Norient at Dachstock: Ego Death

17.01.2026 | 17:00 - 18.01.2026 | 03:00 CET

Live

Tickets: CHF 25/35/45 (Vorverkauf/Presale)

Dachstock, Reitschule Bern

Norient at Dachstock: Ego Death
Yodeling/Strings/Dance/Poetry/Noise/Club

In einer Zeit, in der die Welt zu zerfallen scheint und wir uns immer tiefer in kleine Blasen zurückziehen, öffnet das 14. Norient Festival im Dachstock der Reitschule für zehn Stunden neue Horizonte. Musik trifft Performance, Tanz begegnet Club, Dichtkunst verschmilzt mit Noise. Lass dich ein auf die längste Nacht in der Geschichte unseres Festivals. Norient at Dachstock: Ego Death.

Headliner ist das gleichnamige Duo Ego Death, bestehend aus dem Electronica-Pionier Niamké Désiré alias Aho Ssan und der Ausnahme-Cellistin Karolina Rec alias Resina. Der Jodlerklub Lorraine-Breitenrain, seit 120 Jahren aktiv, tritt ebenso auf, wie das Arola Streichquartett - in Zusammenarbeit mit dem playtime Festival der Hochschule der Künste Bern. Die palästinensische Sängerin und Oud-Spielerin Kamilya Jubran (Aga Khan Music Award 2025) und der Berner Musiker Werner Hasler (Kantonaler Musikpreis 2025) tauchen in einen intensiven musikalischen Dialog ein – 20 Jahre Zusammenarbeit auf ihrem Höhepunkt. Die Tänzerin Romane Ruggiero (ehemals Bühnen Bern) tanzt solo in der Mitte des Raums zu einem brandneuen Set von Melodies In My Head, dem Projekt von Norient-Gründer Thomas Burkhalter und Daniel Jakob.

Das südasiatische Künstler*innen-Kollektiv SOORIYAN reflektiert über diasporische Identitäten und die Schweizer Migrationsgeschichte. Logan February, nigerianische*r Poet, pendelt zwischen Herkunft und Zukunft und sucht Worte jenseits kolonialer Strukturen. Hilde Wollenstein überschreitet Grenzen zwischen Lyrik, Performance, elektronischer Musik, Glitch, Sehnsucht und digitalen Geistern. Danach folgen Live- und DJ-Sets von Ruhail Qaisar, Aleyna Günay alias ALY-X, NÂR, Parco Palaz, Ed Lalo und KruškaTv (präsentiert von Axapgula).

Musik und Kultur sind kein Luxus. Sie sind die Seele unserer Gesellschaft. Sie zeigen, wohin sich unsere Welt bewegt – wohin sie sich bewegen kann. Und wohin sie sich nicht bewegen darf.

Kuratiert von Erna Kuduzovic (Zürich), Thomas Burkhalter (Bern), Suvani Suri (Delhi), Philipp Rhensius (Berlin) und Claudia Popovici (Zürich)

In a time when the world seems to be falling apart and we are retreating deeper into our small bubbles, the 14. Norient Festival opens new horizons for ten hours. Music meets performance, dance encounters club, and poetry merges with noise. Join us for the longest night in the history of our festival. Norient at Dachstock: Ego Death.

The headliner is the eponymous duo Ego Death, consisting of visionary electronic artist Niamké Désiré aka Aho Ssan and the extraordinary cellist Resina. The Lorraine-Breitenrain Yodeling Club, active for 120 years, meets the Arola string quartet - in collaboration with the playtime Festival of the Bern University of the Arts (HKB). Kamilya Jubran, award-winning singer and oud player from Palestine (Aga Khan Music Award 2025), and Bernese musician Werner Hasler (Cantonal Music Prize 2025) will immerse themselves in an intense musical dialogue – 20 years of collaboration at its peak. Romane Ruggiero, formerly of Bühnen Bern, performs solo in the center of the space to a new set from Melodies In My Head, a project by Norient founder Thomas Burkhalter and Daniel Jakob.

