Tennessee’s annual Big Ears Festival is expanding to four days in 2017, with the festival set to take in a variety of adventurous sounds across its line-up as ever, and the first names have now been announced.
Among those already confirmed for the festival are Wilco, Deerhoof, Oliver Coates, Xiu Xiu, Maya Beiser, Tortoise, Junun, My Brightest Diamond and Michael Hurley. There will also be a variety of special and one-off performances taking place with Matmos set to perform Robert Ashley’s Perfect Lives, Colin Stetson presenting ‘Sorrow’ which will see him reimagining Gorecki’s 3rd Symphony, Jace Clayton taking a look at the works of Julius Eastman and Blonde Redhead presenting Misery Is A Butterfly. That’s just a small collection of what’s on offer, with other special performances to come from composers like Gavin Bryars and Jóhann Jóhannsson.
"The Quietus is thrilled to be announcing that we’re working with Big Ears 2017, our first-ever partnership with a festival in the USA," says our own Luke Turner. "It’s ridiculous that it hasn’t happened earlier as between a quarter and a third of our traffic comes from the other side of the Atlantic, and we’d like to thank Boone and the team in Knoxville for having us along. With umpteen of our favourite artists on the bill and some really exciting commissions this is the sort of event that, alas, rarely seems to happen in the UK. Stay tuned to the site for more information but we’re likely to be involved with a daily discussion and panels programme, along with some of the film events."
Big Ears takes place in Knoxville, Tennessee from March 23-26. To check the full line-up as it stands and get tickets, click here.
