Music Tech Fest
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MTF Labs AB is a Swedish company which runs labs, festivals and events to encourage cross-sector collaboration and innovation through creative work, particularly music. Its origins go back to 2012 when founder
Michela Magas Michela Magas is a designer, entrepreneur and innovation specialist, of Croatian-British nationality, and is the first woman from the Creative Industries to receive the European Woman Innovator of the Year award by the European Commission. Fami ...
established Music Tech Fest, a 3-day festival in London where people from different disciplines gathered to invent and showcase new formats and platforms for musical performance and expression. By 2016 this had evolved into a series of 5-day experimental labs – MTF Labs – where participants work to create hybrid technologies using cutting-edge source material provided by industry and academic partners. The stated aim of these labs is to “address grand challenges through curiosity, ingenuity and collaborative making.” It has been hosted worldwide by partners including
Microsoft Research New England Microsoft Research (MSR) is the research subsidiary of Microsoft. It was created in 1991 by Richard Rashid, Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold with the intent to advance state-of-the-art computing and solve difficult world problems through technologi ...
,
Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...
in Paris and the
London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...
at the Barbican in London, with participants such as
Viktoria Modesta Viktorija Moskaļova (russian: Виктория Москалёва, Viktoriya Moskalyova; born 25 February 1987), better known as Viktoria Modesta, is a Latvian-born British singer-songwriter, performance artist, creative director, and model. Mo ...
, Anouk Wipprecht,
Eska Eska Mtungwazi (born 1971), known professionally as Eska, is a London-born British singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Following her inaugural release as a solo artist with her 2013 ''Gatekeeper EP'', her eponymous debut album, ''ESKA'' ...
,
Reeps One Harry Yeff (born 18 November 1989), better known by his stage name, Reeps One is an English beatboxer, composer, artist and new media artist. Career In 2020, Reeps One joined the Experiments in Art and Technology program at Bell Labs researching ...
,
Moritz Waldemeyer Moritz Waldemeyer (born 1974) is a British/German designer and engineer. He trained as an engineer at King's College London and completed his master's degree in 2001. Since then, he has collaborated with many of the world’s top architects and ...
, and has been covered by
WIRED ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fra ...
, Make, Radio Eins,
Midem Midem is the acronym for Marché International du Disque et de l'Édition Musicale, which is organised annually in and around the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, France. The trade show, organized by Reed MIDEM, a subsidiary of Re ...
, and Makery. The MTF community now comprises some 7,000 innovators including academics, industry experts, scientists and artists, from fields such as medicine, aviation, product design, AI, music composition, microcomputing, traditional crafts, neuroscience, ecology and economics. MTF Labs AB was established in 2018 to develop and promote the activities of that community, including but not limited to festivals, innovation labs, hackathons and symposiums. Work done by MTF over the last decade has, according to Magas, had “major implications for our understanding of systems, interactions, communications or the future of work.” These discoveries have, amongst other things, led to the establishment of Industry Commons, which seeks to use the same ethos of cross-domain collaboration to shape the broader innovation landscape.