The collective SOORIYAN (Tamil for «Sun») reflects on diasporic identities and Swiss migration history. Nigerian poet Logan February navigates between heritage and future, searching for words beyond colonial structures. Hilde Wollenstein crosses boundaries between poetry, performance, electronic music, glitch, longing, and digital ghosts. Following are live and DJ sets by Ruhail Qaisar, Aleyna Günay alias ALY-X, NÂR, Parco Palaz, Ed Lalo, and KruškaTv (presented by aXapGuLa.

Music and culture are not a luxury. They are the soul of our society. They show where our world is heading, where it can go, and where it must not.

Curated by Erna Kuduzovic (Zurich), Thomas Burkhalter (Bern), Suvani Suri (Delhi), Philipp Rhensius (Berlin), and Claudia Popovici (Zurich).

17:00 - 18:00 Uhr
SOORIYAN

18:00-18:30 Uhr
Hilde Wollenstein

18:30-19:00 Uhr
Arola Quartet

19:00-19:30 Uhr
ALY-X

19.30-20:00 Uhr
Romane Ruggiero and Melodies In My Head

20.00-20:30 Uhr
Ruhail Qaisar

20.30-21:00 Uhr
NÂR

21.00-21:45 Uhr
Kamilya Jubran and Werner Hasler: extend و WA

21:45-22:15 Uhr
Jodlerklub Lorraine-Breitenrain

22.15-23:00 Uhr
Ego Death

23:00-23:15 Uhr
Logan February

23:15-00:00 Uhr
Parco Palaz

00:00-01.30 Uhr
Ed Lalo

01:30-03.00 Uhr
000 presents: KruškaTv

Wa by Werner Hasler, Kamilya Jubran

Okret by Parco Palaz

Fatima by RUHAIL QAISAR

here for a lil bit by Ed Lalo

What We Talk About: NÂR by NÂR

Kill the Mainstream by ALY-X

Weitere Filmstills / Further Filmstills

Beteiligte Personen / Involved People

Biography

SOORIYAN (S-uu-ri-en, «Sun» in Tamil) is a collective formed by South Asian artists navigating subcultures in Switzerland. SOORIYAN aims to empower and celebrate the diversity of South Asian creativity by reclaiming how diasporic identities are portrayed and understood, while reflecting on Switzerland’s own migration histories. Follow them on Instagram

Biography

Hilde Wollenstein is working between poetry, performance, and electronic music, her practice moves through glitch, desire, and digital ghosts. Her spoken word music performances sound like messages from a world we half remember but haven't lived yet: part glitch-spell, part soft riot against clean binaries. Having recently finished a Master's in Sonology at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, she is a poet for an era of broken signals and burning tenderness. Follow her on her Website.

Biography

Romane Ruggiero is a freelance dancer, currently based in Bern. She graduated from Codarts University for the Arts (Rotterdam, NL) in 2020 and has danced in choreographies by Sharon Eyal, Hofesh Shechter, Marco Geocke, Felix Landerer, Adonis Foniadakis, and Mari Chouinard, among others. In 2025, she received support from Stadt Bern, Kanton Bern, Burgergemeinde Bern, Dampfzentrale Bern, and Teatre Nu to produce her own dance movie, which has been broadcast in various venues around Switzerland. In 2024, she choreographed «I felt that», a solo piece she performed at various venues in Europe. Follow her on Instagram.

Biography

Melodies In My Head, the new project by anthropologist and AV artist and Thomas Burkhalter and Bernese musician Daniel Jakob (Dubokaj, Dejot), looks at these times from many angles and in a new format between pop music, anthropology, dance, and film. Follow it on TikTok, Instagram, Youtube, or Spotify.

Biography

Ruhail Qaisar is a self-taught artist from the Himalayan region of Ladakh. As a musician, he explores the confines of memory, the dry rot of intergenerational trauma, and the eerie swarms of the human unconscious, incorporating vernacular concepts, poetic gestures, and improvisational chaos. His practice serves to transmit sub-zero sound-collage excavations based on real-life events and local mythos, as developed through his recollections of growing up in the frontier villages of the Ladakh region located in the high-altitude Himalayas, drones of hauntology disgracefully disturbed with spastic tremors of post-industrial delirium and cruel power-electronics. His debut full-length Fatima is out on Danse Noire. Follow him on Instagram, Facebook, X, SoundCloud, Spotify, Bandcamp, or Youtube.

