Now that Berlin Techno has been recognized as UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage, it's important to recall the "Make Techno Black Again" campaign initiated by DeForrest Brown Jr.
A bold journalist, theoretical critic, curator, and musician, Brown Jr. operates under the moniker Speaker Music, crafting a diverse body of work that intersects all these roles to challenge assumed historical notions of race, class, post-colonialism, and social structures. Drawing from Afrofuturist theory, particularly the works of Kodwo Eshun and Henri Lefebvre, Speaker Music follows a spiritual and conceptual lineage extending from Techno to the visions of Drexciya and A Guy Called Gerald's 'Black Secret Technology', with all its historical implications. A dense rhythmic tapestry in perpetual flux, Speaker Music's soundscapes liberate themselves through a polyrhythmic approach akin to free jazz, as heard in evocative and incisive records like 'Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry' and 'Techxodus'.
[Concert presented within the scope of the tekhnē project, co-funded by the European Union]
Photo: Ting Ding 丁汀