History

Music Tech Fest began as result of th
Roadmap for Music Information Research
(MIReS), a European FP7 project run by seven European research centers:
Music Technology Group The Music Technology Group (MTG) is a research group of thDepartment of Information and Communication Technologiesof the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. It was founded in 1994 by its current director, Xavier Serra, and it specializes in soun ...
at the
Universitat Pompeu Fabra Pompeu Fabra University ( ca, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, UPF, ; es, link=no, Universidad Pompeu Fabra) is a public university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia in Spain. The university was created by the Autonomous Government of Catalo ...
in Barcelona
Stromatolite
OFAI, Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Vienna, Austria
INESCP
Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores, Porto, Portugal;
IRCAM IRCAM (French: ''Ircam, '', English: Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music) is a French institute dedicated to the research of music and sound, especially in the fields of avant garde and electro-acoustical art music. It is ...
at the
Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...
in Paris; Centre for Digital Music (C4DM), Queen Mary, University of London, UK; and Barcelona Music and Audio Technology (BMAT), Barcelona, Spain. The project's Scientific Director
Michela Magas Michela Magas is a designer, entrepreneur and innovation specialist, of Croatian-British nationality, and is the first woman from the Creative Industries to receive the European Woman Innovator of the Year award by the European Commission. Fami ...
of Stromatolite launched the first Music Tech Fest event in London 2012 as a way to bring academics and practitioners together. The first festival included contributions from
EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...
,
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
,
Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...
,
SoundCloud SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming se ...
and Shazam as well as academic researchers, makers, developers and artists. MTF London 2012 featured 54 performers and presenters, 70 hackers and 70 creatives. In May 2013 the festival ran again in London with the additional involvement of all of the major record labels. In September of that year, Professor Andrew Dubber from
Birmingham City University Birmingham City University (abbrev. BCU) is a university in Birmingham, England. Initially established as the Birmingham College of Art with roots dating back to 1843, it was designated as a polytechnic (United Kingdom), polytechnic in 1971 and gai ...
joined as festival director. In 2014, the festival went on tour with events in
Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...
,
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
,
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
and
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
. In 2015 festival organisers scheduled larger regional events, rather than focusing on individual cities: MTF Scandinavia in
Umeå Umeå ( , , , locally ; South Westrobothnian: ;). fi, Uumaja; sju, Ubmeje; sma, Upmeje; se, Ubmi) is a city in northeast Sweden. It is the seat of Umeå Municipality and the capital of Västerbotten County. Situated on the Ume River, Ume ...
and MTF Central Europe in
Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...
.. In September 2018, MTF took part in Stockholm, Sweden. It had more than 500 participants and some prominent artists as guests, including
Imogen Heap Imogen Jennifer Heap (born 9 December 1977) is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. Her work has been considered pioneering in pop and electropop music. Heap classically trained in piano, cello and clarinet starting at ...
. MTF is also a proud supporter of women in music and tech. While most music festivals struggle to find enough female representatives and oblige themselves to reach 50% of a female lineup by 2020, MTF achieved that in 2018. Starting with 2015, the Music Tech Fest is supported by the EU
Horizon 2020 The Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development, also called Framework Programmes or abbreviated FP1 to FP9, are funding programmes created by the European Union/European Commission to support and foster research in the Europea ...
project ''MusicBricks'' which aims at fostering creative development of new ideas around music technology and supporting pilots which lead to market prototypes. This opens the pathway to reach a wider community of creative SME innovators.


Hack Camp

Music Tech Fest supports the growing hack culture, and promotes it as an important source of creativity. The festival frequently contains its own
hackathon A hackathon (also known as a hack day, hackfest, datathon or codefest; a portmanteau of hacking and marathon) is an event where people engage in rapid and collaborative engineering over a relatively short period of time such as 24 or 48 hours. Th ...
, MTF Hack Camp, which runs for 24 hours from Saturday afternoon to Sunday. Like Music Hack Day events, the MTF hack camp focuses on music-related hack challenges, but with a particular focus on performance with tangible objects, physical concepts and new integrations between
software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...
and hardware. There are competitions held at each MTF hack camp where individuals and groups work in response to particular challenges that reflect the themes of each festival. MTF hack camp challenges have engaged with ideas of accessibility (London 2014), fashion and wearables (Paris 2014), and creative spaces (Berlin 2014). The festivals in London and Umeå also involve a Kids Hack which Andrew Dubber discussed in an interview for WebTVspot as an 'opportunity for families and young people to get involved'. The MTF website and YouTube pages show performances from the Kids Hack, of participants presenting simple gestural controllers and instruments. Some of the older 'hackers' showed some more complex projects including a remote controlled Tricopter with a camera which was connected to some video goggles to navigate and film the Tricopters flight.


Trackathon

Similar to a hackathon but for music producers, Music Tech Fest's trackathon gives musicians 24 hours, audio tools and samples with which to make a piece of music adhering to a unique challenge or brief set by the festival. For example, remixing a song by English indie rock band
Everything Everything Everything Everything are an English art rock band from Manchester that formed in late 2007. Noted for their eclectic sound and complex, sociopolitical lyrics, the band have released six albums to date – 2010's '' Man Alive'', 2013's '' Arc'' ...
(London 2013) or making a 'sad banger' (Stockholm 2018). At MTF Stockholm the winning tracks were released as an album, the proceeds of which went to the charity
Musicians Without Borders Musicians Without Borders (MWB) is an umbrella organization working with local organizations and musicians to bring social change and peaceful, liveable conditions to their own communities. It was founded in 1999 by Laura Hassler, an American pe ...
.


