Luke Nickel

Writer and musician Luke Nickel sits down with Luigi Di Venere (@luigidivenere ), a Puglia-born, Berlin-based DJ, producer, and creative force behind @power_dance_club and @philoxenia_records to talk about music, life, and what he’s reading now. Di Venere is a revered presence in Berlin’s gay club scene, but his vision of “ultimate success” is far from city life: “To have my own house close to the sea in the countryside.” To reflect his love of nature, Hinterhaus photographer Mara Menzel met Di Venere in Hasenheide park to capture the artist on an ambling nature walk. Read the full, intimate interview at hinterhaus.berlin. Hinterhaus tells behind-the-scenes stories of people who make music happen. From Berlin, with 🩶 Words: @postyork Edits: @badalexcheves Photos: @maramenzel + images courtesy of the artist

Éliane Radigue (1932-2026) — a truly singular artist. A legend of electroacoustic music, a creator of beautiful acoustic works with dazzling collaborators, an installation maker, a sculptor of orchestral sound — take the time, if you can, to listen to Trilogie De La Morte, or Naldjorlak, or any of the wonderful Occam Ocean pieces, or the early feedback works... I can't emphasize enough how much Éliane changed my life, as an artist and as a person. She generously let me into her world, as she did so many others, to learn about her fascinating approach to making sound. My perspectives on duration, notation, collaboration, sound, and generosity all shifted forever, shaping the artist I am today and the artist I want to be for the rest of my life. For the next 6 months, the double issue of Contemporary Music Review "Radigue at 90" that I co-edited with Bill Dougherty will be completely open access (thanks @cathope for the brilliant idea). There are many amazing articles to learn about Radigue's work there. I can't recommend highly enough also checking out Nate Wooley's "Sound American" issue on her work, Julia Eckhardt and Radigue's co-authored "Intermediary Spaces", and any writing by Charles Curtis (such as his excellent writing about Naldjorlak). Éliane, you will be missed. Your legacy lives on in the amazing collaborators playing your work, and the no doubt countless artists and listeners whose lives you changed just by pioneering your own path forward.

ᴏꜰꜰɪᴄɪᴀʟ ᴛʀᴀɪʟᴇʀ ꜰʀᴏᴍ ꜰ*ɢɢᴏᴛ*ꜱ ᴘᴇʀꜰᴏʀᴍᴇᴅ ᴀᴛ @berlinerringtheater and @hosekcontemporary The stage is calling, tour plans are underway! Stay tuned. ''F*GG0T*S is Erratum’s phantasmagoric solo drag adaptation of the cult manifesto The F*gg0ts and Their Friends Between Revolutions (1977). Hassandra @queenofvirginity gives voice to the book’s Faggots, Queens, and Fairies, transforming drag into a cyborg practice where multiple identities coexist in one body. Vocal-mask technology and AI-driven sensors designed by Luke Nickel turn her voice and face into musical instruments, while a monumental pink dress transforms into the houses of the Pansy Path, revealing microcosms of 0rgy, rebellion, and healing. FAGGOT*S carries underground knowledge and wisdom, from Stonewall to Berlin’s darkrooms. Everything is fake. Everything is real.'' With the support of the @canada.council and @ba_xhain Trailer by @harvey_rabbit / camera by @kermit_the_fucker Direction: Hadrien Daigneault-Roy & Sascha Cowan @erratum.studio Text: Hadrien Daigneault-Roy – @blair_transdorf Scenography and Costumes : Sascha Cowan – @saschathefool Performance, Drag, Make Up: Hassandra – @queenofvirginity Sound, Video, Technology: Luke Nickel – @postyork Light design: gretchen @sigrid_c_h_e_b Dramaturgy: Sophie Lembcke @sofux_elle Production management: Keira Sinclair – @vonkeira Graphic design: @maison.cc.berlin

Creatives of Berlin, Ep 8: “F****TS!” 💅 @queenofvirginity @saschathefool @blair_transdorf @postyork ✨✨✨ In this episode i sat down with the star and team behind the play “F****TS!” Who do you want to see next? ✨✨✨ #berlin #berlinvlog #lifeinberlin #artistinterview #berlinartist #berlinart #artinberlin #queerart #queertheathre #theatre #dragqueen

Which clarinet multiphonic + accordion chord are you? 1-6 excerpts from "Tarnished", written for the fabulous @evazoellner_accordion and @heather_roche -- being performed October 5 (Lauenberg), 7(Berlin), and 8 (Montabaur) (@kuenstler.innenhaus_lauenburg @bka_theater ) Thanks to @musikfonds.de and @kuenstler.innenhaus_lauenburg for the support <3

macarena-infernalofficeedit.wav out of office reply: straight to hades in a hand basket reading list: @kuangrf "Katabasis" 📸 : @kibben

new unreleased track - sandstorm edit / friendship token to @dj_having_sex / silly animal drawings

𝗔𝗩𝗔𝗜𝗟𝗔𝗕𝗟𝗘 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗧𝗢𝗨𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗚! 𝗙*𝗚𝗚𝟬𝗧*𝗦 – 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗱𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗙*𝗴𝗴𝟬𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗕𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 – 𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱. If you’d like to host the performance at a theater or festival near you, feel free to contact [email protected] – a recording of the show is available upon request. Direction: Sascha Cowan & Hadrien Daigneault-Roy @erratum.artsvivants Text: Hadrien Daigneault-Roy – @blair_transdorf Scenography and Costumes : Sascha Cowan – @saschathefool Performance, make up and drag: Hassandra – @queenofvirginity Sound, video, technology: Luke Nickel – @postyork Light design: gretchen @sigrid_c_h_e_b Dramaturgy: Sophie Lembcke @sofux_elle Production management: Keira Sinclair – @vonkeira Hair and stage assistance: Elliot de Jahnsen - @elliotdejahnsen Graphic design: Maison CC – @maison.cc.berlin Photos: Toni Petraschk With the support of the Canada Council for the Arts @canada.council as well as the Projektfonds Kulturelle Bildung des Bezirks Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg @ba_xhain The performance was produced at @berlinerringtheater and @hosekcontemporary (Berlin).

