XV WROCLAW INDUSTRIAL FESTIVAL

Neofolk meets industrial head-on, cold wave meets krautrock, and pop meets the classical. 7JK was set up in 2011 as a combination of two completely different projects: the neoclassical Sieben hailing from the UK – relying chiefly acoustic instruments – and the Polish electronic post-industrial outfit Job Karma. On the album “Anthems Flesh”, released in 2012, the artists delivered a completely new quality – a product of the involved musicians’ experiences. Together they created a sonic universe filled with multiple layers of processed sounds of the violin, rhythmic tones of synthesizers, and Matt Howden’s warm voice.  The second release, entitled “Ride the Solar Tide” was released in 2016 on Redroom Rec. Musically, it is a step forward as against its predecessor, bringing an atmosphere that is accurately conveyed by the term “apocalyptic pop”. Currently, 7JK is a duo comprising Matt Howden (voice and violin) and Maciej Frett (electronic instruments).

Organics meets electronics in a clash of two radically different musical formations. The united forces of Sieben (UK) and Job Karma (PL) come to fruition as a new, unique project called 7JK. After a series of concerts together over the years, this unusual sonic collaboration is finally happening – Sieben, neo-classical, based on acoustic instruments, and electronic, post-industrial Job Karma finally write new material together. This is the sum of these musician’s experiences. Matt Howden, Maciej Frett and Aureliusz Pisarzewski create a universe of sounds, a rhythmic unison of synthesisers and generators, violin and voice. The result – a soundtrack for a movie yet to be made, merging many aesthetics and genres: Neofolk collides with industrial, electronics with krautrock, ambient with classical music.

The composer Vladimír Hirsch and the audio experimentalist Tom Saivon began working together as “Aghiatrias” in 1999, treating the undertaking as a form of diversion from their other joint initiative – the symphonic industrial project Skrol – and referring to the sounds created under this name as integrated music.  The group’s compositions, whose essential principle is to attain a consonance of contemporary classical music with industrial and dark ambient genres, are filled with a rich assortment of sonic structures. In Aghiatrias’s take on these two seemingly disparate aesthetics, they merge and attain complete sonic homogeneity, at the same time broadening their limits by entering entirely new territories of the sound art. Here, tonality turns into atonality, the classical music legacy transforms into post-industrial anarchy, while the orchestral sound meets noise-like soundscapes complemented by the mezzo-soprano of Martina Sanollova, who supports the project both in the studio and during live performances.

Dark ballads full of obsessive beats; deep and melancholic synthesizer passages put through distortion, delays and other types of audio processing; visuality and theatricality – these are phrases that best convey the output of the Italian project Ash Code, founded in 2013. Hailing from Naples, Alessandro, Claudia and Adriano created a sonic time machine taking the listener on a trip to the early 80’s of the 20th century. Their music is a collage of post-punk, cold wave, Goth rock and other kinds of dark electronic music of that era. The bleak melodies, monotonous singing, pulsating bass and the ubiquitous metallic rhythm of the drum machine are Ash Code’s trademarks. Despite all this gloom, the band’s music isn’t deprived of catchiness and “ear worm” melodies, whose despair-soaked black romanticism easily seduces the listener into a trance-like dance. Ash Code is the darkest dance music you can imagine, masterfully and creatively drawing on the musical output of the icons of the 80’s such as Joy Division, The Cure, or Siouxie and The Banshees.

Based in Hamburg, Asmus Tietchens is unquestionably one of the most important composers of contemporary avant-garde music. Interested in experimental music and musique since his very childhood, he started making his first compositions already in 1965, using all sorts of electronic instruments, synthesizers and tape loops. The music he creates cannot be pigeonholed within a single genre – virtually each of his compositions came into being through pursuit of the abstract idea of “absolute music” and came about as a result of a mathematical process of formal exercises and experiments carried out within strictly defined boundaries and sets of principles. Still faithful to the sonic experiments in the spirit of works by Karlheinz Stockhausen and other avant-garde classics, who also inspired many industrial music makers, he creates his own world where everything can be found – structures resembling primordial electronic music, sonic glitches, changeable rhythms, cathedral-like ambient sounds, or nostalgic melodies. Sam Tietchens states that his music has no message other than a purely aesthetic one, being created for a narrow audience, i.e. those who want music to deliver something more than just an easy listening experience.

