Kobo Town, © Promo
Ti-Coca + Wanga Négès, Foto: Caroline Mardok
I Walked With a Zombie, film still, © Filmmuseum Berlin - Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek

Jul 9–25, 2009

Wassermusik: The Caribbean and Accordion

Summer Open-Air Festival

Concerts, Sound installation, Films, Performances, Workshops, Lectures
Jul 9–25, 2009

Jamaica, Haiti, Trinidad & Tobago, Cuba: This summer, WASSERMUSIK will be sailing between the harbours of the Caribbean. The region is a cosmos in itself; almost every island offers its own unique mixture of culture, language and music. This world in between – between Europe, Africa and the two Americas – is constantly creating new sounds going beyond Reggae, Calypso and Son, which have long since secured themselves a permanent place in the pop universe.

In an exchange with New York and Paris, the Caribbean sound box continues to create new styles. WASSERMUSIK 09 will be presenting these in concert double-packs by the river Spree: Horace Andy (Jamaica), Los Hermanos Morales (Cuba), Kobo Town (Trinidad/Canada), Lee „Scratch“ Perry & Adrian Sherwood (Jamaica/GB), Omar Sosa (Cuba), The Mighty Sparrow (Trinidad), Ti-Coca et Wanga Négès (Haiti). Ob Calypso-König, Dub-Magier, Orgel-Ungetüm and Piano-Ästhet – the line-up is as varied as the Caribbean island world itself.

Where there are harbours, there are also accordions.Thanks to seamen and emigrants, it rapidly conquered the entire world during the second half of the 19th century. And wherever the little man's orchestra appeared, new forms of music were created, such as Norteño in Mexico, Forró in Brazil and Tango in Argentina. WASSERMUSIK 09 will be celebrating the rich diversity of accordion music with Chango Spasiuk (Argentina), Clan Brasil (Brazil), coba (Japan), Ray Abshire (USA), Jorge de Altinho (Brazil), René Lacaille (Réunion), Tango Crash (Argentina). J-Pop, Elektro-Tango, Chamamé, Tex-Mex and Forró: your toes will be itching to dance!!

Carillon player Jeffrey Bossin will introduce every concert with his "Water Jingle", especially composed for Water Music 09.

And that's not all: our summer festival also includes events on the green beach by the Spree, films that follow the trails of Rastas, Calypsonians and Acordeonistas, and a reading by Louis-Philippe Dalembert (Haiti).

You will also find infos on every aspect of the Caribbean, cocktails that are anything but watery and, last but not least: the sunset behind the oyster.

Within the framework of the conference "Colonial Kaleidoscope: The Caribbean at the Center of Processes of Cultural Transfer in the Nineteenth Century", there will be readings, lectures, and discussions.