X Wrocław Industrial Festival

Absolute Body Control is an electronic music project from Belgium. It is notable as the first significant project of musicians Dirk Ivens and Eric Van Wonterghem. Having previously played in minor punk and new wave bands, Dirk formed Absolute Body Control as a project more influenced by the prototype synthpop sound being produced by the likes of Suicide and D.A.F.. The project originally feature Mark De Jonghe (synths) and Veerle De Schepper (backing vocals), though Mark was replaced in 1981 by Eric Van Wonterghem. The project released a number of cassettes, but only one 7″ (Is There An Exit?) and no studio albums during its brief lifespan. The line-up changed very soon but with Eric Van Wonterghem he finds himself a partner for the next coming years regarding mixing, producing and collaborating. Dirk and Eric later joined forces with Marc Verhaeghen in The Klinik, and they would later collaborate on a number of other projects, most notably Sonar (band). In 2008, 22 years after splitting up, Absolute Body Control reformed and released Wind[Re]Wind, which contains newly recorded versions of their best tracks. In October 2010 Absolute Body Control returns with brand new material on album Shattered Illusion. The main instrument in the project is sunthesizer – and its sounds is a backbone of every song of the band. Minimal electronic sounds presented with punk energy and dipped in esthetics of dark and intelligent pop surprises listeners with its freshness and impact. It is hard to overestimate their value in the progress of danceable forms of dark independent genres. This music – although its simplicity and melodiousness – is not superficial. This formation is a living proof that you can dance to industrial!

Music of Amber Asylum is a filmic fusion of modern classical and post-rock, where arias and art songs meet in a pale field of electronic disturbance. Equally at home in the opera house or the smoky, raucous din of an underground nightclub, Amber Asylum plumbs the crevass between noise and beauty. Lyrical, confessional, dark yet aspirant, their strings, vocals, and spare percussion billow like furious mists across your consciousness. Dark as it is beautiful, spare as it is complex, its supernaturally decadent powers will overtake you in the remote reaches of your imagination. Amber Asylum’s music is generally within the neoclassical or dark ambient genres, and it tends towards the romantic, introspective, and brooding. Violin and cello are the dominant instruments. Amber Asylum might sound like the polar opposite of Asunder’s crushing doom and Wold’s terrifying prairie black metal, but the San Francisco foursome are just as capable of establishing dark moods to rival their Profound Lore labelmates. Firmly rooted in the sedate yet experimental terrain of avant-garde chamber music and post rock, the overall effect of their distinct brand of doom and gloom is far more subversive. Their music can be as personal and poignant as songs by 60’s chanteuse’s, as epic as film scores (think Bernard Herrmann and Ennio Morricone), and yet it ranks with the output of post-modern noise pioneers such as Nurse with Wound, Coil, and more currently that of sometime collaborators, Matmos.The group Amber Asylum, formed in San Francisco, is made up of a talented – if changeable – group of artists. Kris Force acts as violinist, guitarist, and lead vocalist; Wendy Farina handles drum kit and percussion; Erica Stoltz is both bassist and vocalist; and Jackie Gratz plays the cello. Other musicians have been members or have worked with the group, such as Timothy North, John Benson, violinist Annabel Lee, cellist Martha Burns, John Oberon, pianist Michael Richards, Blaise Smith, clarinetist Heather Sneider, guitarist and drummer Steve Von Till, and Camille Norment. Spilling over with luxurious textures, achingly beautiful melodies and a poetic force that is both current and timeless, Amber Asylum defies categorization, offering the listener the opportunity to delve deep within themselves and reflect on both the past and the present. In creating powerfully moving, avant garde moments of deep, stirring emotional splendor, Amber Asylum touch on subtle, thought-provoking themes of endless soul-searching and haunting mental discoveries.

