As we’ve previously reported, the 10th edition of Birmingham’s annual Supersonic Festival is taking place at the Custard Factory between 19th-21st October. It features Quietus favourites like The Bug, Dope Body, Hype Williams, JK Flesh, Sir Richard Bishop, Tim Hecker, Ufomammut and many more.
With less than two months to go until the festival, they’ve now announced that a few more intriguing things have been added to the bill. Three more live acts – Moonn, Soundkitchen and Grey Hairs – are all set to play, in addition to those already performing.
Kim Gordon will be presenting an art installation entitled Reverse Karaoke, a collaborative work with Jutta Koether which was initially comissioned for a show in South London Gallery in 2005. It’s made up of "a painted Yurt style tent housing a lo-fi rehearsal set-up with guitar, microphone, bass, and drums and a basic PA system. The visitor is invited to play the instruments and record their own music along with a pre-recorded vocal track of Kim Gordon’s voice. The track is recorded live by a sound engineer who burns two CD copies of the track, while the visitor(s) decorate two CD sleeves using materials in the gallery. One copy of the CD becomes part of the piece itself on display in a record box, and the other the visitor takes home."
Modified Toy Orchestra will also be playing at the festival, returning after previous performances at 2005 and 2006’s editions. As their name suggests, the group create music out of circuit-bent old children’s toys, "converting them into new strange and wonderfully sophisticated musical instruments".
There will be a panel discussion taking place at Birmingham’s School of Art on Friday 19th October, entitled The Art Of Listening. It’s an extended discussion session that runs on for half the day, and features participants including Lucas Abela (aka Justice Yeldman), Irene Revell (Electra), Dr. Simon Hall, and deputy editor of Wire magazine and sometime Quietus scribe Frances Morgan.
For more details about the festival’s full schedule, including the film programme, head across to the Supersonic website.
