Austrian artist Mavi Phoenix is part of the Reeperbahn Festival’s Sequencer music tour. (Photo: Cristina Salgar)

The “transatlantic digital society” is being called together by Germany music promoter Reeperbahn Festival and re:publica, which launched its five-city US Sequencer Tour with an exhibit of the music-related work of artist Klaus Voormann. The Sequencer Tour will showcase rock acts by night coupled with a digitally-forward conference event during the day.

Among the works on display at the NAVEL project space in downtown Los Angeles are such Voormann creations as the iconic images from the Beatles Revolver album cover. The exhibit, titled “It Happened in Hamburg,” opened Oct. 30 at the NAVEL project space in downtown Los Angeles.  The Hamburg-based Reeperbahn Festival produces more than 900 events annually, while re:publica, a conference in Europe that deals with the Web 2.0, especially blogs, social media and information society.

The Reeperbahn Festival touts itself as Europe’s oldest and largest international music platform and is billing the Sequencer Tour as a mini-edition of its more established European iteration. The L.A. music component of the Sequencer Tour takes place tonight, showcasing an international assortment of up-and-comer: Germany’s Giant Rooks and Mavi Phoenix, the UK’s Findlay and L.A.’s own Linafornia. The performances are at Zebulon, and admission is free.

The conference event takes place Nov. 5, at  Selected for its profile as the largest city in California with a strong high-tech and music presence, the L.A. event will have two main tracks: “Politics & Society,” focusing on universal digital rights and the interconnections between Americans and Europeans, and “Leisure & Lifestyle,” examining topics such as sovereignty, sustainability and social justice in a digital context.

“With the Sequencer Tour event in LA we want to network local and international participants in the music and culture scenes as well as society and politics – for a transatlantic digital society,” said Andreas Gebhard, CEO of re:publica GmbH. “Many creatives, activists and representatives of the US American and German economy still do not work together or only in partial cooperation. We want to change this, and build bridges with our events in the USA.”

The Sequencer Tour is part of Deutschlandjahr USA, a yearlong celebration of German-American friendship, funded by the German Federal Foreign Office and implemented by the Goethe-Institut with support from the Federation of German Industries (BDI).

Deutschlandjahr USA will encompass countless transatlantic projects, events and workshops are taking place throughout the year in the USA, many dealing with cultural questions as well as considering what makes a just democracy and examining new paths in the media landscape. “We are looking forward to bringing the spirit of the re:publica to the USA, to tread new paths and to set off on a “digitalization road show’ together with our event partners,” Gebhard added.

re:publica is Europe’s biggest conference on internet and digital society. Here, bloggers cross paths with politicians, scientists meet entrepreneurs, artists meet activists. More than 19,500 people from 80 countries came together at re:publica 18 over the course of the three-day conference in Berlin to discuss current questions about digital society. The next edition of re:publica will take place from May 6 – 8, 2019, in Berlin. In addition, re:publica will host the topic „Future & Inovation“ at this years street festival alongside Day of German Unity,
October 1-3, 2018. As a strategic partner of the “Deutschlandjahr USA” it will put on five events in the United States. From December 14-15, 2018 re:publica will be launched for the first time on African soil in Accra, the capital of Ghana. The shareholders of re:publica GmbH, newthinking communications and Spreeblick Verlag have been actively engaged in the areas of network politics, digital culture and digital society for over a decade.

Deutschlandjahr USA will feature hundreds of events and exhibits in the fields of politics, culture, education, science, business, and industry. In cooperation with over 300 partners, we will showcase how closely our countries are linked through deep historical ties, shared values, and bold visions for the future. We will explore our partnerships in all areas of society – ranging from business and industry to politics, education, culture, science, civil society, and sports and lifestyle. The initiative aims to convey a multifaceted, modern image of Germany and the U.S., believing that we are Wunderbar together.

As German recording artists increasingly find a foothold in the US market, Reeperbahn wants to leverage what it sees as its role as an intermediary market between Europe and the US. With an emphasis on three key areas – live music, the music business, and art. By promoting the export of German music and working to enhance awareness of German artists abroad, by furthering active networking between the German and American music industries, the Reeperbahn Festival intends, through Sequencer, to reinforce the importance of music and art as a bridge between Europe and America, said Reeperbahn CEO Alex Schultz in a statement announcing the tour. 

The Sequencer Tour kicked off at NAVEL with an exhibit of the music-related artwork by Klaus Voormann. (Photo: Werner Amann)