Der Blutharsch (“snow drenched in blood”, “dried blood” or “scab” — but really a reference to a Swiss mercenary company circa 1600 AD) is the main project of Austrian musician Albin Julius. Following in the footsteps of Autopsia and Laibach, Julius creates a marching music of bombastic rhythms and folkish melodies, often infused with historical military speeches and orchestral samples. The earlier works tended towards a minimalistic sample-based instrumental style in an industrial/ambient vein, while more recent material has headed into a folk/acoustic sound, often accompanied with live vocals and instruments. Der Blutharsch’s first release was a self-titled picture LP released in late 1996 on the Arthur’s Round Table label, but the project didn’t became Julius’ main musical outlet until 1998 after the break-up of his previous band The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath A Cloud. Early Der Blutharsch recorded material was very dark ambient in sound, heavy on historic samples and post-industrial melodic drones. As the discography progressed, the material became more lively, with the more bombastic approach and a focus on a form of martial industrial with emphasis on neoclassical instrumentation combined with experimentalism. Subject matter and imagery largely derived from historical topics relating to the history of Germanic Europe. With the release of Time Is Thee Enemy! in 2003, Julius took Der Blutharsch into the direction of a rock band. Gone were the martial aspects of Der Blutharsch, only apparent to some extent in promotional imagery. Instead of a one-man project, promotional material showcased the project as a fleshed out group. Live shows continued in this direction with a focus on placing the group further into the area of psychedelic rock. Subsequently, any traces of the previous focus on historical themes disappeared with new promotional imagery showcasing references to psychedelic pop art. Der Blutharsch became a full band, with acoustic instruments and female vocal accompaniment. Julius has since enlisted several musicians as “full time” members of the group with the setup of a traditional rock band. That radical change influenced also the name of the project – it is not old, rooted in medieval ethos Der Blutharsch, but his new incarnation: Der Blutharsch and the Infinite Church of the Leading Hand!

Wiktor Skok – this name come to mind when you’re thinking: „Lodz’s underground”. Still present since the 80’s. Witnessed the decline of city’s industry he became a true Stakhanov of bruitist music. Promoting numbers of D.I.Y. industrial electro parties, inviting bands and artists from abroad, organising punk shows in bunkers, warehouses tunnels and old factories he became one of the most active scensters of Poland’s underground. He promote machine culture and esthetics from the year zero. His discoteca output differs from pounding strong industrial beat, rhythm’n’noise, EBM just to electro punk and sweet ultra danceable electroclash. A great admirator of Expressionism and Film Noir, his musical tastes go from SPK, Esplendor Geometrico and Slogun by Front Line Assembly to John Foxx or Adult. Besides he is the singer of the most (in)famous polish industrial band Jude, publish his own zine Plus Ultra and try to make a living writing articles and revievs to some mags and actively DJing around. An explosive in an urban decay.

Started Promoting clubs, concerts and DJing in 1995. Promoted bands like New Model Army, Front 242, The Levellers, Whitehouse, Job Karma, Der Blutharsch and many more. Working with New Model Army for 10 years and counting. DJ’d at WGW, Schlagstrom, Wroclaw Industrial Festival, Duncker and many more throughout Europe. Currently he’s operating under the name of Tower Promotions..

Minamata disease is a syndrome caused by methylmercury poisoning. It was first discovered in Japan in the eponymous city in 1956. Symptoms include dysmotility, paresthesia in the extremities, weakened vision and hearing, and in severe cases – paralysis and impaired consciousness, ending with a fatal outcome. The cause of the disease served as the company Chisso extended release of toxic liquid wastes in the water Minamata Bay. This toxic substance contained mercury that benthic organisms in its metabolism transformed into methylmercury. The history of this disease is largely metaphorical and characterizes all of the state of contemporary socio-economic system. Like many man-made disasters, Minamata disease was ignored for a long time – until today. Trying to draw attention to this problem, a French musician and videoartist Philip Escartin released the first album of his project called Minamata in 1984, a kind of symbol of the absurdity and outrageous indifference prevailing in the relations between industry, nature and society. Minamata appeared in the mid 80’s and performed as a trio for a few years. At the time of radical and provocative it could compete only Le Syndicat. But then the creator of the group dismissed the remaining members and continued to record music in solitude under the name La Nomenklatur. Some records Minamata and La Nomenklatur he published on his own label, Les Nouvelles Propagandes.  in 2002 Tiburce decided to resurrect his old project. In 2008 the label Nuit & Brouillard released CD Niigata – reprint of the third tape recorded and released in 1985 – perhaps the most powerful of all the material heritage of Minamata, old school industrial with a large metal percussion and a wild roar of distorted voices instead of singing. Year 2009 witnessed premiere of CD/DVD called Cyclator – Cyclator was a structure, supposedly invented to purify water in Minamata Bay. After long conversations and assurances by the Government found that it was just another bluff. The number of victims of environmental disasters is growing every day – Minamata is trying to expose that using radical esthetics – power-electronics of the old school – rebellious, uncompromising, brutal and aggressive.

