The Experimental Stage Line up is complete: Honouring the memory of composer Oskar Kolberg on Saturday, Glenn Branca curating the stage on Sunday alongside Subpop artists on Friday.
As usual, this year’s OFF Festival will give you the chance to hear artists that don’t show up in the lineups of other summer festivals. On August 2 the Experimental Stage will honor the memory of the renowned anthropologist and composer Oskar Kolberg with a diverse lineup of world music. The next day, Sunday, August 3, that same stage will be taken over by Glenn Branca, whose experiment-loving guests will put on an unforgettable performance.
We’re celebrating the year of Oskar Kolberg, which marks the 200th birthday of the famed anthropologist and composer who preserved Polish folk music for future generations. The Saturday lineup at the OFF Festival’s Experimental Stage is our homage to Kolberg and an expression of our awe at how fascinating, colorful, and avant-garde folk music can be, as demonstrated by: Kapela Brodów, Same Suki, DakhaBrakha, Frank Fairfield, Jerusalem In My Heart, Karpaty Magiczne, as well as Mark Ernestus and Jeri-Jeri.
We’d also like to announce that although the year of Oskar Kolberg ends in December, the world music night will become a permanent feature of the OFF Festival’s Experimental Stage.
The renowned American composer Glenn Barca — a minimalist and avant-garde artist armed with a distorted guitar — will take over as the curator of the Experimental Stage on Sunday, August 3, but we’ll also get to see him perform. Sharing the stage on Sunday night will be: Hatti Vatti, Stefan Wesołowski, Evan Ziporyn, The Paranoid Critical Revolution, Nisennenmondai, and Etienne Jaumet.
Kapela Brodów
This Polish band’s work fits the concept of the year of Oskar Kolberg perfectly. Kapela Brodów is more than just a group that performs Polish folk music as old as the 17th century; they also conduct field research and document the traditions of rural Poland. The band’s repertoire features both religious and secular songs, with mazurkas and obereks performed alongside Marian hymns. Kapela Brodów stays true to the spirit and character of the time and region their songs come from, using traditional instruments like the hurdy-gurdy, the Biłgoraj fiddle, and the Kalisz bass, as well as melodics that give sacral music a folk sensitivity.
Same Suki
Five women who set out to tell the story of folk music in their own words. Their name comes from the Biłgoraj fiddle, or suka — one of the many instruments used in their songs. Though the quintet borrows melodies from Polish folk music, the tunes come out thoroughly transformed, with modern arrangements and original lyrics. The vocals aren’t in the traditional “white voice” style — or “controlled screaming” — often heard in Polish folk music, but the title of their debut album, Niewierne (“Unfaithful”), explains why. The point of it all is to freshen folk up a bit, dust it off, and make a place for it contemporary music.
Frank Fairfield
Though Frank Fairfield’s story takes place in the 21st century, it could just as easily serve as the script for the latest Coen brothers movie. The Californian musician spent some time as a drifter, taking seasonal jobs, doing manual labor, and listening to old records by the masters of folk and bluegrass while practicing the banjo, guitar, and fiddle to make ends meet as a busker performing traditional songs on the streets of California. One day he was discovered by a music agent who immediately recognized Fairfield’s talent and got him a spot as the opening act on a Fleet Foxes tour and record deal with the label Tompkins Square. Everything just fell into place after that. Performing traditional Appalachian songs as well as original music in the vein of Doc Watson, Fairfield will awe you with his gauche expression, charm you with his candor, and floor you with his inspired by an entire century of folk music outcasts.
Jerusalem In My Heart
This enigmatic international project combines contemporary Arab music with avant-garde, electronic production. The band was started by Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, a Lebanese musician who splits his time between the Middle East and Canada’s independent music scene. Joining him in Jerusalem In My Heart is the French producer Jérémie Regnier and the Chilean visual artist Malena Szlam Salazar. They worked on their music for years, forbidding any recording or documentation of their art until 2013. The group experimented with a variety of formats: from solo performances by Moumneh to audiovisual rituals with up to 35 musicians taking part at once. Last year finally saw the release of the album Mo7it Al-Mo7it, in which the sound of the bouzouki is heard alongside a synthesized bassline, and Middle Eastern wedding melismata are sung to a rather more secular beat.
