Psychic Liberation

Thank you, Nick Klein, for everything you’ve done with the Psychic Liberation series at Roter Salon. Your label and event series creates a vital, uncompromising presence in the underground scene and beyond. You’ve consistently held space for the artists and energies that don’t fit the mold, giving voice to the unspoken and a platform for boundary-pushing nerds with beers <3 Your work has been a beacon for the OG underground—not only preserving it but pushing it forward. Thank you for all the care, the noise, and your generosity. We hope to meet again in a different form and the same spirit.

Psychic Liberation (PL) is a label founded in 2013, originally ran with Miguel Alvariño titled Primitive Languages as a cassette and record store project in New York City. It is now operated solo by Nick Klein since 2019 under the working title Psychic Liberation out of the EU. The eponymous concert series in the Red Salon takes place with changing guests. On May 31st we are happy to present the final Psychic Liberation at Roter Salon with Hugo Esquinca, Naoki Nomoto, Mark Matter and Wilki Wolkendorf.

Hugo Esquinca (Mexico City, 1990) produces actions and conditions utilising audio electronics at excessive levels of amplification. His work has been presented in diverse contexts and venues such as EMPAC-New York, Stedelijk Museum, Muziekgebouw-Amsterdam, National Centre for Contemporary Arts NCCA-Moscow, Museum Nikola Tesla-Zagreb, Festspielhaus HELLERAU-Dresden, CONCRETE Alserkal-Dubai, Namba BEARS-Osaka, 20000V-Tokyo, MIRA Ploschad of Modern Art Siberia-Krasnoyarsk, Le Centquatre-Paris, Fondazione Antonio Ratti-Como, Ujazdowski Castle for Contemporary Art-Warsaw, Palacio de la Escuela de Medicina-CDMX, ARTER Museum-Istanbul, Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Akademie der Künste, Radialsystem, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Tresor and Berghain-Berlin among others.

Naoki Nomoto is a computer/electronic musician and programmer with the experience in sonic art based in Tokyo, Japan. His work explores the intersection of modular synthesis and algorithmic composition, using a music programing language like SuperCollider alongside modular systems. His recent notable releases include “Synthesis Performed by Anonymous Performers at Ideala” (SUPERPANG, 2021), „Live at Ftarri“ with Yoshiki Ichihara (Ftarri, 2022) and “Non-Musica Elettronica Gruppo” by N.G. with PAINJERK (Self release, 2023).

Marc Matter (‘1974 Basel, CH) works artistically and as a researcher in the field between sound and spoken language. Works appear on records (Futura Resistenza, Chocolate Monk, Mount Analogue, Slim Volume, Spoken Matter), as commissioned works for radio (Deutschlandradio, SWR, WDR) and as live performances. These performances are based on pre-mediatized samples collected from radio, TV, and the internet and can therefore be considered ’sample poetry’ – a kind of sonic poetry based on found sound material featuring fragments of language. These fragments are recombined as clusters or loops, resulting in a quasi-musical formal approach and triggering collisions of sound and meaning.