Biography

NÂR is a Lebanese multi-instrumentalist and singer based in Beirut. In a constant metamorphosis, she works with various instruments, her voice, and different found objects. NÂR’s performances are sonic experiments. Her music is rooted in a diverse spectrum of sounds, including Middle Eastern and North African trance, and industrial and electronic music. In 2022, she created her Time Machine, a handcrafted instrument composed of old clocks, bells, and other metallic objects, giving birth to a new dimension in her practice and allowing more rawness into her sound. NÂR is never a project; it’s a reflective journey, a succession of sacred mistakes, and a cult to the unknown. Follow her on Bandcamp.

Biography

Kamilya Jubran grew up in Al Rameh – a palestinian village situated in Galilée, in the north of Israel. Raised by her music loving parents, she was introduced and initiated to classical arabic music, and particularly by her father Elias Jubran – a music teacher and an instrument maker. At the age of 18 Kamilya made her move to Jerusalem, where she studied at the Hebrew university, and simultaneously explored her new musical pathway by joining Sabreen group-based in East Jerusalem. With the group she recorded four albums and toured in many local as well as international towns and cities. The very rich and intensive two decades of constant work with the group urged her to deepen her music research and consequently to shape and reshape her musical identity. Follow her on Youtube, Spotify, SoundCloud, Facebook, X, or on her Website.

Biography

Werner Hasler (Musikpreis Kanton Bern 2025) is a composer, electronic musician, and trumpet player who focuses on live sampling and sound spatialization. Apart from his long-standing collaboration with Kamilya Jubran, he has been working on his OUT series, consisting of various collaborations and hybrids of exhibition/installation and live performance. Werner Hasler is currently working and performing with Stefan Schultze as Boussole Animale, with Jim Black as Discontinued Rhythm, and with Hardi Kurda as Augmented Reality Orchestra. He also lectures on electronics and music at Hochschule der Künste in Bern. Follow him on Youtube, Spotify, or in his Website.

Biography

The Jodlerklub Lorraine-Breitenrain has been active for 120 years, singing traditional pieces as fresh as the glacial water of the Aare, winding its way through the Swiss capital. You can hear the singers just as easily in Bern’s courtyards and at rural village feasts. The singers are happy to give this Swiss tradition a twist, with melodic surprises, open hearts, and the strong belief that culture connects. Follow them on their Website.

Biography

Paris-based electronic musician Niamké Désiré, aka Aho Ssan, and Warsaw-based cellist Resina discovered an intuitive musical synergy and a shared vocabulary at Unsound, despite working with radically different tools and instruments. The duo premiered their collaborative project Ego Death in 2022, and this year, released their debut on Subtext Recordings. Their music brims with dark, cinematic intensity, stretching the tonality of the cello to its breaking point and exploring the textures left in its wake. Follow them on Bandcamp.

Biography

Aho Ssan is the artist name of Paris based Niamké Désiré. After studying graphic design and cinema, he began composing electronic music and creating his own digital instruments. In 2015 he went on to win the Foundation France television prize for his soundtrack to the film of Ingha Mago and has worked on several projects related to IRCAM/GRM in France since then. His debut LP Simulacrum released in 2020 based on the work of Jean Baudrillard, navigates society’s presentation of inclusivity and equality against his own experience of growing up black in France. In 2023 Aho Ssan released his new solo album Rhizomes on Nicolas Jaar’s Other People label. His music has been acclaimed by various media such as NPR, Pitchfork, Resident Advisor, Liberation and Les Inrockuptibles, and received a Honorary Mention at Prix Ars Electronica 2023 Digital Musics & Sound Art.

Biography

Resina is the alias of Warsaw-based cellist and composer Karolina Rec. Working frequently for film, theater, and games, her three solo albums Resina (2016), Traces (2018, remixes by Ben Frost and Abul Mogard), and Speechless (2021, a choral work for 24 voices) blend processed cello, voice, and electronics, moving between ambient, noise, heavy percussion, and minimalist structures. Her music balances the tension between the biological and the synthetic, the intimate and the extreme, carving out a space where classical forms unravel into unclassifiable emotional landscapes. Follow her Bandcamp.

