers from the Golden Horn to Berlin.

"This phenomenon isn’t only to be observed in the history of pop music: there comes a time when the constellation of stars shines favorably on a city and a wave of inspiration sweeps over it: then a window opens to the world.

That’s what happened to Berlin in the 80s. In the 90s, Seattle established itself as the birthplace for innovative music, and it seems as if Istanbul is now seizing the moment early on in the millennium. Nowhere else in the world has there been such a consistently peaceful clash of history and culture between the orient and occident. The Kreuztanbul Festival plays an important role not only in presenting the creativity of the Bosporus metropolis, but in establishing and deepening the parallels and connections to the evolution of Berlin’s music scene. The event will certainly show once again how much we can learn from each other. As curator of this WORLDTRONICS evening, it has been a joy to engage again with Istanbul’s incredible music and to present some of its most interesting new projects, and rarely seen traditional performances. Have fun taking part in an understanding among nations!

Alexander Hacke