Since 2004, the US artist Clay Ruby has been making music under the moniker Burial Hex. His compositions are difficult to pigeonhole, drawing on various, sometimes disparate, aesthetics and music genres. Here, radical and aggressive power electronics meets Tangerine Dreamesque space sounds and the feel of other electronic undertakings of the 70’s of the 20th century; the orchestral tones of the organ resound against the backdrop of minimal techno inspired trance rhythms, while krautrock-like psychedelia merges with bleak ambient soundscapes. Burial Hex creates a dark atmosphere that contrasts with the sophisticated and sleek instrumentation, while the constant rhythms are interrupted by walls of chaotic noise. Ruby makes music drawing on many inspirations, not only of a sonic nature – from classical chamber music of the 19th century to industrial music; from Howard Phillip Lovecraft’s stories to the feel of Italian horror films of the 70’s; from Alejandro Jodorowski’s surrealism to the grotesque of David Lynch; from Nietzsche’s philosophy to the works of postmodern art.

Mark Crumby, a figure well-known and distinguished across the whole industrial genre, has been active since early 90’s and known for both his solo output as Cathedra, Binary, or Dust Orchestra as well as work with bands including Konstruktivists, Oppenheimer MKII and Ghost Actor. All of the projects saw him exploring diverse territories of contemporary industrial-soaked and experimental electronic music. His latest incarnation is Codex Empire, where he presents his own virtuoso take on a merger of the industrial aesthetic and techno music. The project, which had its debut in 2015 in the form of an EP released by aufnahme + wiedergabe, was shortly recognised by both audiences and critics alike, putting it on a par with Ancient Methods, Raime, Demdike Stare or Haxan Cloak – other interesting projects combining measured beats with dark and noisy atmospheres. Codex Empire means heavy beats, constant rhythms and slow transformations – a fresh and energetic mixture of techno, post-punk and industrial sounds.

Although William Bennett has proven himself chiefly as one of the founders of the (in)famous group Whitehouse, the fathers of the whole power electronics aesthetic, currently his main vehicle is Cut Hands – a product of his fascination with the Haitian voodoo, in which the core sound is created with traditional percussion rhythms from Central Africa presented in a radically novel manner. Inspired by the ritualistic sounds of this syncretic religious system, where musicians had the ability of creating powerful music without any technology, the artist in fact originated a new genre, which was given the name of afro noise (such as the title of one of Cut Hands releases). The project, whose name was taken from one of Whitehouse’s tracks entitled Cut Hands Has the Solution, introduced a new quality not only to the industrial music scene but also to techno and other dance oriented genres. Few projects can boast such a unique and original sound, and it’s very hard to find music with such powerful intensity, both physically and emotionally.

DAF – which stands for Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft – is a living legend. There are few groups in music history whose influence is equal to that of DAF, set up in 1978 by Gabi Delgado Lopez and Robert Görl – two enthusiasts determined to create something completely new, something that would rock the foundations of music to come. But for DAF, there would be no New German Wave as we know it today, with the famous promoter John Peel referring to them as the grandfathers of techno music. They are the actual pioneers of electropunk and an essential inspiration for numerous synthpop musicians. If it hadn’t been for their contribution, a completely new genre combining features of industrial music and punk, i.e. EBM, would not have come into being. DAF is a group that looked far ahead into the future, being the direct link between avant-garde punk and electronic music. One cannot simply copy DAF’s style – the pulsating synthesizer music with energy equal to that of the best among punk rock bands, the unsettling rhythmicity and distinctive and dense sound combined with original lyrics became the outfit’s trademarks and an unattainable model for many other musicians. DAF is unquestionably one of the most important groups that came with the wave of the punk rebellion, one that even now, in the new century, can surprise us with its fresh and powerful sound.

