BERLIN (CelebrityAccess) — Energy drink maker Red Bull announced that the 20th anniversary of the Red Bull Music Academy will take place in Berlin at the historic Funkhaus studio complex.
The five-week program, set for September 8th to October 12th, includes workshops, public talks, studio sessions and exhibitions with both established and up-and-coming artists from around the world.
At the same time, Red Bull Music will present a five-week festival of concerts, club nights and public talks at venues and public forums around the city, intended to highlight Berlin’s musical past and present.
During Red Bull’s Funkhaus residency, the academy will utilize one of the large orchestral recording halls in Block B as a lecture hall, and a chamber music recording hall will be used as a session room. The rooms that made up the H1 studio, along with two recording rooms that flank one of the chamber music halls, will serve as production studios. All the original foley elements that were used for radio plays, from curtains to cobblestones, will remain in place.
Red Bull said they are collaborating with Berlin designers New Tendency to create new furniture, as well as pathways and “environments” for the event, and will rewire the studios including one of the original reverb chambers with state-of-the-art sound gear.
Funkhaus (‘Broadcast house’) is possibly the largest studio complex in the world, and surely also one of the grandest. Located on the Spree river, it was built by the GDR to house its state radio operations, with construction completed in 1956. The Funkhaus was able to accommodate a range of recording needs, ranging from large orchestras in Studio 1, which at 800 square meters is almost twice the size of Abbey Road’s Studio One, to, in the ’60s, early experiments in electronic sound synthesis.
By the ’70s the complex operated rather like a small town, with 3500 people working there. Designed by Bauhaus-trained architect Franz Ehrlich, its façade conceals a grand entrance hall with classical pillars, and wood-paneled studios that provide varied and often customizable acoustic environments, designed in collaboration with the acoustician Lothar Keibs and engineer Gisela Herzog.