Between 1982 & 2002 Peter Hope plied his trade as uncompromising & inventive vocalist & musician with Sheffield’s Industrial Avant-Garde & Experimental Post Punk Sonic Steelworkers. Crossing genres from the rapid-fire post punk squall of The Box to the unleashing of Richard H. Kirk’s Heaviest Hour with Hoodoo Talk, then the Classic avant-garde document of social, domestic & industrial collapse that is Dry Hip Rotation & the Warped Blues sample manipulations of Flex 13 with chief collaborator & unflinching left-field Legend Charlie Collins.Think of a bard who sings not of the old gods, goddesses and heroes, but of dreary canals, murdered husbands, needles, knives and fatal workplace accidents. After 20 years & over 30 releases Hope severed all connections & moved to the Outer Hebrides to pit himself against the world’s oldest rock and the elements that shape it.The Exploding Mind manifests in many shapes. It drawers both from the past and the present, and as such exist in a state of constantly shifting energy. The Exploding Mind is not reliant on Trend, Time or Genre. It exists as an ever changing document of what has already been created and what is currently being created. Every act of creativity needs inspiration from either internal or external sources and I have been lucky enough to work with some exceptionally inspirational people. In turn The aim of The Exploding Mind is to act as an inspiration for wider creativity, collaboration and passion for power of music.

Bernhard Hansbauer or DJ Scrag! (name taken from a Nurse With Wound / Current 93 split tape) is Vienna-based DJ, active since the late eighties, specialised on gothic, EBM, darkwave, industrial, avant-garde and post-punk sounds. He’s also running the Bleak Netlabel, which provides obscure audio for free download and is the name under which he organizes events and concerts. He also produces music – dark electronic minimalistic sounds – under the name Red.Chamber. He’s also contributor of Laridae netlabel and  co-editor for the Austrian gothic/darkwave/industrial community,

The ensemble Skrol was formed in autumn 1995. It consisted composer and keyboard player Vladimír Hirsch, singer Martina Sanollová and Tom Saivon, who provides noise structures, lyrics and manages the band single-handed. The creative principle of the band is based on neo-classical concepts with a congregation of martial industrial, with an attempt to attain an organic amalgam of the two on rudiments of rock music patterns. Formation employing original principles of composition, with added depth of classical program influences. Their inspiration derives mainly from Slavic melodic and harmonic techniques, reflecting the pursuit of proper ethnical musical roots, i.e. also music, which is founded on these traditions. This direction of Skrol’s creativity aims rather at the modern form of classical music, both through the instrumentation and exploitation of sound possibilities (synthesisers or samplers working with various configurations of instruments of a classical symphony orchestra) and through its integration into ambient structures, characteristic for the contemporary post-industrial likeness of the world. The actual result of a model conceived as generally as this appears as the incorporation of a musical statement into an artificial space, which should incite an intense perception of fullness or emptiness of space, where the central theme takes place. Skrol attempts to attain an organic amalgam of its own alternative of classical music with the post-industrial cultural space and thereby create a new form, as a continuation of previous activities, called “integrated music” by Hirsch. Skrol is a project which doesn’t completely deny residues of rock principles. At least minimally, it is music paying respect to traditional song form. The ritualistic trances of the singer who often sang in ecstatic frenzy combined with kinetic physical theatresque performance, while the two noise makers stood behind in terrorist masks, was a signature mark of Skrol’s live performances.

Walter Robotka is a central person of Austrian industrial scene and its inexhaustible promoter. Also musician (member of The Altai Chamber Orchestra, Sandy & Boris and Statik), editor (founder of Klanggalerie label), gig promoter and DJ.