Unsound is releasing a book, Intermission, named after the theme for this year’s online edition of the festival.
The book will include essays on a number of topics relating to life this year, including protests, music-making and field recording in the age of COVID-19, Zoom calls, masks, and the effect that isolation from lockdown can have on one’s mental health.
Amongst those contributing writing are Moor Mother; DeForrest Brown Jr.; Ayesha Hameed; Philip Sherburne; Steve Goodman (AKA Kode9); tQ writer Jennifer Lucy Allan; and our own Luke Turner.
As well as the book, Unsound will release a digital album, also titled Intermission, that will feature music from the likes of Jlin; Hildur Guðnadóttir; Slibkack; 33EMYBW; Chris Watson; Tim Hekcer, Agata Harz & Katazyna Smoluk; Moor Mother & Geng; and VARGTSS (Varg & VTSS); amongst others.
The album, Unsound says, collects new work created exclusively for this project, "along with field recordings from a New York protest, Northern English landscapes, lives in lockdown in a Berlin apartment, and audio fragments from the internet and networked devices."
Some of the writers and artists whose work will be featured across the book and album have also been enlisted to present specially commissioned work as part of Unsound’s online festival next month.
DeForrest Brown Jr. & James Hoff will present a new audiovisual project that examines the geographic history of race in America using sound, field recordings, video, and detourned commercial mapping software. Moor Mother and DJ Haram will team up as 700 Bliss, with music integrated into another online work created by Polish NYC-based visual duo Pussykrew.
Steve Goodman, AKA Kode9, will present an audiovisual work based on his essay for the book, while Chris Watson will take viewers on a guided walk from an old apple tree in his back garden, to vertical cliffs of a seabird city on the Northumberland coast, to demonstrate the techniques used to create his piece Unlocked, which features on the Intermission album.
Finally, Unsound has launched a Patreon campaign, to help finance the online event and work towards next year’s festival. Alongside the book and album, supporters of the Patreon will be able to gain access to other rewards, including a first option on reserving Unsound 2021 festival passes.
Unsound will take place online from October 1 to 11, 2020. For more information, head here.