The beginnings of FOLKSTROM – a project founded by Henrik Nordvargr, known for musical undertakings including Maschinenzimmer 412, Pouppée Fabrikk, Toroidh or Vargr – go back to the year 1999, since when he has been one of the most celebrated industrial projects hailing from Sweden. Over the years of its activity, Folkstorm has been continually evolving from the classical martial industrial aesthetic towards more sophisticated areas, merging rhythm-fuelled noise evoking the punk ethos with aggressive and energetic vocals. Despite all of those aesthetic shifts, the music of Folkstrom still remains a radical project. Regardless of whether one will label it martial or power electronics, and however much the albums differ from one another, each of them has this one common characteristic – an abundance of sounds mercilessly affecting the listener’s all senses. This is, to put it simply, a brutal and primal force deprived of gentleness or calm. That is complemented by the lyrics shouted out by Björkk, also devoid of mercy, most often touching on the subject or war and giving a critical view on political ideologies.

Dark ambient/Avant Noise act helmed by producer/designer puppy38 since 1997. Originally formed in Austin, Texas as a trio, consisting of Puppy38, artist Claire Richards and programmer Aaron DuBois, Hiroshimabend is currently based in Vienna, Austria. Aside from various collaborators, such as Zoe Dewitt (Zero Kama, Nekrophile Rekords), Michal Turowski (Mazut) and other guest artists, the only other primary member is Austin, Texas-based guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Evaristo Castillo, who has appeared on many releases, including the epic “xPOL” (an almost three -hour longform work), the award-winning “Rednow Gnir”, and a majority of the “Pain Bells” box set, which is a series of all-new original works spaced over the course of 11 CDs.

Listening to the music of hiroshimabend has been likened to swimming in a milky lake of black ink. The scope of sound genres includes Industrial, Post-Industrial, Sound Collage, Broken Beat, Drone, Experimental Electronic, Glitch, Minimal Techno, IDM, Musique Concrète, Noise, Field Recordings, Harsh Noise Wall and Power Electronics,

Hiroshimabend has performed many solo and headlining shows, and has opened for artists such as The Legendary Pink Dots, Skinny Puppy, Becoming /// Animal (side project of Cindytalk’s Cindy Sharp), Thighpaul Sandra (Coil), Job Karma, Fetisch Park, and Farbfelde (aka Codex Empire). In Nov 2016, Hiroshimabend played the 15th annual Wroclaw Industrial Festival in Wroclaw, Poland…sharing the bill with such luminaries as DAF, Psychic TV, Asmus Tietchens, Main, Ramleh, Reutoff, Monoton, and many more.

With over 35 studio albums, several live recordings albums – released primarily by the independent label Opiumdenpluto –  and appearances on compilations by Fourth Dimension Records and Drone Records, the combination of found sounds, field recordings, industrial rhythms, lingering drones, dark and unsettling ambient soundscapes, plus experimental noises are elements making up the project’s aural offerings. Hiroshimabend is not only an atmospheric, sonic experience, it is often psychosomatic, giving rise to a variety of associations that refer to deep layers of the subconscious. It’s the kind of music which has the ability to mesmerising the listener with a whole range of effects, rich structures and multiple layers of sound. It is not simply plain ambient, nor is it ordinary noise music – Hiroshimabend’s pieces deliver both industrial-like rebelliousness and peculiar beauty alike.

The Greek-originated word “holotrop” (which may be translated into “striving for the whole”), was first used by the prominent Czech psychologist Stanislav Grof – the creator of transpersonal psychology and a pioneer of research into therapeutical applications of altered states of consciousness. The breathing method he developed and named holotropic enabled access to altered states of consciousness. The method combines deep and quickened breathing, as well as relaxation and music as supporting elements. It was his concept that inspired the name of the ritualistic psychedelic project of Toni Burner, a musician and sound therapist from Berlin, who draws on Grof’s ideas, shamen’s knowledge and his own trips, both in the real world and the psychedelic ones, as well as teachings of altered states of consciousness, to try using sounds and music to evoke visions in normal conditions unattainable by the human psyche. Thanks to the unique combination of sounds of electronic and acoustic instruments, Holotrop explores the boundaries between reality and dream, intellect and feelings, ecstasy and meditation.

