Operation Ton #10 is a unique conference and festival for the future of music and all the questions that entails. RockCity, Hamburg’s center for popular music, has organized a lively program this year including concerts, readings, lectures, films, light installations and discussions; a feast for the ears and eyes. The festival is a meeting place for over 200 musicians, labels, publishers, producers, authors, journalists, and just about everybody else involved in the music business, especially fans.
The festival kicks off early in the afternoon on November 4th with an event entitled „Sound and Gymnastics“ featuring Cosmic DJ and author Andrea Rothaug. Next on the roster is a discussion between the American hip hop artist Akua Naru, now living in Cologne, and Hamburg journalist Niko Backspin with the title ‚Around The World In A Day- Hip Hop & Global Activism’. Akua Naru is continuing the tradition of „Conscious Rap“ pioneered by politically and socially critical artists such as Public Enemy, KRS-One, and A Tribe Called Quest, as well as her main sources of inspiration Mos Def, Talib Kweli and Gladys Knight. Her music fuses African rhythms and sounds with jazz, soul and R&B.
The conference/festival continues with a special performance by singer and multi instrumentalist Derya Yildirim with the name ‚Arab Quarter Tone in German Pop- An Experiment’. Yildirim grew up in Hamburg’s multicultural island Veddel where she learned to play both oriental instruments such as oud, saz and the fretless Turkish banjo „Cumbus“, as well as the european instruments: saxophone, guitar and piano. She is a member of the New Hamburg Intercommunal Orchestra and performs with Circuit Diagram, Graham Mushnik and Greta.
Whether you are interested in art as a protest, sexism in pop journalism, how to compose music through sampling, how to start your own record company, or you just want to dance, the Operation Ton #10 has something for everyone. They even offer several workshops for singing, songwriting, marketing your band, and how to beat stage fright! Operation Ton #10 will take place in Uebel & Gefahrlich in the Medienbunker Feldstrasse, Hamburg on November 4th and 5th, 2016. Here is the website for the complete program!
