Tallinn Music Week 2024 takes place on 3 – 7 April. The city festival programme will be announced in steps from February.
Until then see below for last year’s programme:
Wed, 10th May
Thu, 11th May
Sat, 13th May
Põhja Konn (Telliskivi 60a/5)
For free
TMW Talks create a public-friendly arena for battling hot topics within and beyond music and culture.
How to convert recycling and communal thinking into more sustainable environmental outcome? In the new streaming landscape, will the musician be fed and the fan kept happy? Does music have a gender? What happens when sound speaks? Come find out and have a say!
Whats more? Mancunian punk maverick and author John Robb will present his new book about the gothic subculture,and Laibach’s main man Ivan Novak will present a photo-monograph on Laibach’s breaching the Iron Curtain in 1983.
Talks are welcoming you in Telliskivi Creative City’s pub Põhja Konn. For free!
Partners: Tallinn, the Green Capital of Europe 2023, Fairmus, Postimees, Telliskivi Creative City, Estonian Human Rights Center.
Wed, 10th May
16:00 – 16:20 Opening of TMW 2023
Welcome speeches:
Kaarel Oja, Deputy Mayor of Tallinn
Ave Sophia Maria Tölpt, Director of Music Estonia
Jaanus Juss, Founder of Telliskivi Creative City
16:20 – 16:50 TMW team introduces the festival programme
17:00–17:50 Fairmus’ Fair Talks (In Estonian)
How can emerging artists build and manage viable careers and reach their fans? On which platforms does the listener meet artists from small emerging music markets? How to distribute music, engaging the audience, but also giving the artist hope for a more sustainable and profitable career? How do independent labels fare under the rule of the global giants? Where is the streaming hub where the musicians gets fed and the fan are happy?
Speakers:
Susanna Aleksandra Veldi, COO of Fairmus
Virgo Sillamaa, board member of the Estonian Authors’ Association
Karl-Erik Taukar, musician
Moderator: Merit Maarits, music journalist and editor at ERR Kultuur
18:00 – 18:50 Youth Talks: Does music have a gender? (In Estonian)
Does music have a gender? Does a musician have to express messages about being eitehr a female or a male artist or a gender neutral act? Are queer-friendly underground parties and clubs the only places where deviants can feel free and be themselves?
Speakers:
Gertrud Roos, musician, ensemble Ruudi
Eke Allikvere, musician, su/mi
Kxster, promoter of BÄM! choreographer and musician
Moderator: Gregor Kulla, composer and cultural critic
19:00 – 19:50 Live: su/mi
su/mi is a found family from Estonia creating electronic indie-pop. They have been making music together for two years, and released their second EP “Love Declaration” in March 2023.Their lyrics, in both English and Estonian, carry meaningful and important messages to make the world a better and brighter place. Their sound can be described as electro-pop meeting dramatic piano melodies, laced with lo-fi hip hop influences, and creating an intimate emotional rollercoaster.
Thu, 11th May
18:00 – 18:50 Art Talks: Sound artists (In English)
On Thursday. 11th May, two large-scale sound art exhibitions will open in Telliskivi Creative City. Seven Estonian artists are creating a spatial soundscape under the collective moniker “Sound Speaks” in the Green Hall of Telliskivi Creative City, and the 60-metre installation “Time Lines” will fill the corridor of its B-building.
The curators and artists will open up how it all came about and what exactly is a thing called sound art.
Speakers:
Bianka Soe, organiser of I Dont Understand (“Ma ei saa aru”) art festival
Aivar Tõnso, the curator of “Sound Speaks”
Raul Keller, artist, “Sound Speaks”.
Paul Hauptmeier, artist, “Time Lines”
Martin Recker, artist, “Time Lines”
Moderator: Kadri Laas, Managing Director of ECADC
Sat, 13th May
16:00 – 16:50 Green Capital (in Estonian)
Tallinn holds the title of European Green Capital 2023. On the one hand, this gives rise to pride, on the other hand, it also serves as an advance, which will hopefully encourage us all to act in a more sustainable manner. Every festival leaves behind a carbon footprint. But how to pack recycling, a communal way of thinking and the “back to nature” ethos into more conscious and sustainable environmental impact? A group of makers will analyse their ventures through a green prism. The talks vary from flea market and second-hand record collecting to from-tail-to-horn dinners and green messages.
Speakers:
Ahto-Lembit Lehtmets, organiser of Record Market (Plaaditurg)
Stella Jänes, representative of Ilmapood
Margit Aasmäe, co-founder of Fotografiska Tallinn
Krista Kampus, Executive Director of the Tallinn – European Green Capital 2023
Hannes Praks, director or The Estonian Centre for Architecture, founder of Kuidas.works
Moderator: Kertu Süld, Tallinn Music Week’s administrative director and leader of the green initiative
17:00 – 17:50 John Robb: The Art of Darkness: The History of Goth book presentation and talk (In English)
After a decade of work, countless interviews and immersing deep into the culture, John Robb’s in-depth book on Goth is a deep dive into the enduring culture and the social, historical and political backdrop that created the space for the art of darkness to thrive.
Drawing on his own experience as a musician and journalist, John covers the style, the music and the clubs that spawned the culture, alongside political and social conditions. He also reaches back further to key historic events and movements that frame the ideas of goth, from the fall of Rome to Lord Byron and the romantic poets, European folk tales, Gothic art and the occult. Finally, he considers the current mainstream goth of Instagram influencers, film, literature and music.
Indrek Mesikepp, a poet and lthe editor-in-chief of literay mag Looming interviews John about his fascinating new book.
The talk will be followed by Q&A and book signing session.
18:00 – 18:50 LAIBACH 40 Years of Eternity – book presentation and conversation with Ivan Novak (In English)
LAIBACH’s name, symbols and performances have always been a provocation, because provocation is their artistic credo. Through a designed performance they have always expressed their attitude towards the modern world. Their art is not innocent.
A photo-monograph on LAIBACH’s breaching the iron Curtain and deconstructing Western consumerism is a road movie story of the historic OCCUPIED EUROPE TOUR 1983, illustrated by previously unpublished photographs from Austria, Hungary, East and West Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, England, which was unveiled after nearly 40 years by the author and tour participant Teodor Lorencic. His documentary testimony and photographs that are read more than seen clearly show the bold artistic concept that emerged from the dehumanized world, of which LAIBACH is an unstoppable and conscientious commentator.
Film critic Tristan Priimägi will moderate a conversation with Ivan Novak, founding member of Laibach and co-creator of Laibach’s strategy and theory.
The talk will be followed by Q&A.
