As we’ve previously reported, this year’s Krakow edition of Unsound Festival, following the theme Interference, has announced an impressive raft of names so far, including Porter Ricks, Underground Resistance, Charlemagne Palestine and Rhys Chatham, Earth, DJ Qu, Mika Vainio, Nate Young and Forest Swords (see full list here). They’re also hosting the inaugural London edition of the festival from 26th-29th September, which features a host of Polish acts including Quietus favourites Stara Rzeka – for full line-up details, click here.
Now they’ve announced a fresh set of artists – but first, in keeping with the theme, they’ve announced a blanket ban on photography and filming of live shows during the festival. Media will not be provided with photo passes – though there will be a single select Unsound staffer documenting a few of the festival’s specially commissioned events – and they’re encouraging audience members to restrain themselves from taking photos and videos of the event as it takes place. It’s all in the name of resisting the contemporary smartphone-based urge to document everything as it takes place, rather than simply losing yourself in the experience. The Quietus’ Jeremy Allen, in fact, wrote a piece on the very same subject earlier this year, which you can read here.
"Our aim is to encourage our audience to focus on being in the moment, and not distract others out of that moment," says an accompanying quote from Unsound’s artistic director Mat Schulz. "We want to question the automatic tendency to place photos and videos of concerts online, be it on social networks, music websites or video streaming platforms, to put some tiny glitch in the constant bombardment of images, today’s main tool of communication. The ban will not be policed by security guards, this is going to be a community action – if you see someone next to you filming, ask them politely to stop."
There will be plenty to distract audiences from the temptation to take photos and film, thanks both to the earlier sets of announced names and the additional artists they’ve announced today. Chief among them is Laurel Halo, the Hyperdub signed artist whose recent music has shifted into a zone of freakily unstable but deeply infectious liquid techno; her second full-length album Chance Of Rain, which has already received plenty of airplay in Quietus HQ, will be released later in October. Another well-known name is Pantha Du Prince, who will be performing Elements of Light alongside The Bell Laboratory – this particular show, like others from Dean Blunt and Robert Rich, requires an additional ticket which can be bought from the Unsound site.
A particularly intriguing hook-up is a specially commissioned collaboration between Bristol’s Roly Porter and modular synth maestro Keith Fullerton Whitman, which will find them working with video artist MFO and Lucy Benson under the name Dream Cargoes. "Inspired by a J.G.Ballard’s story, Dream Cargoes explores the predicament of the last man on Earth, who in the toxicity of waste
encounters new life forms flourishing," says the press text. "Visually the story is told through this protagonists eyes, via a psychedelic landscape comprising original cinematic footage with analogue and algorithmic mutations."
Other names added to the line-up are Poland’s Jacaszek, who will be playing a special world premiere performance of Catalogue Des Arbres, a collaborative work with Kwartludium; UK techno/post-punk scrambler Powell; Australian RVNG-signed techno/noise duo Gardland; Berlin’s purveyor of slow, throbbing techno Samuel Kerridge; Polish producer and synth builder Wilhelm Bras; the RSS Boys, whose releases through Mik Musik have been some of the most intriguing Polish releases of the year, all woody, propulsive rhythms and industrial thrum; two artists from Portugal’s Principe Discos label, DJ Marfox and DJ Nigga Fox; Clipping; and Tralala Blip, an Australian collective signed to Lawrence English’s Room40 label made up of members with a range of disabilities, who "create music on various electronic instruments ranging from Audio Cubes to Launchpad, Tenori-on and Theremin".
All of Unsound’s week and weekend-long tickets are now sold out, but the festival will be putting tickets for all the individual events on sale next Monday, 2nd September, and launching a new website. For more, visit the Unsound website.