Instinct Primal, the project of the Czech sound artist and photographer Jan Kruml, is experimental, massive dub ambient based on field recordings made in various locations of the world, including Vienna, Mostar and Fukushima. The music created by him under this moniker are an amalgam of sounds of both analogue synthesizers and digitally created ones, resulting in an unpredictable, abstract and geometrical plane of sonic tessellation. The deep and complex sound of Instinct Primal evokes a journey to archaic and forgotten states – both real and archetypal, hidden deep in every person’s psyche. The starting point for the project’s compositions is always field recording of sounds of nature and the human civilisation, which Kruml manipulates into a transcendental space-time continuum of the thought. It is a kind of music which one must completely immerse in to find in themselves something unknown – something that has been hidden deep.

It’s impossible to use just a few sentences to give an in-depth description of the whole cultural and culture-shaping activity which Konrad Becker has for years been involved in. As early as since the 70’s of the 20th century, this man of many talents hailing from Austria has been active in the field of electronic media as an interdisciplinary researcher, artist, author, composer, performer, curator, producer and organiser, fulfilling himself wherever the presence and impact of new media can be seen. As far as sound art is concerned, he has been remembered first as the originator of the legendary project Monoton, whose debut album , released in 1982, is considered to be one of the most important records of the 20th century. Balancing on the boundaries of sound art, psychoacoustics and the contemporary dance culture, Becker’s project has evolved over years, touching on a whole range of genres and undergoing many aesthetic changes. Monoton is not an ordinary music project – it’s more of scientific and sonic exploration of the psychoactive properties of a minimal and monotonous sound with its psychosocial contexts.

By founding Loop, one of the UK’s most interesting alternative guitar bands, Robert Hampson became one of the most important figures of the British underground. However, the end of his band meant the birth of a new project, whose beginnings date back to 1991. Along with Scott Dowson, also an ex-member of Loop, Hampson started making music under the moniker Main, combining abstract ambient with field recording and multiple layers of electric guitar sounds and complementing the resulting creation with a dark and emotional atmosphere. The main principles of the project were to deconstruct guitar music, embed it in a completely different context and change its sonic language. In Main’s take, the sounds of this instrument, subjected to numerous manipulations, ultimately ceased to resemble the traditional guitar sounds. The resulting creation resembles ambient music, but is closer to musique concrète and industrial music than to Brian Eno’s works. The sound of Main is filled with ghostly decomposition, noisy drones and violent physicality.

Paweł Starzec’s and Michał Turowski’s project Mazut came into being in 2013, but over two years it chiefly consisted in hours of talk about the band’s future sound. The original idea of recording live bass and drums was abandoned, while both musicians, who in the meantime were busy with their solo projects, combined their experiences to create a completely new musical concept of their duo. Mazut means an abundance of colourful effects, a toy keyboard, laptop, vintage radio receivers, dictaphones, magnetic tapes found among trash or bought at flea markets, a Unitra cassette player, samplers, synthesizers, drum machines, a four track cassette recorder, and a truckload of other gear. In their always improvised and thus unrepeatable pieces, the band members explore dark and musty territories of minimal beat music, where dirty and crude lo-fi acid techno intertwines with industrial feedback. All of this is spiced up with sampled text which adds to their sound’s dark feel whatever it actually is – be it extracts from fairy tales, a speech by a war murderer, or a manipulative pep talk.

There are many groups trying to combine multiple aesthetics at the same time, but few of them are as successful in doing so as the Argentinian duo Mueran Humanos. Carmen Burgess and Tomás Nochteff, already for a few years based in Berlin, look at the past of independent music in a creative way, concocting a sonic mixture including psychedelia, EBM, garage rock, krautrock, industrial music, post punk and minimal synth. On top of that, the said electrifying mix is spiced up with a dark sense of humour and a truly Latin American feel. Mueran Humanos have succeeded in attaining something virtually impossible – a perfect balance between catchiness, noise and sound experiment. Their take on minimal and repetitive music becomes something psychedelic and aggressive, while their pop rhythms casually transform into electro-noise, with unsettling bass lines and the mesmerising mood being a backdrop for lyrics, sung in Spanish, about the manipulation our psyche experiences through exposure to the mass media. The artists themselves describe their music as “rock concrète”, i.e. musique concrète devoid of its academic swank.