MTF Umeå 2015 (MTF Scandi)

MTF Scandi took place in
Umeå Umeå ( , , , locally ; South Westrobothnian: ;). fi, Uumaja; sju, Ubmeje; sma, Upmeje; se, Ubmi) is a city in northeast Sweden. It is the seat of Umeå Municipality and the capital of Västerbotten County. Situated on the Ume River, Ume ...
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
from the 29–31 May 2015. The festival included presentations and performances from Jon Eades from Abbey Road Red,
Abbey Road ''Abbey Road'' is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. It is the last album the group started recording, although ''Let It Be'' was the last album completed before the band's break-up in April 1970. It was mostly re ...
's new technology and innovation incubator, electronic artist Scanner,
Robin Rimbaud Robin Rimbaud is an electronic musician who works under the name Scanner due to his use of cell phone and police scanners in live performance. He is also a member of the band Githead with Wire's Colin Newman and Malka Spigel and Max Franken from ...
and founder of English electronic group
808 State 808 State are an English electronic music group formed in 1987 in Manchester, taking their name from the Roland TR-808 drum machine. They were formed by Graham Massey, Martin Price and Gerald Simpson. They released their debut album, '' New ...
,
Graham Massey Graham Vernon Massey (born 4 August 1960 in Manchester) is a British record producer, musician, and remixer. Early career He was a member of experimental jazz rock group Biting Tongues, once signed to Factory Records. After recording with the ...
. The 24hr Hack Camp had four hack challenges of which there were seven winning teams. Each challenge reflected the values and ideas spread by MTF; the 'Music Things for Music Ecosystems' and 'The Sound Objects in Smart Homes' challenge connected with ideas of collaboration and the Internet of Things, IoT. The Cymatics Challenge aimed to explore the relationships between sonic and visual art through this interdisciplinary medium. The final challenge from MTF Scandi was the 'Music as Communication' which focused on music tools that were communicative and accessible. Four winning teams used the #MusicBricks technologies which, led to the funding and incubation of their projects to develop them further. Incubation was also awarded to the two winning hacks from the 'Music Things for Music Ecosystems' and 'Music as Communication' prizes from Umeå based incubators eXpression, and the final winning Cymatics team were awarded the materials to help with future endeavours. The
Volvo The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...
Kids Hack ran on Sunday, led by Siobhan Ramsey of Sandbox Education, with presentations on stage. Young Hackers, aged between 8-12 used tools from
Arduino Arduino () is an open-source hardware and software company, project, and user community that designs and manufactures single-board microcontrollers and microcontroller kits for building digital devices. Its hardware products are licensed unde ...
and Bare Conductive to create interactive instruments and musical interfaces. MTF Scandi also included two new editions, a Jam Camp which lasted the duration of the festival and a Trackathon which ran for a week. The Jam Camp, led by Obi Blanche, was a space for people to try out music technology and play together. This culminated in a Jam performance on stage on the final night of the festival. The trackathon was sponsored by Toontrack and was a competition to create a track using the Toontrack drum packages. The two winners of the challenge, CJ Carr and Matan Berkowitz had their tracks mastered and released on
Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...
by members of the judging panel including Vince Lynch,
