OFF Festival Katowice 2012: Experimental Stage Curated by Fennesz
We’re proud to announce that the Viennese visionary Fennesz will be curating one day at the Experimental Stage. He’s invited Kim Gordon & Ikue Mori, Henry Rollins, Papa M, Lillevan (performing in a duo with Fennesz himself), Forest Swords, Jacaszek, Mordy, and Piętnastka to perform.
Fennesz and Lillevan
Christian Fennesz: an Austrian musician, composer, and improviser. A guitarist who has pushed the boundaries of guitar rock and broadened the scope of modern electronic music. Critically acclaimed for his 2001 album Endless Summer, Fennesz has been constantly seeking new challenges, performing alongside such artists as Sparklehorse, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Mike Patton.
Lillevan is a visual artist who specializes in animation and video art. He first gained recognition as the founder of the music and visual ensemble Rechenzentrum as well has his collaborations with several big names, including Luomo, Tarwater, and Fennesz.
Kim Gordon & Ikue Mori
Kim Gordon needs no introduction: aren’t we all secretly in love with her? Best known for her work as singer and bassist of Sonic Youth, Gordon will be performing at the OFF Festival with the amazing improvising drummer Ikue Mori, who records for Tzadik Records and has collaborated with Ensemble Modern and John Zorn.
Henry Rollins
An American musician, comedian, writer, and actor, Rollins is also active in charity work, which he claims helps him keep a lid on his anger. That anger first erupted in the early 80s, when Rollins took over the mike for the now legendary group Black Flag. He went on start his own act, Rollins Band, which made it onto the charts with the bitter hit “Liar”. Rollins isn’t coming to the OFF Festival to sing. Instead, he’ll have some important things to tell us. His appearances can be as brutally painful as they are hilarious: if you’re sure you can handle the truth, don’t miss this show.
Papa M
The multi-instrumentalist David Pajo, a musician mostly known for his recognizable guitar style and worshiped for the albums he recorded with the legendary group Slint, is among the most active artists on the independent music scene. He basically plays everything: from hardcore to post-rock and folk and everything in between. He racked up over a dozen releases under the Papa M moniker, and twice as many in a variety of other configurations, most notably Millions Now Living Will Never Die and TNT with Tortoise, and It’s Blitz! with Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Forest Swords
Created by Matthew Barnes of Liverpool, Forest Swords is a musical project that blends ambient sounds with echoes of alternative guitar rock. Rave reviews of his EP Rattling Cage and the mini-album Dagger Paths are a clue that we might just be dealing with a phenomenon that is on the brink of breaking out of the British underground. For now, Matthew’s remixing skills are in high demand (he’s released his own versions of tracks by These New Puritans, The Big Pink, and Burial) as are his DJing talents, which he recently debuted on the BBC.
Jacaszek
The Gdańsk-based artist Michał Jacaszek has managed to grab the attention of the entire world: suffice it to say that his latest album, Glimmer, was released with a Ghostly International sticker on the case. We also appreciate him for his melancholy, poetic Treny as well as the church- and echo-steeped Pentral.
Mordy
The band started playing in Sopot in the mid-90s, and their every note resonates with the proud musical legacy of the Tri-City alternative scene. Mordy’s music has a bit of everything: from jazz to rock and electronic sounds, putting all of them on an equal footing. The band’s latest demonstration of this approach was released in 2011 under the title Nobody.
Piętnastka
An instrumental project by Piotr Kurek, who debuted last year with a cassette tape on Sangoplasmo Records, a tiny indie label based in Wrocław. The critically-acclaimed album Dalia explores minimalism and psychodelia, but the project’s live incarnation – which features Hubert Zemler on drums, Sławomir Księżniak on guitar, and Piotr Kurek on the organ and electronic instruments – could be even less predictable.
Available tickets:
1. OFF 3-Day Festival Pass with or without Campground Access: 120/160 PLN — provides access to all three days of the festival at Dolina Trzech Stawów, August 3 to 5. Prices are valid till April 16.
2. Tickets to this year’s OFF Club (May 11–13, Światowid Cinema, Katowice) — available exclusively at the OFF Festival website. Tickets are 30 PLN (until May 10) and 40 PLN (May 11, 12, 13).