Founded as an initiative of Kim Larsen, the Danish project Of the Wand & the Moon is proof that there are still exceptional musicians who can breathe something new and fresh into the neofolk movement, by many hailed as fossilised, dead or, at best, eating itself – even more so when looking at the deluge of almost identical bands merely copying the genre’s classics and one another. Each of the outfit’s records has met with enthusiasm – both on the part of critics and audiences, while the album released in 2011 was hailed a masterpiece on a par with the work by the masters of the genre such as Death In June, Current 93 or Sol Invictus. Songs by Of the Wand & the Moon can be thought of as model for the entire neofolk genre, delivering melancholic, multidimensional, acoustic music with lyrics drawing on heathen beliefs and traditions as well as rune motifs inherent in the work of other artists from this background and playing a significant role in the music, lyrics and the project’s album artwork. Larsen’s delicate voice tells stories of love and hate, betrayal and death, and life in all of its manifestations.

The owl is on the one hand an allegory of wisdom and knowledge, on the other hand, in folk tales, being a harbinger of misfortune or sudden death – the ambiguity one can find in the work of three musicians distinguished on the alternative music scene: Eraldo Bernocchi (known for the projects Sigillum S and Obake), Tony Wakeford (one of the forefathers of neofolk and founder of Sol Invictus) and Lorenzo Esposito Fornasari (also of Obake). It is them who chose owls as their patrons, naming the new undertaking Owls. The image of the owl in culture is far from unambiguous, and likewise – the outfit’s music is difficult to label. Is it electronic dub or country? Is what we have here progressive rock or neofolk? Or perhaps it’s gospel music or black metal? There are many more comparisons that one could come up with listening to Owls’ music, rooted in the extensive creative experiences of the group’s all members. What Wakeford brings here is the spirit of bleak ballads, with his vocals touching on Goth-ish tones; the subtle electronic sounds and guitar textures are delivered by Bernocchi, while Fornasari provides electronic ambiences and processed voice. Melancholy and atmosphere combined with a hypnotic beat – this is what OWLS’ music is about.

Psychic TV came into being in the London borough of Hackney in 1982, when Genesis P-Orridge, encouraged by his friend Alex Fergusson of the punk band Alternative TV and initially reluctant, got back to active service to create new music following the disbanding of Throbbing Gristle in 1981. Six months after that, with another TG renegade Peter Christopherson on board, the original line-up of the new project crystallised. Already in the early phase of its existence, Psychic TV presented a highly innovative and invariably provocative music, merging elements of psychedelia and dance music with the industrial sound, for which Genesis coined the term “hyperdelic”. Unquestionably, Psychic TV cannot be called an ordinary music group – it’s closer to a conglomeration of artists fulfilling themselves in various areas of art, where music – as being in the foreground – is merely the most visible one. Psychic TV is first and foremost a phenomenon that – manifesting itself in diverse guises for over three decades – still invariably affects the minds of new generations, not only in terms of sound but also intellectually, mystically and psychedelically.

Founded in 1982 by Gary Mundy, Ramleh is not only one of the most important of the still active industrial music projects hailing from the UK but also one of the groups crucial to the whole British underground scene. Calling it one of the most influential and ground-breaking outfits of the entire independent music movement over the past 30 years is far from exaggeration. The group’s music lies at the intersection of many, sometimes disparate, traditions and music genres, taking inspiration to a proportional extent from aesthetics such as early industrial music, free improvisation or all traditions of the 20th century avant-garde, and manifesting itself in an equally rich and varied formula based chiefly on a combination of elements of power electronics, avant rock and modern noise. In its beginnings, the project was mainly associated with power electronics and traditional noise music, but in the 90’s the band began experimenting with more traditional rock forms. None the less, Ramleh brought fresh air into what is customarily referred to as noise rock, as their take on the genre is much darker and psychedelic than the music of other representatives of this scene of that time. Now Ramleh has two incarnations – one of them is a rock trio, while the other performs as a power electronics duo. It is the latter that we’ll see at this year’s WIF.

