The DEDICATED PLAY Festival is the most recent event in the ongoing artistic project of the electroacoustic duo BEAM SPLITTER, a collaboration between life partners Audrey Chen (US) and Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø (NO).

Since 2020, Audrey and Henrik have been organizing DEDICATED PLAY in Berlin, where they have invited a diverse array of artists from around the world, primarily from diasporic backgrounds. While spinning a thread through the larger story of migration across continents/oceans and establishing the concept of home in shared relationships, this project seeks to bring together the commonalities of these experiences and express this communication through familial interplay, improvisation and the merging of sonic languages.

For the fourth edition of this project, BEAM SPLITTER will be expanding the concept, teaming up with, XIU XIU (Hyunhye Angela Seo & Jamie Stewart) to curate a six day event across two countries, split between KM28 in Berlin and London's Cafe Oto.

BEAM SPLITTER and Xiu Xiu operate in different corners of the extended experimental music spectrum, but also share a lot of sonic and personal traits. Focusing on long term collaboration and extended international touring, both groups have been building identity over time and are blurring the edges between what’s ugly and beautiful through their intense and physical approaches to sound and performance. The bigger differences often come across in how the music is presented by others (media, festivals, etc.), and our goal is to deepen the understanding of this wider community, while creating an inviting environment where the audience doesn't feel the event belongs to a certain niche.

Indeed, the festival explores a deeply universal and consistent theme of how individuals are able to collectively navigate belonging. And how they can also share in the complex social, cultural, and historical practice of seeking and building a community, a home. It is clear that while most of the artists featured in the festival are of Asian-descent, their experiences transcend any particular national or ethnic group. The impact of these experiences shape our society, our arts and music. In this project, we explore in particular how our musical identities and expressions are shaped by our shared diaspora.

The first two nights of the Cafe Oto residency will present curated collaborations from the full artist line-up. These sets will be announced at the start of the residency on December 11. The last evening will feature four diverse long running duo projects, BEAM SPLITTER, Xiu Xiu, Manas and Chen/Minton.