It’s not too late to make jokes at the expense of former President George W. Bush, is it? Well, I don’t care if it is! Potentially lame joke incoming… I haven’t forgotten Poland, and that’s due, in large part, to the annual Unsound Festival held in Kraków, which I’ve unfortunately never been to, but hear whispers about fairly often. Here in North America, we have comparable music events — Seattle’s Decibel Festival, Montreal’s MUTEK — but perusing the line-up from last year’s Unsound seems to suggest that as fantastic as those two festivals are, the latter seems to be tailored exactly to my tastes. That’s all that matters, right? Free plane ticket please!
Putting the “advanced” in their self-description as a “festival for advanced music,” Unsound has announced the first details of its 2012 event, which will take place October 14-21 at various venues (including, reportedly, at a 16th century church and a dilapidated synagogue) around Kraków. On the people-who-didn’t-previously-engage-in-anal-sex-for-money front, Daniel Lopatin (a.k.a. Oneohtrix Point Never) and Tim Hecker will be performing their first-ever live collaboration, presumably highlighting material from their upcoming (as yet untitled) joint release on Mexican Summer’s Software imprint (which is run by Lopatin and Joel Ford, of Ford & Lopatin). Also collaboration-wise, Biosphere and Lustmord will be performing together, and Julia Holter will be complemented on stage by the Sinfonietta Cracovia, an orchestra which has an established history at Unsound. Lastly, Leyland Kirby will be temporarily reviving his V/Vm moniker for a performance of his own.
Or, maybe not-so-lastly, since I suppose I can’t end this without mentioning that the industrial/ambient outfit aTelecine, featuring the once absurdly-hardcore porn actress Sasha Grey, will be also be making their live debut at Unsound. Their music seems like a reasonable addition to the festival, so for now, I guess I’ll resist the urge to complain about Grey’s seemingly rampant pseudo-intellectualism.
On a related note, check out our overview of this year’s Unsound New York here.
• Unsound Festival: http://unsound.pl/en
More about: Julia Holter, Leyland Kirby, Oneohtrix Point Never, Tim Hecker