DakhaBrakha
“DakhaBrakha” is a Ukrainian phrase that can be translated as “give and take.” This Kievan band’s name reflects their philosophy of taking inspiration from the rich heritage of folk music (not just from Ukraine — DakhaBrakha also uses African and Indian instruments) and applying it to their own original songs. The quartet is led by Vladislav Troitskyi, an experimental theater director and associate of the Kiev Center for Contemporary Arts. These experiences make their way into DakhaBrakha’s live performances, which are as impressive visually as they are musically. The band’s energetic concerts have always had a touching lyrical message, and this year it’ll be more emotional than ever before.
Karpaty Magiczne
This band has always been a tough one to figure out. Years ago the American site Allmusic attempted to explain the music of Karpaty Magiczne with an analogy to Can and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. The group’s two members, Anna Nacher and Marek Styczyński, describe their own art as a cross between experimental and ethnic music mixed with a free-jazz style of improvisation. Both artists — formerly members of the group Atman — have been meticulously expanding their already impressive collection of instruments, taking their sounds on a journey around the world. Their magical, mysterious music has come down from the Carpathian arc and their explorations know no boundaries. Not just the kind on the map.
Mark Ernestus and Jeri-Jeri
Ernestus is a near-legendary figure to fans of club music. What else could you call the producer who, together with Moritz von Oswald, paved the way for dub-techno in the duo known as Basic Channel? These two Berliners have shown a weakness for world music (especially the Jamaican variety) from the very start, and it’s now safe to say whose contribution that was. Performing under his own name, Mark Ernestus explores African traditions, paying particular attention to the music of Senegal: Mbalax and the art of the Serer people. After working on the compilation album Shangaan Electro, the founder of Hardwax Records teamed up with the drum collective Jeri-Jeri, and together they have released records that illustrate the surprising connections between folk trance-funk and the groove of his earlier work.
Hatti Vatti
Piotr Kaliński may have performed at the OFF Festival before, but this won’t be one of those déjà vu moments. The last time he was here, he played with the dirty punk band Gówno, but this time you’ll see his incarnation as one of the most relevant Polish producers to appear in recent years. His music borrows from a variety of styles and eras, but always does so tastefully. If Hatti Vatti flirts with dub-techno, then it’s of the Demdike Stare variety; if it’s drum’n’bass, then it’s the kind you’d hear in dBridge’s early years; if you hear synths, they’ll sound exactly like they did on a classic 80s track. Add to that the field recordings that enrich the album Algebra and the juke-style track “Treasure” off of Worship Nothing, and you’ll see that the Polish producer has left no stone unturned in the world of contemporary electronic music.
Stefan Wesołowski
Stefan Wesołowski admits that his main point of reference is classic music, but he doesn’t look kindly on the label “modern classical.” He also admits that the boundaries of musical naïveté in that field are particularly easy to cross, which is why he is never satisfied with simple solutions. His debut album Liebestod bears the title of a Wagner aria, but Wesołowski laid the sound of live instruments onto a background of ambient sounds, hums, and even a club beat. He helped Jacaszek out with the violins and arrangements on Treny, but he is just as comfortable collaborating with Hatti Vatti. It’s no wonder the Polish artist has attracted the interest of the American label Important, which publishes Jarmusch, Coil, and Merzbow, and ultimately released the debut album by this young, open-minded classical musician.
