Poland’s Unsound Festival – one of the classiest shindigs on the European festival calendar – will return this October.
Set in a host of stunning venues, from churches to exhibition spaces, across Krakow, Unsound typically pulls together a fantastic bill of performances and commissions, with a particular emphasis on experimental noisemakers and the darker crannies of the dancefloor. Running from October 12-19, Unsound 2014 is already looking like a peach.
Ben Frost, fresh from his strobing career-high A U R O R A, will return to the festival for a hammering audiovisual show, and Drexciya emissary DJ Stingray and clubland nightstalker Joey Anderson will both make the trip. Fade To Mind genre-bender Total Freedom, rave conceptualists EVOL and TCF are also all confirmed, as is Ephemera – a multi-sensory installation featuring contributions from Kode9, Tim Hecker and Frost.
Noise-to-dance émigré Container will be presenting a new work, featuring Norwegian noise/jazz drummers Kenneth Kapstad and Tomas Jahrmyr acting as “human drum machines”. Perc – whose The Power And The Glory is one of our most cherished LPs of 2014 to date – will appear, as will mysterious Sandwell District affiliate Rrose. Throbbing Gristle/Factory Floor bastard child Carter Tutti Void will be making a rare live outing – exciting news for anyone in thrall to 2012’s excellent Transverse.
Dark ambient figurehead and Supersilent member Deathprod, whose live solo performances are far and few between, will be presenting a live rendition of his whopping 2004 box set Treetop Drive. Spartan Aussie improv outfit The Necks, meanwhile, will be collaborating with Austria’s Radian. They all join the previously announced Swans, who’ll be presenting cuts from their funky, sweat-soaked new LP To Be Kind.
Head here for tickets. Unsound shindigs tend to have a theme (2012’s was “the end”; 2013’s, “interference”) This year’s theme is The Dream, more (gnomic) info on which is below:
What does it mean to be Living The Dream? The Dream is a symptom of a world where self expression and experience are increasingly mediated and commodified. The Dream plays out on laptops used for work and leisure, in networked coffee shops, airports, international ―artistic enclaves and nightclubs. Anxiety is its nderside: those Living The Dream often do so in precarious financial situations, while in the background, cological and economic systems lurch towards collapse. The Dream is the (unintended) result of a century’s worth of counterculture.
The Dream is the status update.
The Dream is seamless creation and sharing.
The Dream is the history of music available at the click of a button.
The Dream is fleeting and highly combustible.
