The Quietus have been regulars on the coach to-and-from the Cambridgeshire countryside for the brilliant Wysing festival over the past few years. We’re thrilled to be increasing our participation in 2016 by partnering one of the best arts events in the calendar.
As Melissa Steiner wrote in her Quietus review of the 2014 festival, the central appeal of Wysing lies in its showcasing of “performers who you may not expect to share a bill, united here by the originality of their sound art practices.” The list of artists who have previously performed in the festival’s idyllic surrounds includes Factory Floor’s Nik Colk Void, noisy DIY punks Woolf, and uncompromising breakcore producer, Venetian Snares.
The seventh edition of the experimental arts festival, due to take place on Saturday July 2 at Wysing Arts Centre in Cambridge, will be the first to feature exclusively acoustic performances and artworks. None of the performances will involve amplification or electronic effects, and all of the performers have had to respond to the limitations this implies. Therefore, many of the performances at Wysing Polyphonic will be improvised or otherwise unique to the festival.
The customarily eclectic range of musicians and artists to which the 2016 festival will play host includes tQ’s favourite North-Eastern songwriter Richard Dawson, free jazz saxophonist Evan Parker and poet, Crispin Best (some of whose work, previously featured on The Quietus, can be viewed here). The multi-instrumentalist and member of feminist percussion ensemble Charasmatic Megafauna, Jenny Moore, will debut a specially-developed piece for drums and vocals, and the visual artist Emma Smith will bring her recent project, the Whistling Orchestra, to Wysing.
