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Looking
back...
at Futuresonic 2006

The last Futuresonic festival was our 10th anniversary. It featured
stunning live events at Manchester's main music venues, a weekend of
low slung live music at the Futuresonic lounge, a place to hang out and
play interactive games at the festival Hub, chilled out barge trips on
sunny afternoons, and cutting edge artworks, technologies, workshops
& talks in the historic setting of the world's first railway warehouse.

Visit the Futuresonic 2006 website.

If you want to revisit Futuresonic 2006, or were unable to make it and
want to see what you missed, scroll down or click on one of the
following links:

Five Highlights of Futuresonic 2006
What They Say about Futuresonic 2006
Images from Futuresonic 2006

Five Highlights of Futuresonic 2006

Toshio Iwai

The stand-out live performance at Futuresonic 2006 from media art pin up and star game designer Toshio Iwai. The first fully realised live performance of TENORI-ON, a unique AV instrument designed by Iwai for Yamaha, also featuring Electroplankton and SoundLens. View Toshio Iwai's artist talk which proceeded the live event at Manchester Academy (video uploaded soon!)

Battles

Perhaps the most eagerly anticipated live act at Futuresonic 2006, Battles did not disappoint. The Warp-signed New York quartet served up the sonic equivalent of some near impossible mathematical equation with a live energy that left people breathless. "One of the most exciting bands we've discovered" - Warp

Everybody Is A Satellite Jockey

In a VJ Installation by Futuresonic, Rick Silva aka Satellite Jockey hands over the controls. Silva was invited by Futuresonic to supply a soundtrack for aspiring Google Earth jockeys to mix to. Visitors to the Futuresonic 2006 exhibition were able to mix impromptu VJ sets to Silva's music using Google Earth.

DMZ dubstep showcase

Futuresonic 2006 saw the first Manchester event for the influential DMZ club and label, featuring all the leading lights of the nascent dubstep scene combined in one killer event - alongside a surprise showing from Manchester's own Viral Syndicate.

Manchester : Peripheral

An interactive SoundMap enables audience members to be an 'urban sound jockey', remixing and replaying the sounds of Manchester. An online version of the project was launched during Futuresonic 2006 and can be found at http://www.manchesterperipheral.com. The full large-scale installation will be debuted as Futuresonic's contribution to the inaugural Manchester International Festival in summer 2007.

Quotes

"If you can be sure of one thing at Futuresonic, it's that you'll get a glimpse of tomorrow's music today ... Futuresonic delivers the most innovative ideas and formats every year ... If this is the future of electronic music, then the future [is] going to be very bright indeed."
BBC online

"Rooted in Manchester's mid-90s dance scene, and now in a celebratory tenth year mode, Futuresonic has broadened from niche event to a fully eclectic urban festival, guided by a genuine thirst for the unexpected, be it audio, visual or an ingenious blending of both. The ethos of the festival is no longer provided solely by the ebb and flow of electronica, but by a reputation for stretching into lonely areas of innovation, where art installations and social issues are both built into the festival's unique framework."
The Wire

"No other live show I've been to in years has been as inspiring and entertaining from the perspective of the music played or the use of media ... My friend and myself walked out of that performance at Manchester Academy physically stunned."
Posting to TENORI-ON blog

"Futuresonic, a razor-sharp, contemporary, urban alternative, fittingly sited in the heart of Manchester."
The North West Enquirer