Evan Ziporyn
Evan Ziporyn is a composer, clarinetist, and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He’s also a co-founder of the avant-garde Bang on a Can All-Stars, a renowned expert on Balinese gamelan, and an artist whose pieces have been performed by the likes of Yo-Yo Ma and the Kronos Quartet. Ziporyn has also collaborated with musicians from outside the world of contemporary music, including Brian Eno, Ornette Coleman, and Thurston Moore. Which comes as no surprise if you know that he loves to improvise, a fact he revealed to Warsaw audiences last year when he performed a truly insane concert alongside Marcin Masecki, Wacław Zimpel, and Hubert Zemler. We don’t know what he’ll come up with this time, but how could we? This artist’s music knows no limits.
The Paranoid Critical Revolution
If you’ve wondered how Glenn Branka’s wife deals with his noise, then we’ve got your answer: she pumps out even more decibels. Guitarist Reg Bloor has no regard for pretty melodies and spectacular solos, preferring to focus on distortion and radical dissonance. With a growling singer behind the microphone and a drummer who sometimes breaks rhythm, and at other times attacks your ears with a double kick drum, the Paranoid Critical Revolution occupies a unique spot on the New York scene, one that combines no wave, hardcore, and black metal. And nuclear warfare, judging by what goes down at their live shows.
Nisennenmondai
Somewhere between DNA and DFA. This Japanese trio borrows as much from experimental no wave and post punk as it does from the dancing kings of New York disco. With its rapid-fire bursts of endlessly looped phrases, this music immediately puts you into a total trance. “Next thing you know, these three tiny diminutive women were making us look like idiots because they were so incredible,” said John Stanier, complementing Nisennenmondai after sharing the stage with them in Battles. He didn’t hold it against them, naturally. Battles soon invited the Japanese artists to play at All Tomorrow’s Parties. They were the right band in the right place, because the trio really do sound like a party in the future: ecstatic, mad, and lost in a grueling rhythm. And all they’re playing is a guitar, bass, and drums. Who would have thought?
Etienne Jaumet
If you look at a map, you’ll notice that the halfway point between Berlin and Detroit is nowhere near Paris. And yet on his proper debut record, the French producer Etienne Jaumet managed to combine the cosmic sounds of Klaus Schulze and Manuel Göttsching with Carl Craig’s raw techno. In fact, the latter quickly recognized Jaumet’s talent and offered to produce his first LP, Night Music. With his deep love for analog synths, Jaumet achieves sounds that send shivers down your spine, even when they’re accompanied with saxophones and harps. Though he’s certainly done his homework on American minimalists, his music isn’t as relaxing as, say, Linstrøm’s Where You Go I Go Too. Because if this is going to be a journey to the stars, the inevitable destination is going to be the Death Star.
About OFF Festival
A truly unique boutique music festival, OFF Festival takes place annually in August in ‘Three Lake Valley’, Katowice – a beautiful green oasis in the heart of industrial Silesia. OFF Festival is a way of life, one that flies in the face of current trends and stays true to itself, and the ethos of organiser Artur Rojek is firmly aimed at supporting art and music with the festival bringing many acts to Poland for the first time.
Growing in prominence year on year with this years event promising one of the strongest line-ups to date in line with Rojek’s forward-thinking, eclectic music policy. From the greatest alternative music stars from around the world to showcasing artists form the increasingly strong Polish scene, OFF has inspiring music in abundance.
Over the years, OFF has amassed its own demanding yet appreciative audience who come to witness Artur Rojek’s musical vision come to fruition. Having gained and a well deserved reputation in Poland and abroad, it’s not without reason that it has been said and written that OFF is the best alternative festival in this part of Europe and the only place east of Berlin where one can catch a glimpse of the boldest and eclectic acts on stages worldwide.
As well as music, OFF features a number of accompanying events: film, art, performance and poetry. It’s also an event which keeps the environment in mind – all food and drinks come in environmentally-friendly packaging and there is a big emphasis on recycling. It’s a completely safe place, an event where diverse tastes and appearances are welcomed and where everyone is the same because everyone is different.
Contact
For more information about OFF contact Nikki McNeill nikki@46.32.240.39