Electronic music concert to connect Congolese, Vietnamese artists

The "Listening to What’s Left... and More to Come" show on July 5 is a joint effort between the two artists aiming to explore the possibilities of virtual collaboration, diversifying soundscapes, and personal experiences around the world.

The two artists are interested in soundscapes within a cultural context as well as electro-acoustic music and sound art. For this project, they will utilize their personal field recording archives recorded during pandemic-lockdown periods in both countries and use them as a starting point for performance research and production.

Nhung Nguyen (L) and Cedrik Fermont (R). Photo courtesy of the two artists.

The research project will include a series of interviews with people in Germany and Vietnam about their personal experience with the soundscapes around them, especially during the pandemic period, and how to cope with the current lockdown.

Cedrik Fermont, or Kirdec, was born in 1972 in Zaire, Congo. Based in Berlin, he has been involved in the electronic and experimental music network since the late 1980s.

Nhung Nguyen, born in 1998, is a Vietnamese sound artist based in Hanoi. Since 2014, Nhung has been making works under the moniker Sound Awakener and has collaborated with international labels.

Both artists met in Hanoi in 2019. Previously in 2016, Nhung Nguyen was featured in Cedrik Fermont and Dimitri della Faille’s book, "Not your world music: Noise in South East Asia".

The concert will be broadcast live on the Facebook of Goethe Institute in Vietnam on July 5.