Pascal Guyon Pascal Guyon is a French musician, producer, songwriter and mixing engineer who contributed to three Grammy nominations. Guyon is also a coder and public speaker. Life and career Guyon started his professional career as a mixing engineer at sev ...
and Phonat (Michele Balduzzi). All money raised went to a charity supporting artists suffering from depression. MTF Scandi was held at Sliperiet - a co-creative space in
Umeå Arts Campus Umeå Arts Campus is the name of a former industry area that recently (2009–2012) was rebuilt to house several of the arts educations at Umeå University in Sweden. The arts campus will be an education center for architecture, design and artwor ...
where MTF is based, alongside many other creative enterprises. Throughout the weekend, organisations from Sliperiet put on sound installations around the upper floors of the building. These included ‘The Voice Harvester’ by Swedish ICT Interactive, ‘Audification of Absence’ by Willem Zwagers, and ‘Bubble Room Instrument’, ‘Bridging Realities Collaborative’, ‘Untitled 5:22mins’ and ‘Silent Forest’ by JAQ. There were also two installations on the ground floor from outside of Sliperiet; James Brewster's Electro Acoustic Cafe, and ‘The Worlds Biggest Midi Controller’ by Hakan Lidbo. There was also a gamification workshop on Saturday, which led to the development of the CreaCity platform for the city of Umeå,
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
. CreaCity was released as part of the European SPECIFI project to develop tools for engagement with city culture and local businesses. Sponsors and partners of MTF Scandinavia include; 4Sound, Bare Conductive, Beer Studio, Costas of Sweden, Electronic Sound, Drake Music, Guitars – the Museum, Hansson & Hammar, HUMlab Umeå, Kulturverket, Jays, Kitmonsters, Laser Unicorns, Musikanten, Sliperiet Umeå Universitet,
Sonos SONOS, short for "silicon–oxide–nitride–oxide–silicon", more precisely, " polycrystalline silicon"—"silicon dioxide"—"silicon nitride"—"silicon dioxide"—"silicon", is a cross sectional structure of MOSFET (metal-oxide-semiconduc ...
, Soundation,
SoundCloud SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming se ...
,
Spendrups Spendrups Bryggeri AB is a Swedish brewery founded in 1897 as Grängesbergs Bryggeri AB. The company includes the following subsidiaries Spring Wine & Spirits, Gotlands Bryggeri and Hellefors Bryggeri. Spendrups Group has approximately 900 employ ...
,
Swedbank Swedbank AB () is a Nordic-Baltic banking group based in Stockholm, Sweden, offering retail banking, asset management, financial, and other services. In 2019 Swedbank had 900,000 private and 130,000 corporate clients and a 60% market share of ...
,
Teenage Engineering Teenage Engineering is a Swedish consumer electronics company and manufacturer founded in 2005 by Jesper Kouthoofd, David Eriksson, Jens Rudberg and David Möllerstedt and based in Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and Li ...
, Tiljan, Toontrack, U & Me Hotel,
Umeå University Umeå University ( sv, Umeå universitet; Ume Sami: ) is a public research university located in Umeå, in the mid-northern region of Sweden. The university was founded in 1965 and is the fifth oldest within Sweden's present borders. As of 2015 ...
, Umeå kommun, Umenet, Uminova Innovation, Uminova eXpression, Visit Umeå,
Volvo The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...
,
Warner Music Group Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and t ...
, topi, YNK Produktion,
Ninja Tune Ninja Tune is an English independent record label based in London. It has a satellite office in Los Angeles. It was founded by Matt Black and Jonathan More (better known as Coldcut) and managed by Peter Quicke and others. Inspired by a visit ...
.