𝗦𝗧𝗢𝗥𝗜𝗘𝗦 𝗣𝗔𝗦𝗦𝗘𝗗 𝗢𝗡 𝗜𝗡 𝗦𝗘𝗖𝗥𝗘𝗧. 𝗦𝗧𝗢𝗥𝗜𝗘𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗠𝗢𝗩𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗚𝗛 𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗕𝗢𝗗𝗜𝗘𝗦, 𝗙𝗥𝗢𝗠 𝗚𝗘𝗡𝗘𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗢 𝗚𝗘𝗡𝗘𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡. From May 17 to 23, the interdisciplinary and radical drag performance F*GG0T*S explores the potential of a queer body that fully embraces synthetic, artificial, and technological means to appear and disappear at will at the Berliner Ringtheater. In this solo-performance, drag artist Hassandra explores the ramifications of cyborg f*ggotries in the era of artificial intelligence. Using a vocal mask technology developed by experimental composer Luke Nickel, the performer treats voice modification like makeup. Sensors link each facial expression to a sound, a tone, a voice. Pushing the boundaries of drag, this vocal mask enables a real-time cascade of identities - layering, colliding, and dissolving into one another. Queens, fairies, and f*gg0ts make their voices resonate like an earworm, intertwining and contradicting each other, to reveal the hidden community of Pansy Path. This magical street exists beyond time and trends, somewhere between the vibrant New York of the Stonewall riots and the dark depths of Berlin’s darkrooms. This street, both real and fictional, is the meeting point of all liberated spaces - a place where the laws of men no longer apply, and where small colorful utopias emerge in the heart of greyness. 𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗡 May 17 to 23 2025 𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 Berliner Ringtheater, Alt-Stralau 68, 10245 Berlin 𝗖𝗥𝗘𝗗𝗜𝗧𝗦 Direction: Sascha Cowan & Hadrien Daigneault-Roy @erratum.artsvivants Text: Hadrien Daigneault-Roy – @blair_transdorf Scenography and Costumes : Sascha Cowan – @saschathefool Performance: Hassandra – @queenofvirginity Sound, video, technology: Luke Nickel – @postyork Light design: gretchen @sigrid_c_h_e_b Dramaturgy: Sophie Lembcke @sofux_elle Production management: Keira Sinclair – @vonkeira Hair and stage assistance: Elliot de Jahnsen - @elliotdejahnsen Graphic design: Maison CC – @maison.cc.berlin Photo by Mila Starosta 𝗙𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚 Canada Council for the Arts & Bezirksamt Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg #theatre #berlin #drag #performance

Such a pleasure showing new work with @yiannis.loukos for synthesizer and metals at @____neither___ This was a dreamy collaboration where we went deep into sound, drawing out natural resonances and creating worlds within the beatings of close frequencies. I also feel like all the research I have done on the work of Éliane Radigue is finally coming out in my fingers and ears -- it's amazing to be finding a performance practice again after all these years of 'composition'. Photo cred @sin.supply (also maker of chain attire I was wearing).

𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗬𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗜𝗦 𝗙𝗔𝗞𝗘. 𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗬𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗜𝗦 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗟. We thrilled to bring F*GGOT*S, the first authorized theatrical adaptation of Larry Mitchell and Ned Asta’s celebrated manifesto The F*gg0ts and Their Friends Between Revolutions (1977) to the stage at Berliner Ringtheater. The performance explores this fairy tale as a vehicle for transmitting underground and community-based knowledge. Stories passed on in secret. Stories that are performed and re-enacted. Stories that move through our bodies, from generation to generation. 𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗡 May 17 to 23 2025 𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 Berliner Ringtheater, Alt-Stralau 68, 10245 Berlin 𝗖𝗥𝗘𝗗𝗜𝗧𝗦 Direction: Sascha Cowan & Hadrien Daigneault-Roy @erratum.artsvivants Text: Hadrien Daigneault-Roy – @blair_transdorf Scenography and Costumes : Sascha Cowan – @saschathefool Performance: Hassandra – @queenofvirginity Sound, video, technology: Luke Nickel – @postyork Light design: gretchen @sigrid_c_h_e_b Dramaturgy: Sophie Lembcke @sofux_elle Production management: Keira Sinclair – @vonkeira Hair and stage assistance: Elliot de Jahnsen - @elliotdejahnsen Graphic design: Maison CC – @maison.cc.berlin 𝗙𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚 Canada Council for the Arts & Bezirksamt Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg

Congratulations to our four winners of this year's Zöllner Roche Duo's Composer's Lab - we're so excited to be working with you! It was a tough decision for me, @evazoellner_accordion and @elnaz.seyedi_ to make - we had a huge number of wonderful applications. Thank you to everyone who applied and for all the work and energy you put into this. We know it takes a lot of time, and it's vulnerable to send your work out, and we really do appreciate it. We are so grateful to @musikfonds.de and @kuenstlerhaus_lauenburg for the support, and I am SO EXCITED to go back to Lauenburg in October for our residency there, and to engage in what are sure to be four wonderful collaborations! (Not to mention the amazing cakes at the café next door to the Künstlerhaus hehe)