Laibach are bringing their The Sound of Music tour to the UK in April for a date at London’s The Forum amongst a number of other dates around Europe over the course of this month, February and April.
The tour will see the group present part of the set that made up the recent, infamous Pyongyang performances including interpretations of the songs from the musical from which the tour takes its name. The band also plans to perform older songs as part of the shows. You can get tickets for the London show here and check out a short interview with the band on the tour below.
I'm fascinated to know whether the The Sound of Music was a film that you knew of or saw as young people in Slovenia. How did the idea of people travelling over the mountains to freedom resonate with you?
Of course we saw this film many times when we were kids and we had always been looking for a good opportunity to do something with it. As soon as we knew we were going to perform a concert in North Korea, we decided to create the program around The Sound of Music. North Koreans know it as well, it is one of the American films they are allowed to watch and they use it to learn English. They also made their own Korean versions of selected songs from the film. The Sound of Music’s story really fits into North Korean situation and can be understood affirmatively, but also subversively - depending on your point of view. At the moment its subliminal Freudian touch seems to fit the European political reality - after all this is the film about refugees.
Would it be amiss of me to see a kinship between yourselves and the mischievous nuns who remove the Nazi car spark plugs?
As much as there is a kinship between the images of a Mother Superior and Laibach’s lead vocalist.
Laibach play the following:
FEBRUARY Tue 9 – The Henry Le Boeuf Hall, BOZAR, Brussels
APRIL Thu 7 – Batschkapp, Frankfurt Sat 9 – Impetus festival @ Le Moloco, Audincourt Sun 10 – Theater Tilburg Concertzaal, Tilburg Tue 12 – The Forum, London Thu 14 – Studenterhuset, Aalborg Fri 15 – Haus Auensee, Leipzig Sat 16 – Alter Schlachthof, Dresden Sun 17 – Muffathalle, Munich Fri 22 – SSG/Teatro Stabile Sloveno, Trieste
MAY Mon 9 – Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana
SEPTEMBER Fri 2 – Krizanke, Ljubljana w/ RTV Symphonic Orchestra