OFF Festival Katowice 2018: We’re Warning You!
Regulars of the OFF Festival know that we like to feature artists from the future of music, but we also welcome great names from its glorious past. Today’s additions represent both sides: the forward-looking Aurora and Yellow Days, along with the legendary Japanese avant garde sax player Yasuaki Shimizu. Get ready for the nostalgic visions of Sorja Morja, and cower in fear as Legendarny Afrojax takes the stage.
Aurora
The title of this Norwegian singer’s 2016 debut album, All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend, speaks volumes about her music. On the one hand, there’s her crystal-clear voice and catchy tunes, and on the other — a certain coldness and anxiety lurking below the surface. Scandinavia is the only place where they sing songs that are at once this dark and charming.
Aurora Aksnes started making music at the tender age of six and had a record deal with Decca by the time she was a teenager. She went on to enjoy one success after another, releasing a critically-acclaimed single and album, going on tour and performing at the world’s leading music festivals. She broke the loop early this year, holing up in a forest in France to complete her follow-up album, slated for release before the OFF Festival begins.
Yasuaki Shimizu
This Japanese composer, producer and saxophonist’s career spans decades. He has worked with such notable artists as Ryuchu Sakimoto, Helen Merrill, Björk, Bill Laswell and Peter Greenaway (on the soundtrack to The Pillow Book), which gives you an idea of his artistic caliber. Recent re-releases of a few of his outstanding albums (more legendary than popular) dating back to his early years have sparked resurgent interest in Yasuaki’s music among Western audiences. Its nature is hard to express in words: this sax player drifts effortlessly between jazz, classical music, pop and traditional Japanese music, but you just have to hear it for yourselves.
Yellow Days
2017 marked the year when George van den Broek reached adulthood and also achieved musical maturity. His debut Harmless Melodies is not something you’d expect from a promising artist: rather, it’s an artistic manifesto from a musician who knows what he wants to accomplish and knows how to do it. Yellow Days is a singer-songwriter for the 21st century. His dirges have the classy feel of soul hits from decades past, yet they strike you as the kind of intimate tunes people compose by themselves, for themselves. They tempt the ear with pretty melodies, only to surprise you with an utterly contemporary synth line or an unexpected psychedelic lick. It’s the perfect soundtrack for a sleepless night of heartbreak.
Legendarny Afrojax
“If I could play a show at the National Stadium…”, Legendarny Afrojax muses on the album Nagrałem to, bo nie miałem kasy (I recorded this because I needed the money). Well, we’ll find out “what if” at his OFF Festival show, though we hope it’s just a bit of poetic license on his part. Michał Hoffman, who performs under the stage name Afrojax, has proved his mettle as a singer, composer, producer and lyricist for such acts as Afro Kolektyw and Poradnia G. But his solo work takes him into realms that remained untouched in his previous projects, ones too taboo even for Poland’s boldest musical rebels. Afrojax puts us in front of a funhouse mirror, and the reflection is pretty grim, if somewhat cathartic. The title of his debut album goes: “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” We’re warning you, too.
Sorja Morja
Sleepy, bittersweet visions that blend nostalgia with the quotidian experience. At the musical level, Sorja Morja offers a fascinating juxtaposition of blunt post punk with a Stereolabesque sensibility, mixing in the influence of Polish rock classics Lady Pank and Papa Dance. Sorja, the debut record by Ewa Sadowska and Szymon Lechowicz, runs a mere half hour, but remains one of the most intriguing local releases of 2017.
This year’s OFF Festival lineup also features: Grizzly Bear, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah performing Some Loud Thunder, Marlon Williams, John Maus, Big Freedia, Turbonegro, Egyptian Lover, Aldous Harding, Oxbow, Bishop Nehru, King Ayisoba, Jacques Greene, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Jon Hopkins Live, Hańba!, Furia, The Como Mamas and Moses Sumney.
The 2018 OFF Festival Katowice will take place August 3–5 at Three Pond Valley. Three-day passes are now available at the OFF Shop for 290 PLN. This price lasts until April 15 or until the second batch of tickets is sold out! Campground tickets are also available for 70 PLN.
Contact
Nikki McNeill | Global Publicity
nikki@globalpublicity.co.uk