The Heroines of Sound Festival opens with two brilliant solo sets: percussionist Katharina Ernst brings distorted electronic sounds into contact with hypnotising polyrhythms and razor-sharp drum beats. Farida Amadou's live electric bass set is characterised by an inner tension on the brink of implosion, situated at the intersection of blues, hip-hop, ambient and noise.

The Kompopolex ensemble will then make its festival debut with their percussive cross-genre compositions: “The Hug” by Greta Eacott and “Mondo Manifesto” by Stellan Veloce are new works commissioned by the festival. In addition, the ensemble presents the German premiere of recent works by Marta Śniady, Sofie Meyer, Kelley Sheehan and Monika Dalach. This extraordinary trio’s musical programme delves into ecological themes and questions transhumanist tendencies through the use of percussion, accordion and electronics.

Panel I: “Activists in the female/non-binary music scene – lone warriors, or networked and cooperative?”
Women, non-binary and transgender artists are active in the electronic music scene not only as composers and musicians, but also as curators, concert organisers and blog activists. Their continuous development of new projects, actions and ideas contribute to the rich diversity of the current music scene in a meaningful way. This panel invites different projects and organisations to exchange and discuss current ideas, strategies and experiences, and to promote the communication and networking of non-binary, diverse projects in electronic music across different musical genres.