Biography

Logan February writes at the crossroads – between ancestry and the future, body and myth. A queer poet forged in outsiderhood, the Nigerian poet has said that living outside the colonial frame freed them from its values and turned them back toward pre-colonial ways of knowing and being. Drawing from Yoruba traditions, queer longing, and the soft voltages of love and memory, their poems move like spirits – intimate, ecstatic, and unafraid. Follow them on their Website and read here.

Biography

Parco Palaz is a sonic imagineer chasing frequencies that twist reality. Composing for films and etching grooves into vinyl, his releases span the globe, and have been featured on Akoya Circles, TraTraTrax, Murk, SNC, Planisphere Editorial, and TLT. With Okret (meaning «Turn»), Parco Palaz delivers an album that doesn’t give a damn about expectations. What started as an exploration of the rhythms and melodic twists of the Balkans turned into a personal and artistic rollercoaster. Follow him on Bandcamp.

Biography

Ed Lalo, many years ago, left the Eduverse and was stranded in a strange place. Now, he's trying to escape and get back. In the process, he meets many new people. Some become friends, others become foes. Ed Lalo, aka edu.cation, multiplies his aliases over the course of his projects, blurring his artistic trajectory. We tracked him: composing his sets from a wide range of musical influences, Ed Lalo provokes the derailment of frequencies. Follow him on Bandcamp

Biography

Multi-genre DJ KruškaTv plays an irresistible mix that keeps bodies moving and spirits high. She loves the thrill of deconstructing club music and nonchalantly tossing experimental sounds together into a bubbling pot: hyper- and electro-pop melting into trance and bouncy techno. KruškaTv creates a genre-fluid ride of limitless fun that lights up the dance floor. Follow her on Instagram.

Venue

Neubrückstrasse 8
3012 Bern
Switzerland

Embodied Resonances

17.01.2026 | 15:30 - 17.01.2026 | 18:30 CET

Screenings

Portugal, Norway, United States, Deutschland, France

Tickets: CHF 20/30/40 (Vorverkauf/Presale)

Kino in der Reitschule

Dieser Block befasst sich mit Klang durch den Körper – in Atem, Nerven, Instinkt und Erinnerung. Es geht um diejenigen, die die Welt nicht nur hören, sondern auch spüren, wo Stille sich verdichtet, Wahrnehmung sich verzerrt und Musik zu einem Mittel wird, um präsent und verbunden zu bleiben. Während sich der kurze Dokumentarfilm Territórios auf Spannungen und leise Erschütterungen zwischen Körpern und Orten konzentriert, folgt A Stranger in the World der Wahrnehmung in Bewegung durch die Sinneswelt eines autistischen Kindes und eines Elternteils, die gemeinsam lernen, anders zuzuhören. Monk in Pieces taucht in Meredith Monks lebenslange Praxis von Stimme, Atem und Hingabe ein – Klang als Disziplin, Experiment und Lebenskraft. Hier ist Zuhören nicht nur Theorie – es ist ein Gefühl der Praxis, wie man sich bewegt, zurechtkommt und Bedeutung schafft.

This block looks at sound through the body – in breath, nerves, instinct, and memory. It’s about those who don’t just hear the world, but thoroughly sense it, where silence tightens, perception bends, and music becomes a way to stay present and connected. While the short documentary Territórios tunes into tension and quiet tremors between bodies and place, A Stranger in the World follows perception-in-motion through the sensory world of an autistic child and a parent learning to listen differently, together. Monk in Pieces dives into Meredith Monk’s lifelong practice of voice, breath, and devotion – sound as discipline, experiment, and life force. Here, listening isn’t merely theory, it’s a sense of practice, of how you move, cope, and make meaning.