MTF Ljubljana 2015 (MTF Central)

From the 18-21 September 2015 MTF held #MTFCentral at
Cankarjev Dom The Cankar Centre or Cankar Hall ( sl, Cankarjev dom) is the largest Slovenian convention, congress and culture center. The building was designed by the architect Edvard Ravnikar and was built at the southern edge of Republic Square in Ljubljana b ...
and +MSUM, the
Museum of Modern Art (Ljubljana) The Museum of Modern Art ( sl, Moderna galerija) in Ljubljana, Slovenia, is the central museum and gallery of the Slovenian art works from the 20th and 21st centuries. History Established by decree of the government of the People's Republic of S ...
, in
Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...
Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...
. The festival ran in partnership with Earzoom Sonic Arts Festival, IRZU. The festival included performances from producers and musicians
Graham Massey Graham Vernon Massey (born 4 August 1960 in Manchester) is a British record producer, musician, and remixer. Early career He was a member of experimental jazz rock group Biting Tongues, once signed to Factory Records. After recording with the ...
,
Håkan Lidbo Håkan Lidbo (born 20 July 1965) is a Swedish music producer, primarily active in electronica, but also other genres. He has published over 350 records on a variety of record labels, is the editor of the radio show Power and operates Volt Festiva ...
, composer and musician
Nitin Sawhney Nitin Sawhney , D.Mus (; born 1964) is a British musician, producer and composer. A recipient of the Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement award in 2017, among multiple international awards throughout his career. Sawhney's work combines Asian ...
, composer and beatboxer
Reeps One Harry Yeff (born 18 November 1989), better known by his stage name, Reeps One is an English beatboxer, composer, artist and new media artist. Career In 2020, Reeps One joined the Experiments in Art and Technology program at Bell Labs researching ...
, composer and professor
Rolf Gehlhaar Rolf Rainer Gehlhaar (30 December 1943 – 7 July 2019), was an American composer, Professor in Experimental Music at Coventry University and researcher in assistive technology for music. Life Born in Breslau, Gehlhaar was the son of a German roc ...
and more. The festival included a 24hr Hack Camp combining light and sound technologies, art and performances. There was also a Jam Camp at #MTFCentral led by the founder of the
Ninja Tune Ninja Tune is an English independent record label based in London. It has a satellite office in Los Angeles. It was founded by Matt Black and Jonathan More (better known as Coldcut) and managed by Peter Quicke and others. Inspired by a visit ...
record label, Matt Black. On the last day there was held a #MTFResearch symposium.


MTF Berlin 2016

The 10th festival by Music Tech Fest was MTF Berlin which took place in
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
from the 27–30 May 2016. The event was held in a large broadcasting hall called Funkhaus at the
Rundfunk der DDR Rundfunk der DDR (, 'GDR Broadcasting'; from about 1948 to 1972 Deutscher Demokratischer Rundfunk, 'German Democratic Broadcasting') was the collective designation for radio broadcasting organized by the State Broadcasting Committee in the Germa ...
. There were many performances held during this festival by various artists including
Eska (singer) Eska Mtungwazi (born 1971), known professionally as Eska, is a London-born British singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Following her inaugural release as a solo artist with her 2013 ''Gatekeeper EP'', her eponymous debut album, ''ESKA'' ...
,
Emika Ema Jolly (born 8 January 1986), better known by her stage name Emika, is an English electronic musician of Czech origin (her mother is from Příbram) currently residing in Berlin. Her self-titled debut album was released in October 2011 via ...
, Mechanical Techno Graham Dunning, the bionic pop artist
Viktoria Modesta Viktorija Moskaļova (russian: Виктория Москалёва, Viktoriya Moskalyova; born 25 February 1987), better known as Viktoria Modesta, is a Latvian-born British singer-songwriter, performance artist, creative director, and model. Mo ...
, the Swedish composer and instrument maker
Martin Molin Martin Molin (born January 24, 1983) is a Swedish composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, inventor and constructor. He is a member of the folktronica and post-rock band Wintergatan, and previously a member of Detektivbyrån. He grew up at K ...
, the robot lego band TOA Mata Band and more. The festival followed the launch of the first week-long MTF Labs that focused on Transhumanism, Blockchain, Vocal Tech and Hack the Audience. As previous festivals, MTF Berlin also included a 24hr Hack Camp.
Farnell element14 Farnell element14 is a distributor of products for electronic system design, maintenance and repair. Operating in 28 countries across Europe, with two regional distribution hubs in Belgium and the UK, it employs circa 1,200 people. It is the ...
supplied the camp with components and
Benjamin Heckendorn Benjamin J. Heckendorn (born October 19, 1975) is an American console modder and Computer engineer. He is better known as Ben Heck on the Internet. Heckendorn is also an independent filmmaker and he was the star of element14's ''The Ben Heck Show ...
joined the event and recorded an episode of the Ben Heck Show on site. The themes of the hack camp were Music as an Extension of the Human Body, Mod Devices Linux Challenge, Giant Steps and Hack the Bus. The winner was Electronic Jungles who paired the #MTFBricks R-IoT board with components to make a performance using fashion wearable technologies, animal masks, gesture-driven music and reactive visuals. MTF Berlin also included a Trackathon led by Ian Wallman, a nominee of the
Ivor Novello Awards The Ivor Novello Awards, named after the entertainer Ivor Novello, are awards for songwriting and composing. They have been presented annually in London by the Ivors Academy (formerly the BASCA) since 1956, and over 1,000 statuettes have been a ...
and remixer of
Beyoncé Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter ( ; born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Beyoncé's boundary-pushing artistry and vocals have made her the most influential female musician of the 21st century, according to ...
,
Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ( ; born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her image reinventions and musical versatility. Gaga began performing as a teenag ...
and others, coached a group of 12 electronic producers to create a dance track in 24 hours.