When discussing the Russian industrial scene, one cannot fail to mention Reutoff – one of the most prominent representatives of the genre from behind our Eastern border. Active already for nearly two decades, the project has developed its unique style, merging elements of dark ambient music, hypnotic percussion rhythms and really catchy melodies into a whole that is intelligently composed and harmonious in every respect.  Reutoff’s music evokes an entire panopticon of border states of consciousness developing in the listener’s mind. The decadence-soaked pieces are filled with a range of feelings and emotions entailing multiple dimensions – industrial rhythms are intertwined with melodies resembling classic waltz, the circus-like grotesque meets ambient sounds, while dreamy jazz swinging merges with dark and epic electronic music. Certainly, the project’s place of origin is essential to its musicians – all of the members come from Reutov, a satellite town on the outskirts of Moscow. The artists, inspired by the space of the town and its vicinity – being of psychogeographical significance to them, unanimously admit that it is still stimulating them and kindling their creativity.

“SARDH” was founded as an experimental sound-image collective, after they had already been “painting” with sounds in loose formation in the Dresden experimental scene since the early 1980s. Since then, the “Mother of Saxon Ritual Music” (R. Dittmann, Bad Alchemy) has been organizing thematic performances, its own exhibitions and sound installations, sound field research, concerts, festival contributions, self-produced multimedia environments, and has published sound carriers, artifacts and videos, mainly in its own publishing house. For 17 years, “SARDH” has also been running the sound laboratory “Morphonic Lab”, which is now well established in Dresden.

In the 1990s, “SARDH”, which always strives for a concrete spatial reference, developed a system of variable instrumentation with flexible use of installation and media possibilities, which they set up according to the situation. Self-built objects or objects of everyday use converted into sound bodies shape the sound image.

Their own melange of ambient, noise, industrial, sound collages and muzak is based on a strictly defined dramaturgy as well as on intuitive arcs of tension that they develop in a collective process. Through their opulent instrumentation, “SARDH” create brute sound images that merge with their bizarre video scenarios or special lighting arrangements in the background.

POGŁOS(REVERBERATION) The film „Reverberation” comprises recordings of five music performances that took place in peripheral spaces of Silesia. The performances were held in temporary “non-places” of undetermined statuses. These areas became filled with unwanted music – unpleasant noise driven out of urban spaces. The premise behind the film project involved seeking new contexts for marginal sound; the consecutive segments-concerts made up a tale of man’s acting in a space, while the noise generated by the artists became a metaphor of man’s interference with the environment.  Screenplay, direction and editing: Radek Sirko duration: 40 minutes, year of release: 2015Right after the screening – discussion with the director Radek Sirko.

musicians: Sebastian Harmazy (VILGOĆ), Sergei Khanolaynen (MAAAA), Dawid Kowalski (PURGIST), Konrad Materek (REZ EPO), Robert Skrzyński (MICROMELANCOLIÉ), Bartosz Zaskórski (MCHY I POROSTY)cameras: Piotr Kopernok, Bartosz Królik, Grzegorz Łazuka, Natalia Pietsch, Dominik Ritszel, Mikołaj Sygudatechnicians: Bartosz Odrobiński, Krzysztof Sokół

production manager: Joanna Plewnia

written, directed and edited by Radek Sirko

running time: 40 minutes

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No ideas, no changes, no development, no entertainment, and no remorse – is a manifesto underpinning the music of Vomir, a project of Romain Perrot, one of the creators and most important representatives of the harsh noise wall aesthetics. While most noise musicians strive to head for increasingly extreme solutions, i.e. play louder and louder and introduce more and more sudden changes and effects, Perrot tries to maximally simplify his music and creates a construction comprising static noise, interference, drones and acoustic creaks integrated into a uniform wall of monotonous sound. Vomir is not only a challenge mounted to the exclusively noise oriented aesthetic, which in this dimension is already reaching the limits of listenability – it is also extreme opposition to the mass culture and a choice consisting in withdrawal, isolation, and immersion in complete noise.  A wall of noise exists as long as the noise is complete, constant and thoroughly continuous, with no changes and fluctuations of the sound – this is how Perrot tries to create static noise resonating with him himself.