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Possibly a bit late to the party but sometimes it's more about the showing up rather than the time, others would debate this but I digress, I've been doing a bit of running lately and need tip top tunes for doing so, generally this means, high tempo bpm's to get the speed work done, I sound like I'm a pro, I'm not. This can often mean going from tune to tune, sometimes repeating the same one over and over and other times a mix, although the latter is trickier, as I don't always land on one which hits the spot, until today, thank you Theo Kottis, a new discovery.

A lovely mix of electro goodness and full of gems I haven't heard for a while.

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Theo Kottis · Theo Kottis | HÖR - Jul 17 / 2023

AVA conference, a 3 day and night celebration of music and digital art took place 29th Feb to 2nd March across venues including, The British Library, The Standard, Koko Camden and HERE at The Outernet, brilliant venues, stunning buildings and interiors.

If you haven't had the pleasure I'd highly recommend checking out all of them, if the opportunity arises. The British Library is free to get in, so there is no excuse on that one, the others, perhaps the price of a cuppa or entry fee!

Cute new tote bag, one of the best

They venues were a great setting for the keynote speakers, panels, discussions and workshops ahead with keynotes from Brian Eno with Donna Grantis, workshops from Foundation FM hosted by Vanessa Maria and Daughters of Frank plus other panel talks with Industry experts discussing sustainability, the future of events, collaboration and nightlife, amongst so much more.

Day one AVA conference line up

Day one kicked off with Donna Grantis hosting Brian Eno in the main theatre, which was unsurprisingly packed out. The conversation brought the climate crisis to the forefront, focusing on events, their impact and Earth Percent, a charity set up by Brian Eno to encourage artists to donate a percentage of their income to Earth Percent where it is directed to the most impactful organisations dealing with the climate crisis.

Donna Grantis and Briano Eno

There were four rooms at The British Library, all with different capacities and offerings with music workshops by Foundation FM on Radio Journalism hosted by Vanessa Maria and following on from this workshop was Mastering the Art of Radio DJing: Techniques and creative expression hosted by Daughters of Frank, both offered involvement, engagement and exchange of ideas, which can sometimes feel missing at conferences if you are not coming as an industry insider but these workshops opened it up to everyone.

When attending conferences there is always so much choice, it's a tricky task to know which one to attend when they all sounds great. There were some talks I wanted to attend but were at full capacity so the wildcard came into play and ended up at a workshop on Radio Journalism hosted by Daughters Of Frank, which turned out to be such a brilliant choice (I do love a wildcard) it was interactive, interesting, engaging and involved, along with the brilliant workshop hosts it was a chance to chat, exchange ideas and connect with others who already run their own shows or would like to in the future.

Hopefully Foundation FM have some slots for newbies as the ideas in the room were so good. Radio does have an ability to bring people together and these workshops certainly showed, so much creativity and ideas were flowing.

Workshop by Foundation FM hosted by Vaness Maria

Workshop hosted by Daughters of Frank

There was so much more on Day One with talks from Charli XCX, the art of collaboration, building your team for success and curating contemporary culture with speakers including Nick Hadfield (The standard), Frankie Wells (Foundation FM), Amar Ediriwira (Boiler Room), Halina Kaszycka-Williams (the British Library) hosted by Sam Blenkinsopp (Trippin') and let's not forget Laurent Garnier in conversation with Seamus O'Reilly.

It's always great attending talks like this, not only to hear people's opinions, questions asked by the audience but to hear about upcoming projects and events, one of which was an exhibition beginning on 26th April at The British Library called Beyond the bassline, 500 Years of Black British Music

There were others which I didn't attend because, you can't do everything, nor would you want to, well, I wouldn't, less is more and all that jazz.

In conversation with Laurent Garnier

Day two was held at Koko, Camden, a spectacular venue with so much charm and the largest disco ball, first up was an interactive talk by Eli1ah and his yellow squares project, based on the topic of 'If you love music, you should learn how to DJ' introduced by Sarah McBriar, Founder of AVA Festival (and wearer of many incredible outfits!)

Koko, Camden

Having seen a lot of social media posts about the yellow squares and its simplistic idea (the best kind in my eyes) easy to digest, understand and engage with, I was curious to hear him chat in person, I’d rather live beyond the screen if possible, close the app in full effect, make the ting, have the conversation, have some real life fun and the list goes on.

Answers on a postcard

After Elijah gave his talk, the floor was opened for questions and one thing I loved about this was Elijah didn’t pretend to have the answers,

he said, "I don’t know or I’ll have to think about it", it’s always great to see people being real, by this, I mean, in many industries we can see people pretending to have all the answers to things when they clearly don't, who can?

It is always refreshing to see someone delivering a talk which is essentially exploring ideas, looking at things differently, asking questions, having a discussion about them and stripping it back to the core.

The Loops

The slides moved through the yellow squares talking about the topics, posing questions and a ideas to ponder about music collections, DJing, the culture, DJ worship, the algorithm and the impact on music.

The talk looked at music, the industry and what success is to many artists.

There are hundreds of musicians and not all of them can make it, what is success to you?

Questions were pondered and curiosity activated.

Pointers

Casual

It made me think back to what I love about music, artists and DJ's, many are unknown.

DJ worship came into question, from someone who grew up dancing to a DJ not taking videos of them or anyone else, the dance floor and music was an escape, enjoyment, a moment to pause, to enjoy - not a place to be seen or to show people on the internet.

Music is fun, an escape, a way to discover new people, places, spaces I never knew existed and on the way the stories, style and inspiration which run parallel to it.

The internet and algorithm can't provide all this, it can provide connections and new discoveries, however, it cannot replace the beauty of meeting people, chatting about their musical loves, their collection, what they like playing and the connection it brings, in real rather than online.

DJ worship

The talk and all it's questions certainly got my thinking, especially about how good dance floors were without phones.

It brought me back to a time of DIY culture and experimentation were the norm, where people got creative and perhaps didn't want to be known or seen (MF Doom, Sonic Youth, The Beastie Boys spring to mind) which was seemed to exist far more than before social media, not saying it doesn't exist now but perhaps people are now more inclined to follow things or be told rather than not? like the comparison which seems to exist way more or doing things for the gram, rather than just for the experimentation.

It can often feel everything has already been discovered and the sense of exploration has disappeared. The yellow squares project feels a little like exploring ideas for the sake of it, which can only be a good thing.

Close the app, make the ting, block out the noise, what others are saying and experiment because no one has all the answers, sometimes, the answers come through play, experimentation and exploration.

Explore more.

(Side note: listened to the Black Prose podcast interview with Elijah and is interesting!)

The Future of nightlife

The Game Changers

There were several other talks on Day Two about sustainability in the events industry, how to improve nightlife, a talk on The Future of International Nightlife with speakers including Amy Lamé (London Night Czar), Lutz Leichsenring (Berlin Club Commission), Judy Griffith (fabric), Amy Van-Baaren (RA) - Hosted by Georgia Taglietti (AFEM).

The themes which flowed throughout the day were more collaboration, connection and sustainability in the industry, such important factors to keep the industry fresh and moving forward.

On that note, forward motion to Belfast AVA, line up looks incredible, dancing shoes at the ready!

Daughters of FRank Radio Show Foundation FM