MTF Stockholm 2018

MTF Stockholm took place in
Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
from the 7–9 September 2018. The showcase was held at
KTH Royal Institute of Technology The KTH Royal Institute of Technology ( sv, Kungliga Tekniska högskolan, lit=Royal Institute of Technology), abbreviated KTH, is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH conducts research and education in engineering and technolo ...
with performances from musicians and record producers
Håkan Lidbo Håkan Lidbo (born 20 July 1965) is a Swedish music producer, primarily active in electronica, but also other genres. He has published over 350 records on a variety of record labels, is the editor of the radio show Power and operates Volt Festiva ...
,
Jan Bang Jan Bang (born 21 August 1968) is a Norwegian musician and record producer who has worked with Morten Harket, Sidsel Endresen, David Sylvian, Nils Petter Molvær, Arild Andersen, Bugge Wesseltoft, Arve Henriksen, and Erik Honoré. (in Norwegian) ...
,
Graham Massey Graham Vernon Massey (born 4 August 1960 in Manchester) is a British record producer, musician, and remixer. Early career He was a member of experimental jazz rock group Biting Tongues, once signed to Factory Records. After recording with the ...
and more. MTF Stockholm had a 24hr Hack Camp led by technologist, TV presenter, sound designer, inventor and NASA datanaut LJ Rich.
Tekla Tekla is a software product family that consists of programs for analysis and design, detailing and project communication. Tekla software is produced by Trimble, the publicly listed US-based technology company. History , Tekla Corporation ...
, a techfestival founded by Swedish artist
Robyn Robin Miriam Carlsson (born 12 June 1979), known as Robyn (), is a Swedish pop singer, songwriter, record producer, and DJ. She arrived on the music scene with her 1995 debut album, ''Robyn Is Here'', which produced two Billboard Hot 100, ''Bil ...
and
KTH KTH may refer to: * Keat Hong LRT station, Singapore, LRT station abbreviation * Kent House railway station, London, National Rail station code * KTH Royal Institute of Technology, a university in Sweden * KTH Krynica, a Polish ice hockey team * Khy ...
, held a dancing robotics workshop for young teenage girls at MTF Stockholm. The British artist and polymath
Imogen Heap Imogen Jennifer Heap (born 9 December 1977) is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. Her work has been considered pioneering in pop and electropop music. Heap classically trained in piano, cello and clarinet starting at ...
participated in many areas of MTF Stockholm. Heap led a Mycelia Blockchain Labs during the week-long #MTFLabs leading up to the festival and at the festival a Creative passport exhibition with Mycelia experience. Heap also led a Mini.Mu session at the festival directed to families which involved making your own Mi.Mu glove. MTF Stockholm ran a 24hr Trackathon led by the English producer
Laura Bettinson Laura Bettinson (born 20 September 1987), also known by her stage names FEMME and lau.ra, is an English singer, songwriter, producer and DJ. She started writing music at 16, gigging around the Midlands area before moving to London to study Bmus ...
(also known as FEMME). The task was to create a 'sad banger' were the winning track was 'Cold' by Ruben Svensson (producer) and Nina Butler. The best tracks were selected and released as an EP were all the profits gained were donated to the charity
Musicians Without Borders Musicians Without Borders (MWB) is an umbrella organization working with local organizations and musicians to bring social change and peaceful, liveable conditions to their own communities. It was founded in 1999 by Laura Hassler, an American pe ...
by the winners choice.


