MAIN#2 Data Airlines Festival

Date

2007-11-02

Venue

Cafe & Espace Julien

Place

Marseille, France

Type

Festival

psilodump

Live set

Organiser

Marseille_HQ

Links

Event page (may be gone)

What is this noise? What the hell are you doing with that old obsolute hardware, and why?...

Three fundamental questions that's often asked by people who had their first micromusic experience. Now, the music is not anything new, but its the first pure digital music that was really put to use in comercial technology. The videogame music generated by 1bit, 4bit or 8bit soundchips found in old computers like the Atari, Commodore and Gameboy and thats where the tearm chipmusic comes from. At the very beginning the technique to create this music was only masterd by a few who worked for gamedevelopercompanies. But the impact of the sound, because its really a sound and not a genre, was so heavy on the people playing the games ears that it didnt take long untill people themselves figured out how to master this so simple little technical chips originally only made to produce error-beeps and simple soundeffects into every kind of music you can imagine, a movement was born. There is many reasons why this music pleasuerd so many. The computers hosting the soundchips were wellspread around europe and almost ever kid had one. It was easy to get started and you could find the software needed for free on public domain disks or swapping with friends. The simplicity and limits of the technology, giving a kick to the author for being able to produce music with so little means, comparable to painters painting complicated paintings with charcoal. The pureness of the sound, making music with soundwaves generated in so few bits is the pureness of digital music but so far from the synthetic computermusic that came just a few years later, its a love for the sound that only can be shared with analogic synthfantasts. Many of the artists developed and continued making "normal" music, but as many stayed. Developing their sound and technics throughout the 90s, often in connection with the demoscene, where all the tools for creating the music came from. Since the soundfiles natuarlly are very small when you start counting the bytes, it was a natural and easy way to give music to the often very optimized demos and intros in the demoscene and hundreds of chipmusic-artists have passed through times, some forgotten some still rememberd as heroes, and thenin the end of the 90s when all this seemed to fade out and die with new technics for generating sound in a small fashion, came the hype. Suddenly micro/chipmusic started appearing everywhere, people were demanding for artists to come out and perform their pieces live. Influences of the 8bitsound could clearly be heard in every part of popular music, from rock to hiphop and techno. With a newfound love for the oldschool sound and nostalgic characters and games from the 80s, mixed with an uprise of lo-fi minimalistic electronic dancemusic, the chipmusic blasted into the new millenium. New artists mixed with the old heroes and micromusicclubs have started to appear all over the globe. People cannot stop loving the sound of 8bit music, its completly fresh at the same time as its an imortal classic. Its lo-fi music for high-tech people.

So what is this festival? And why in Marseille?
At first sight, The choice of organising an event like this in Marseille that has no big scene of micromusic might seem abit strange. But Marseille is the biggest node in the network of the Data Airlines Label and together with La Cybernostra and micro:Hq Marseille, we are certain to establish a hardcore chipmusic-movement in this city. Data Airlines is the collective labour of the cream de la creame of european crossplatform chipmusicans today. Never before have so many famous artists been gatherd under the same name and with this annual festival we want to prove to the population of south france what this music is all about. Thats why we not only bring you the complete Data Airlines Lineup but also some of the absolute best chipmusicartists from the scene. The bounds between the demoscene and the chipmusic-performers we see today are traditionally very strong and the lineup of Data Airlinesfestival at Main#2 is covering the both. Never before have the "Do it yourself" atmosphere of a musicscene been so strong as with the micromusic and with the combined strenght of Main#2 with its workshops and seminaiers and the proof of the impact of chipmusic of the Data Airlines festival there will be noone left untouched by this new and old phenomena. Happy Listening and dont forget to stretch your muscles after long periods of dancing to avoid pains the following day. This is low-tech music at its best!