This Floating World by Tim Murray-Browne and Jan Lee (photographed by Tadeo Sendon)

We Are Robots festival to get visitors making music and exploring the future of music

A brand-new fes­ti­val in Lon­don will bring togeth­er musi­cian and music pro­duc­ers, indus­try lumi­nar­ies and stu­dents to explore the future of music.

The inau­gur­al We Are Robots fes­ti­val will com­bine music tech­nol­o­gy work­shops, sound instal­la­tions, talks and live per­for­mances across its four-day run at the Old Tru­man Brew­ery on Novem­ber 2–5.

Sep­a­rat­ing We Are Robots from oth­er elec­tron­ic music fes­ti­vals is a ded­i­ca­tion to get­ting fes­ti­val goers involved in the process of music mak­ing, or at least think­ing about how music is made today.

DAY EVENTS FOR STUDENTS AND MUSIC MAKERS

Through­out the fes­ti­val, there are oppor­tu­ni­ties to go hands-on with many of the syn­the­siz­ers, music pro­duc­tion tools and DJ equip­ment used by professionals.

The exhi­bi­tion hall, which is free to all, will host many respect­ed names in music tech­nol­o­gy and pro­duc­tion, includ­ing Able­ton, Native Instru­ments, Arturia and Moog. There will also be a num­ber of inter­ac­tive work­shops – free and tick­et­ed – for begin­ners and music enthu­si­asts to devel­op their music-mak­ing skills. Vis­i­tors can sign up for We Are Robots work­shops here.

Fri­day, Novem­ber 3, will be all about stu­dents. A full day of talks and pan­el dis­cus­sions will be held focus­ing on devel­op­ment for emerg­ing musi­cians and pro­duc­ers look­ing to break into the music busi­ness. Host­ed by BBC Radio 6 Music pre­sen­ter and DJ Chris Hawkins and Point Blank Uni­ver­si­ty, the ses­sions will explore the future of music edu­ca­tion, busi­ness, mar­ket­ing, and song­writ­ing. Stu­dent tick­ets are priced at £15 (stu­dent ID required) and can be found here.

DAY CONFERENCE FOR MUSIC INDUSTRY

For movers already in the scene, We Are Robots will open its first day, Novem­ber 2, with a con­fer­ence about what’s next for the indus­try. Host­ed by Tony Nwachuk­wu, pan­el­lists will dis­cuss the future of music radio, music tech­nol­o­gy and pro­duc­tion, music in inter­ac­tive enter­tain­ment, and women in music. Tick­ets for the one-day con­fer­ence are priced at £75 stan­dard and can found here.

NIGHT EVENTS

Lead­ing the per­for­mance por­tion of the fes­ti­val are cel­e­brat­ed artists in the elec­tron­ic music scene.

Wit­ness Lon­don-based elec­tron­ic music pro­duc­er, Cha­gall, com­mand elec­tron­ic lay­ers, vocal effects and inter­ac­tive visu­als with her hand move­ments, using mi.mu glove tech­nol­o­gy, in her futur­is­tic audio-visu­al show, Cal­i­bra­tion, on Thurs­day night.

Light­ing up Fri­day night are new tal­ents from the elec­tron­ic and alter­na­tive scene: The Penelopes, Mal­ka (fka Tama­ra Schlesinger), Lit­tle Cub, d’Voxx, Man­aré and NSDOS.

Lon­don trio Mt Wolf take to the Boil­er House stage on Sat­ur­day night, and will be fol­lowed by Daniel Miller, founder and pro­duc­er of sem­i­nal record label, Mute Records. Ris­ing UK tal­ents Warm Dig­its and ethe­re­al duo Ardyn will also per­form on Saturday.

We Are Robots takes place at the Old Tru­man Brew­ery, 91 Brick Lane, Lon­don, E1 6QL, from Novem­ber 2 to 5.

To find out more about all of the day and night events, and to book tick­ets, vis­it the We Are Robots web­site.

Images: (main) This Float­ing World by Tim Mur­ray-Browne and Jan Lee (pho­tographed by Tadeo Sendon); The Penelopes (cour­tesy of We Are Robots)