Festival contributors

Contributors to the festival have included:
IRCAM IRCAM (French: ''Ircam, '', English: Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music) is a French institute dedicated to the research of music and sound, especially in the fields of avant garde and electro-acoustical art music. It is ...
, The
London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...
,
SoundCloud SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming se ...
,
Mixcloud Mixcloud is a popular British online music streaming service that allows for the listening and distribution of radio shows, DJ mixes and podcasts, which are crowdsourced by its registered users. In April 2018, Mixcloud announced that it raised $ ...
, The
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
,
EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...
,
RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...
, Shazam,
Last.fm Last.fm is a music website founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. Using a music recommender system called "Audioscrobbler", Last.fm builds a detailed profile of each user's musical taste by recording details of the tracks the user listens to, e ...
,
Ableton Ableton AG is a German music software company that produces and distributes the production and performance program Ableton Live and a collection of related instruments and sample libraries, as well as their own hardware controller Ableton Push. ...
,
Native Instruments Native Instruments is a German company that develops, manufactures, and supplies music software and hardware for music production, sound design, performance, and DJing. The company's corporate headquarters and main development facilities are lo ...
,
Izotope iZotope, Inc. is an audio technology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. iZotope develops professional audio software for audio recording, mixing, broadcast, sound design, and mastering which can be used in wide range of d ...
,
FXpansion FXpansion is a Ltd company that produces music software including Geist2, Strobe2, Tremor, Etch, Bloom, Maul and DCAM Dynamics. History FXpansion is a company that develops music software, and was founded in 1999 in London, United Kingd ...
,
RS Components RS Group plc (formerly Electrocomponents plc) is a distributor of industrial and electronics products based in London, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. History The company was foun ...
,
RjDj RjDj (Reality Jockey Ltd.) was a startup founded in late 2008 by last.fm co-founder Michael Breidenbruecker. The company was based in London and was run by a small team of four employees. Its mission was to create sonic experiences specifically d ...
,
WIRED ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fra ...
,
MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
,
Microsoft Research Microsoft Research (MSR) is the research subsidiary of Microsoft. It was created in 1991 by Richard Rashid, Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold with the intent to advance state-of-the-art computing and solve difficult world problems through technologi ...
,
Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, ...
,
Stephen Fry Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...
/
Penguin Penguins (order (biology), order List of Sphenisciformes by population, Sphenisciformes , family (biology), family Spheniscidae ) are a group of Water bird, aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: on ...
,
EU Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...
, DMIC,
British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...
,
Sound and Music Sound and Music is the UK's national agency for new music, established on 1 October 2008 from the merger of four existing bodies working in the contemporary music field: the Society for the Promotion of New Music (SPNM), the British Music Informa ...
, MTG,
Fraunhofer Society The Fraunhofer Society (german: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V., lit=Fraunhofer Society for the Advancement of Applied Research) is a German research organization with 76institutes spread throughout Germany ...
, BCU,
MIT Media Lab The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fixed academic disciplines, but draws from ...
,
Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level cours ...
,
McGill McGill is a surname of Scottish and Irish origin, from which the names of many places and organizations are derived. It may refer to: People * McGill (surname) (including a list of individuals with the surname) * McGill family (Monrovia), a promin ...
,
Goldsmiths A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold. In German, the Goldsmith family name is written Goldschmidt. Goldsmith may also refer to: Places * Goldsmith, Indiana, United States * Goldsmith, New York, United States, a ha ...
,
Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...
,
Ninja Tune Ninja Tune is an English independent record label based in London. It has a satellite office in Los Angeles. It was founded by Matt Black and Jonathan More (better known as Coldcut) and managed by Peter Quicke and others. Inspired by a visit ...
,
Warp Warp, warped or warping may refer to: Arts and entertainment Books and comics * WaRP Graphics, an alternative comics publisher * ''Warp'' (First Comics), comic book series published by First Comics based on the play ''Warp!'' * Warp (comics), a ...
,
The Echo Nest The Echo Nest is a music intelligence and data platform for developers and media companies. Owned by Spotify since 2014, the company is based in Somerville, MA. The Echo Nest began as a research spin-off from the MIT Media Lab to understand th ...
,
MusicBrainz MusicBrainz is a MetaBrainz project that aims to create a collaborative music database that is similar to the freedb project. MusicBrainz was founded in response to the restrictions placed on the Compact Disc Database (CDDB), a database for sof ...
,
Reactable The Reactable is an electronic musical instrument with a tabletop tangible user interface that was developed within the Music Technology Group at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain by Sergi Jordà, Marcos Alonso, Martin Kaltenbru ...
,
Jamie Cullum Jamie Cullum (born 20 August 1979) is an English jazz-pop singer, songwriter and radio presenter. Although primarily a vocalist and pianist, he also accompanies himself on other instruments, including guitar and drums. He has recorded nine stu ...
,
Tim Exile Tim Exile (or Exile) is the recording alias of Tim Shaw, a producer and performer of electronic music spanning drum and bass, IDM, breakcore and gabber. History A classically trained violinist, he began experimenting with electronic music age ...
,
Leafcutter John Leafcutter John is the recording name of John Burton, a UK-based musician and artist. He makes frequent use of Max/MSP in his compositions. Much of Burton's style is based in computer music and use of samples of everyday sounds. However, he a ...
.


