67th International Festival of Contemporary Music

The 67^th International Festival of Contemporary Music, Micro-Music, is dedicated to digital sound and to its production and diffusion in acoustic space using state-of-the-art technologies and experimental research. The Festival presents a wide spectrum of the innovative stylistic trends and creative research of today’s international music scene, embracing installative, performative and online forms, with several world premieres commissioned by the Biennale Musica and co-productions with other major international festivals. The intention behind Micro-Music is to evoke music generated through microphone and to explore the microscopic nature of sound. It is a festival that aims to highlight the beauty and complexity of digital sound and of the new compositional possibilities it offers.

The Festival consists of 6 different sections: Sound Microscopies; Sound Installations/Sound Exhibitions; Stylus Phantasticus-The Sound Diffused by Venetian Organs; Club Micro-Music; Sound Studies; Digital Sound Horizons

Brian Eno receives the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Music 2023 for his research into the quality, beauty and diffusion of digital sound and for his conception of the acoustic space as a compositional instrument. The renowned composer, producer, visual artist and activist, tireless innovator in the fields of compositional creativity and applied digital sound technology, will present the world premiere of his project Ships at the Teatro La Fenice.

Sound Microscopies will include world premieres of works investigating the complexity and diffusion of sound in acoustic space specially commissioned by the Biennale Musica from Brian Eno, Miller Puckette, Francesca Verunelli, Joanna Bailie and Marcus Schmickler, as well as several Italian premieres: As I Live And Breatheby Morton Subotnick, who celebrates the 60^th anniversary of his first appearance at the Biennale Musica in 1963; the reconstruction of GLIA by the legendary pioneer of electronic music Maryanne Amacher, in collaboration with the CTM Festival of Berlin; Robert Henke’s celebrated work of computer sound archaeology Commodore cbm 8032, and a new production of the cycle Professor Bad Trip by Fausto Romitelli, who would have turned 60 this year.

The Sound Installations section presents installative sound works in a variety of different performative forms and modalities specially designed for specific spaces in the city of Venice, commissioned by the Biennale Musica from artists of different generations and differing compositional tendencies.

The Club Micro-Music section presents various aspects and stylistic trends in the performance of live electronics, with concerts conceived for the spaces of the Teatro alle Tese, where the audience, standing or sitting, can access the events at different times. Performances of experimental electronic music will be entrusted to artists, sound designers, DJs and producers active on the world stage and recognised by the wider public, including Lamin Fofana, Jjjjjerome Ellis, Jace Clayton AKA Dj Rupture, Steve Goodman AKA Kode9, Loraine James, Aya, Emme, S280F, Soft Break, Yen Tech, Snufkin, the acclaimed composers of soundtracks Nicolas Becker and Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, the young Congolese performer and activist David Shongo, and the mythical English collective Autechre.

This year, too, the Biennale College Musica 2023 will operate as a project integrated organically in the conception and planning of the Festival. Ten new productions of the College complete the programme, part of the section entitled Digital Sound Horizons, which explores the present and future boundaries of the interaction between science, technology and musical creativity. The call for participants for the Biennale College Musica 2023, which is dedicated to creativity and research in the field of digital sound, attracted the interest of almost 300 artists under the age of 30 from all over the world, with projects from 61 countries.