The Sound of the Future searches for the soul of electronic dance music (EDM) and its ‘lost’ creator. The quest features characters who shape the rise of EDM. Together they shed light on the future of music, the collective vs. individual experience, and the changing authorship in times of digitalization and breakthrough AI.
Bart Van Peel (born 1975) is an Antwerp-based artist and writer. He is founder and leader of the collective Captain Boomer, best known for creating major artistic interventions in public space. Familiar work known to a global audience include Whale, Pasture with Cows, Skagt and Baby You. Captain Boomer is multidisciplinary, working with sculpture, video, music and life performance. The collective set up collaborations with major festivals in London, Paris, Adelaide, Sydney, Madrid, Bordeaux, Warsaw and other cities. www.captainboomercollective.org
In 2010, Bart Van Peel made his first documentary 'Boyamba Belgique', about the man who stole King Baudouin's protocol sword in Congo. The film is represented by international sales agent Cat&Docs and contributed to the debate around independence era of countries in Africa. Bart also writes about art and culture in national media and teaches creative courses at Karel De Grote University College in Antwerp and Hochschule München.
I have a double relationship with electronic music. Love—because its collective ecstasy, coolness, and danceability are unparalleled. There is something liberating about it. It feels like pure music, as if it comes from another, futuristic world. And it often sounds utopian and dystopian at the same time. In its dystopian aspect, there is a certain emptiness. At times, techno and electro seem mostly like escapism. That’s when I miss engagement, real connection with a community, personal commitment from the makers, and a link to society and its current challenges. Will this become the future for all music ?