Territórios

15:30 · 3:30pm
Kurzfilm/Short Film
Regie/Director: Siddharth Govindan
Land/Jahr/Year POR 2023 · 19 min

Ohne Worte/Without Words

Dieser Kurzfilm untersucht das Zusammenspiel von Raum, Vibration und Präsenz. Angesiedelt in den charakteristischen Korkwäldern Portugals entsteht Spannung durch Stille, in der jedes Klangdetail die Wahrnehmung schärft. Durch subtile Übergänge zwischen menschlichen und tierischen Gesten entsteht eine Spannung, die zugleich intim und abstrakt, innerlich und umgebend wirkt.

This short documentary offers a quietly magnetic study of space, vibration, and presence. Situated in the characteristic montados, the cork-oak forests in Southern Portugal, here, silence becomes charged and every sonic detail sharpens perception. Through subtle shifts between human and animal gestures, the film creates a tension that feels at once intimate and abstract, internal and environmental.

Director Website

Topics: Nature · Perception · Listening

A Stranger in the World

16:00 · 4pm
WORLD Premiere
Kurzfilm/Short Film
Regie/Director: Sturla Pilskog
Land/Jahr/Year NOR 2025 · 30’

Sprachen/languages: Norwegisch/Norwegian
Untertitel/subtitles: English

A Stranger in the World ist eine feinfühlige und visuell eindrückliche Meditation darüber, wie Klang wahrgenommen wird. Durch die Augen seines autistischen Sohnes untersucht der Filmemacher Sturla Pilskog, wie wir uns mit der Welt, die uns umgibt, verbinden und abgrenzen und dabei versuchen, sie zu verstehen. Philosophisch und zugleich intim, verwischen im Film die Grenzen zwischen Klang, Fürsorge und Sinneswahrnehmung.

A Stranger in the World is a sensitive and visually striking meditation on perception and sound. Through the lens of his autistic son, filmmaker Sturla Pilskog explores how we sense and separate ourselves from the world we seek to understand. Blending philosophy and intimacy, the film is a thought-provoking work on the edges of sound, care, and perception.

Topics: Perception, Sound, Listening

Monk in Pieces

16:30 · 4:30pm
Documentary
Regie/Director: Billy Shebar
mit/featuring Meredith Monk, Björk, David Byrne (Talking Heads and more)
Land/Jahr/Year USA DE FR 2025 · 94’

Sprache/language: Englisch/English
Untertitel/subtitles: English

Ein intimer Einblick in das künstlerische Universum von Meredith Monk – legendäre Komponistin, Sängerin und Choreografin. Sie startete ihre Karriere als Teil der bahnbrechenden New Yorker Downtown-Szene und inspirierte u.a. Künstler*innen wie Björk oder David Byrne, Frontsänger der New Wave-Band Talking Heads. Das filmische Porträt zeichnet nach, wie Monk jahrzehntelang mit Atemtechniken, ihrer Stimme und Bewegung experimentierte und mit Stille, Gestik und Hingabe ganze Welten erschuf. Für ihr radikales Lebenswerk u.a. den Goldenen Löwen der Musik-Biennale in Venedig.

An intimate deep dive into the life of legendary composer, vocalist, and choreographer Meredith Monk. Starting as part of New York’s groundbreaking Downtown scene and influential to artists such as Björk and David Byrne, the lead singer of the new wave band Talking Heads. This feature-length biopic traces her decades of radical experimentation with breath, voice, and movement, revealing an artist who listens beyond convention and creates worlds from silence, gesture, and devotion. For her exceptional practice, she received a Golden Lion at the Venice Music Biennale.

Topics: Music Business, Counterculture, Tradition

Venue

Neubrückstrasse 8
3012 Bern
Switzerland

Place Poetics: of Senegalese Sabar Drumming, West Bengali Bass Culture, and Sufi-Bakthi Singers

17.01.2026 | 20:00 - 17.01.2026 | 23:59 CET

Screenings

Senegal, India

Tickets: CHF 20/30/40 (Vorverkauf/Presale)

Kino in der Reitschule

Place Poetics: of Senegalese Sabar Drumming, West Bengali Bass Culture, and Sufi-Bakthi Singers

Dieser Filmblock sucht die Nähe von Orten und Gemeinschaften. Denn senegalesischer Sabar, indischer Dub bis hin zu Folk sind eng verwurzelt mit dem Land, der Arbeit, und gemeinsam verbrachter Zeit. Musik ist hier keine Bühne, kein Scheinwerferlicht; sie ist ein Rhythmus, der in Familien weitergegeben und im Alltag lebendig gehalten wird. Transcriptions, Bass Boss und Music in a Village Named 1PB lauschen in Dörfer, Nachbarschaften und Familien hinein und vermitteln eine leise Botschaft, die hellhörig macht: Klang gehört irgendwohin – und er erinnert sich.