Media coverage

* The Next Web on How the first Music Tech Fest explored the future of sound *
BBC Click ''Click'' (formerly ''Click Online'') is a weekly BBC television programme covering technology news and recent developments in the world of technology and the Internet, presented by Spencer Kelly and Lara Lewington. It was created by then BBC pr ...
has covered Music Tech Fest events in Boston and London. *
Radio New Zealand National RNZ National ( mi, Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa Ā-Motu), formerly Radio New Zealand National, and known until 2007 as the National Programme or National Radio, is a publicly funded non-commercial New Zealand English-language radio network operat ...
covered Music Tech Fest Wellington *
Boston Herald The ''Boston Herald'' is an American daily newspaper whose primary market is Boston, Massachusetts, and its surrounding area. It was founded in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States. It has been awarded eight Pulit ...
covered Music Tech Fest Boston *
France 24 France 24 ( in French) is a French state-owned international news television network based in Paris. Its channels broadcast in French, English, Arabic, and Spanish and are aimed at the overseas market. Based in the Paris suburb of Issy-les-M ...
reported on Music Tech Fest Paris *
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
New England: Music Tech Fest Hits Cambridge This Weekend – Let's Invent the Future of Music * Electronic Sound Magazine covered MTF Scandinavia *Production Advice covered Music Tech Fest London 2014 *Sound Stuff covered Music Tech Fest London 2014 *Openstage covered Music Tech Fest London 2013 *Startsida covered Music Tech Fest Scandinavia *The 405 covered an interview with Festival Director Andrew Dubber following Music Tech Fest London 2013 *Startacus covered MTF London *Re-compose covered Music Tech Fest Scandinavia *Sandbox Education covered Kids Hacks in London and Umeå *Umeå University covered Music Tech Fest Scandinavia *DesignSpark, RS Components covered Music Tech Fest London 2014 *Protein covered Music Tech Fest Scandinavia *Västerbottens-Kuriren published a TV interview with Festival Director Andrew Dubber in preparation for Music Tech Fest Scandinavia *Creative Works London covered Music Tech Fest London 2014 *Perlimpinpin Designers covered Music Tech Fest London 2014 *
Nialler9 ''Nialler9'' is an Irish music blog founded in 2005 by DJ and designer Niall Byrne. The company is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. It has been referred to as "the grandaddy of Irish music blogs" by the Sunday Times. History Founder Niall ...
covered Music Tech Fest London 2014


See also

*
Hackathon A hackathon (also known as a hack day, hackfest, datathon or codefest; a portmanteau of hacking and marathon) is an event where people engage in rapid and collaborative engineering over a relatively short period of time such as 24 or 48 hours. Th ...
* Music Hack Day


References


External links

* {{official website, http://musictechfest.org
Music Tech Fest YouTube channel

Music Tech Fest at Tumblr (featuring previous Music Hacks)
Computer-related events Music conferences Music festivals in Europe Music festivals established in 2012 Hacker culture Electronic music festivals in Europe Hackathons