Experimental music festival Wysing Polyphonic is returning this July for its seventh edition at Wysing Arts Centre in Cambridge and has today announced its initial line-up.

Among the first names announced for the festival are Richard Dawson, Laura Cannell, Jennifer Walshe, Evan Parker, David Toop, Keiko Yamamoto, David Blandy, Adam Bohman, Barnaby Brown and many more.

The event will continue the art centre’s exploration of new sounds, encompassing song, spoken word and noise, but this year, in a unique twist, the festival will for the first time be entirely acoustic. There will be no microphones, speakers, backing tracks, laptops or electronics of any kind, a restriction which will no doubt result in some serious creativity and boundary-pushing from the artists involved.

More than up for the challenge provided by this stipulation, performances will utilise choral ensembles, sound experimentation and even ancient instruments, and a great deal will be improvised.

Wysing Arts Centre Director and festival curator Donna Lynas said: “Wysing Polyphonic will provide a different kind of festival experience, one of unexpected encounters and of concentrated listening in an unmediated and experimental form. We are looking forward to welcoming everyone to Wysing this summer.”

The festival takes place on July 2. More details and tickets are available on the Wysing Arts Centre website.