At Superbooth 22: Eowave and Touellskouarn unveiled OSTILH, a new characterful semi-modular paraphonic analog synthesizer made in collaboration with music composer Yann Tiersen. Here is a first look at the prototype...

SUPERBOOTH22 and SOOPERgrail welcomed around 6000 trade visitors, day guests and over 170 international exhibitors at FEZ-Berlin. In the year of the 20th anniversary of the Superbooth, for the first time innovative guitar builders were represented in larger num- bers and with their own exhibition space under the name SOOPERgrail.

The expanded concept of the largest trade event for electronic musical instruments in Europe has proven successful, and Superbooth Berlin GmbH has overcome the worst obstacles resulting from the Corona crisis. This clears the way for next year‘s planning - the date is set:
SUPERBOOTH23 and SOOPERgrail #2 at FEZ-Berlin: May 11-13, 2023. with even more innovative instruments and music, concerts, workshops, presentations, indoors and outdoors

Andreas Schneider: "For the anniversary version of Superbooth, as it turned out after all obstacles and difficulties, we can really only be grateful to everyone and congratulate everyone who was able to be there. The delicate little flower called #SOOPERgrail also made a successful start and the international events - above all the presentation with Hainbach for the Goethe Institute Tokyo and the partici- pation of Tom Oberheim and Dave Smith with their new instrument - were im- portant factors of culture and economy alike. We are already excited to see what will develop from this next year!"

The various areas of the anniversary edition each convinced with their very own at- mosphere, which always meandered between music festival, nerd get-together and a group trip with friends. The basis for relaxed encounters, lively exchange and a good mood was provided by the extended event area in the park, the large number of exhibi- tors and the summery weather.

Live:
The stage program represents an enormous variety of musical variation. Early electronic instruments such as the Trautonium were on display. Hainbach presented how electro- nic music was made by artists like Stockhausen in the 1960s, and many concerts fea- tured modular synthesizers, which can be seen as modern successors to the featured instruments. From the stages you could hear great live electronic music from ambient to techno, a lot of experimental and innovative works. Surprisingly for many guests, there was a performance by Richie Hawtin on the last day of the event.

The Modular Synthesizer Ensemble gave the mostly young participants their first stage experience with a composition they had previously developed together in a work- shop lasting several hours.
Within the framework of SOOPERgrail, there were many outstanding concerts and workshops, with individual instruments presented. In addition to traditional crafts, the artists and exhibitors also showed possibilities that enable expanded artistic expression. With the presented technologies, external devices can be controlled and microtonal music can be played.

The main stage for diverse guitar music was located in the circus tent. There was, among others, a blues concert by DobBroMan with spontaneous support from Thorsten Quaeschning of Tangerine Dream, the performance of Nagen & Kotzmann, who blurred the line between drone, ambient and free jazz, and Linalab, who brought along a drummer for her electronic post-rock, processed the sound of her electric guitar with a synthesizer, thereby ideally united the concepts of SOOPERgrail and SUPERBOOTH22.

Dokumentation:
The lecture-concerts (Gesprächskonzerte) recorded during the event are now available on Superbooth Berlin‘s YouTube and Vimeo channels, and the recordings of the other concerts will be released in the coming weeks.

Lecture-concerts are a combination of concert and presentation, where new inst- ruments are introduced in a concrete musical context. This year, legendary synthesizer manufacturer Oberheim made a comeback and presented a new instrument in this for- mat that, like its predecessors, seems to have the potential to become a classic.

We would like to expressly thank all exhibitors, artists, media representatives, trade vi- sitors and last but not least the numerous private visitors for their great support and the wonderful three days and are already looking forward to SUPERBOOTH23 and SOOPER- grail next year.

Save the date now: SUPERBOOTH23 and SOOPERgrail from May 11 to 13, 2023 at FEZ-Berlin!"

This year's Superbooth was a success! Both our manufacturers and the guests felt very comfortable in the Bungalow Village. New products were unveiled, there were great concerts every day and most importantly, lots of conversations.

Thanks to everyone who attended, it was a real pleasure!

Photo by Tom Koerting