This film block stays close to the ground and to community. From the Senegalese music style sabar to Indian dub and folk music, sound grows out of land, labor, and shared time. Music isn’t staged or spotlighted here; it’s rhythm held in families, passed through practice, carried by breath and everyday life. Transcriptions, Bass Boss, and Music in a Village Named 1PB move through villages and neighborhoods, listening to how music holds place and how place holds people. A quiet insistence: sound belongs somewhere – and it remembers.

Transcriptions

20:00 · 8pm
Kurzfilm/short film
Hiroo Tanaka, SEN 2024· 30’

Sprache/language: French and Wolof
Untertitel/subtitles: English

Transcriptions führt uns zu Senegals reicher Tradition der Sabar-Trommeln. Wir folgen deren Spuren durch Familien, dem kulturellen Erbe und sich wandelnden Geschlechterrollen. Ethnografische Dialoge erhalten einen spekulativen Touch. In diesem eindringlichen Porträt lebt Rhythmus als Tradition und Zukunft, die stetig neu interpretiert werden.

Transcriptions looks at Senegal’s sabar drumming tradition, tracing its lineage through family, heritage, and evolving gender roles. Blending ethnographic dialogue with a speculative touch, the film gives attention to both the musicians and the music, revealing a practice that honors tradition while reshaping it. A focused and resonant portrait of rhythm as culture, continuity, and change.

Director Website

Topics: Tradition, Dance, Place

Bass Boss

20:00 · 8pm
Kurzfilm/short film
Rana Ghose, IND 2025 · 17’

Sprache/language: Bengali
Untertitel/subtitles: English

Dieser Kurzfilm taucht in die ungeschliffene Bass-Kultur Westbengalens ein und folgt DJ Khobir und einer erfindungsreichen und elektrisierenden Szene. Er zeigt einen Sound, der sich nicht aus globalen Szenen ableitet, sondern in einem Wohnquartier und aus Eigeninitiative heraus entstand. Ein Porträt des Bass-Pop als Identität, Energie und Ort – laut, oft von Hingabe durchdrungen und von männlicher Kraft getragen.

This short documentary dives into the raw, home-grown bass sound system and culture unique to West Bengal. It follows protagonist DJ Khobir and a high-octane scene that erupted from a neighborhood, and an unmistakably unique drive. A portrait of popular bass as identity, energy, and place – loud, often steeped in devotion, and male-driven.

Topics: Tradition, Dance, Place, Music Business

Music in a Village Named 1PB

21:45 · 9:45pm
DOK/Documentary
Surabhi Sharma, IND 2025 · 132’

Sprache/language: Saraki/HIndi
Untertitel/subtitles: English

Dieser abendfüllende Dokumentarfilm führt uns in ein Wüstendorf im Westen Indiens, wo Lieder Grenzen, Zeit und Dürre überdauern. Gedreht mit Geduld und Vertrauen, begleitet der Film Sänger*innen, die eine Sufi-Bhakti-Tradition bewahren – an einem Ort, an dem das Land ausgetrocknet ist, die Linien verhärtet und die Musik als Erinnerung, als Geschichten und stille Gegenwehr überlebt.

This feature-length documentary takes us to a desert village in Western India where songs outlast borders, time, and drought. Shot with patience and trust, the film follows singers who protect a Sufi–Bhakti tradition in a place where the land has dried, lines have hardened, and music survives as memory, stories, and quiet defiance.

Topics: Tradition, Place, Music Business

Venue

Neubrückstrasse 8
3012 Bern
Switzerland