Krakow’s Unsound Festival, having already announced a broad and varied line-up, have just released the final names for this year’s event, which takes place from 13th-20th October. They round off the festival very nicely indeed, adding to a line-up that already includes the likes of Earth, Laurel Halo, Underground Resistance, Dean Blunt, James Ferraro and many more.
Heading up the new additions is former Cabaret Voltaire member and renowned sound recordist Chris Watson, who will be presenting an installation at Krakow Botanical Gardens called Whispering In The Leaves – "it uses field recordings to transport visitors to the rain forests of South and Central America via two phases, Dawn and Dusk," reads Unsound’s release.
Two more installations will also be hosted at the festival, inside the Bunkier Stzuki, where much of the festival’s talks programme takes place. The first is Richard Mosse’s ‘Enclave’, "an attempt to radically rethink war photography" featuring audio by Ben Frost. The second is by Audint, aka the duo of Toby Heys and Steve Goodman (Kode9), titled ‘Dead Record office’ – "a multi-sensory installation that employs directional ultrasonic speakers and wearable SubPacs to transmit its narrative".
A clutch of new performers have also been added: Copeland, aka Inga Copeland, formerly of Hype Williams; London grime producer Visionist (who was just featured in our new Hyperspecific column – see here for more details); Beneath, the sub-heavy house/techno producer who is also playing at our upcoming Colony vs Quietus party; and Lee Gamble, who will be playing back to back with Demdike Stare’s Miles Whittaker at the closing party.
A clutch of Polish artists have also been added to the line-up for the club nights: Chino, Eltron John, Daniel Drumz, Ptaki, Lutto Lento, Besgaczi, DJ Lenar & Pawel Szamburski, and DJ Olivia. The festival will also be hosting a record fair of Polish labels, giving attendees the chance to hear music from the country’s thriving underground scene.
In addition to the Krakow event, the inaugural edition of Unsound’s London festival is due to take place next week, starting Thursday 26th September and running until Sunday 29th. It features a scattering of artists from Poland and elsewhere, including several Quietus favourites:
On Thursday 26th September at the BFI, Demdike Stare will be performing their collaboration with Danny Norbury and Michael England. Titled Concealed, it’s an audiovisual set finds them working alongside string players from Krakow’s Sinfonietta Cracovia. They will be joined by Warsaw’s Anna Zaradny, an electronic musician whose work incorporates stark drones and sub-bass pulsations.
The same evening the festival will be hosting a free opening night party at Dalston’s Hysteria, featuring Emptyset’s Paul Purgas, Lee Gamble, Vester Koza and Disjecta.
The following night, Friday 27th, at LSO St. Luke’s Church, the headliner will be Lustmord, fresh off the release of his new LP The Word Is Power on Blackest Ever Black. He’s long been involved with the festival’s Polish edition, but this is his first UK show in 31 years. He’ll be joined by Poland’s Pianohooligan, who will be performing pieces from his latest album which finds him reworking the music of Polish composer Penderecki. (This event is now sold out.)
Saturday 28th is presented in association with BleeD, and will take place at Corsica Studios. Heading up the bill is Forest Swords, who despite having released his excellent Dagger Paths album/EP several years ago has yet to play in London. He’ll be joined by German ‘prepared turntable’ artists Durian Brothers and Poland’s Robert Piotrowic.
Sunday 29th, the closing night, takes place at Cafe Oto, and is headed up by former Napalm Death man Nic Bullen, whose recent work has taken in musique concrete/electro-acoustic processes. He’ll be joined by Stara Rzeka (creator of one of the Quietus’ albums of the year so far), along with Innode and Poland’s BNNT.
Tickets are still available for every event except Friday’s Lustmord performance. For more information and tickets, click here to visit the Unsound website.
