XVI WROCLAW INDUSTRIAL FESTIVAL

The members of Alles intertwined the electro scene and a part of the punk community open to novelties. A duo founded by musicians previously known from indie scene, perfectly settled in neoelectro minimal style. Alles developed, in an easy way, hermetic esthetics of other bands from Lodz city. Pawel and Marcin complemented the black/ white stylistics, snowy TV screens and unmissable urban melancholy with catchiness and pop. With dynamics and openness Alles won new audience of post punk and electro EBM. The albums Post and Culture gained well-deserved recognition all around Europe.

One of the most enigmatic projects in the panorama of industrial music of recent decades.  Autopsia is constantly present in the music scene, however, the members of the project always remain incognito. Long-living Autopsia (their roots date the late 70s) derives from the post punk alternative scene. Their activities flow between London and their homeland ex-Yugoslawia. The music can be described as absolute no-pop.  Monumental form of Autopsia includes elements of Neoclassicism, noise, beat, as well as some elements close to Bela Bartok and others, inspired by folk innovators of XX-century classical music. The project incorporated themes of religious and folk music. Their multidisciplinary activity comprises many structural elements. Autopsia’s demonstrations involve instalations, linking sound, vision and text. Music is accompanied by radical graphic design, films, special philosophical manifests, series of commercial prints,  graphic art, posters, etc. The visuals expertly circle around the legacy of the XX – century visual artwork. Autopsia crosses politics and esthetics, at the same time exploiting totalitarian topics. The slogan proclaimed the death of XX – century modernist utopia, failure of the progress idea facing regress and ex-Yugoslavian war. In the 90s Autopsia relocates their activity to Prague, appearing in many galleries of Central and Eastern Europe. For the last few decades Autopsia’s work has been marked by permanent experimentalism and indestructibility…

A one-man act By The Spirits is briefly: vocal, guitar and backing. Individual creative output, charming with its moderation and minimalism, features the author’s incredible musical gift. At the same time, it is buoyant with its simplicity and catchiness. Spiritualism, Thanatos’ abyss is a significant source of inspiration for Michal Krawczuk.  By The Spirits is his turning towards nature, referring to the spirit of dark dense forests of Lower Silezia and mstique of the primeval mountain Ślęża (Zopten) – a songful ode to polytheism.

Sprengbagger 1010: Carl-Ludwig Achaz-Duisberg (1929)

Synopsis: Germany, 1929 – After developing the plans for a huge excavator for his coal mining company, the engineer Karl Hartmann yearns for the fresh air far from his smog-filled industrial world. He returns to the village of his childhood going back to his roots in the countryside, participating in rural life, working in his grand-mother’s mill and enjoying his free time with Camilla, the pretty girl from the nearby castle. However, his assistant, Olga Lossen, discovering the plans for his machine and recognising their importance, asks the board of directors to bring Hartmann back in order to build it.                                                                                                                                                   The engineer is torn apart by the two women and the two conflicting ways of life. At the very moment he has to make a choice, he discovers that the village was built on a giant coal mine. This revelation seals the fate of the whole community. The giant machine, like an apocalyptic creature begins its deadly task, swallowing up the very ground, destroying the natural environment and the castle, tearing people away from their collapsing homes and bringing death and ruin into the midst of what ought to have been an Eden.

Cent Ans de Solitude and Flint Glass offer a musical interpretation of the conflicts arising throughout the movie. The live performance consists of a mixture of their own unique approach to sounds, made up of electronic layers and including acoustic elements deriving from objects being transformed from their original functions, such as scratching metal, hitting stone or bending springs. These sounds mimic the devastating effects of the monstrous machine and the industrial world it comes from. This cinema concert immerses the viewer into a dense musical environment, backed by the melodic electronic lines which echo the cold and brutal sounds of metal.:::::

Representatives of different generations of the industrial scene: Flint Glass Gwenn Trémorin and Cent Ans De Solitude aka Jean-Yves Millet – together in one special audiovisual plan. Jean Yves, active since the middle 80s, a representative of oldschool industrial – a musician, constructor of his own instruments, plus fluent in today’s advanced technology and sounds, from IDM to rhythmic noise, digital drum’n’bass up to electronic ambient – Flint Glass. The French sound artists decided to work on a relatively unknown silent film byCarl-Ludwig Achaz Duisberg from 1929. The basis of it is exposing a dychotomy between nature and culture/ civilisation which is universal in history of culture. A fronde, between the Arcadia of life in harmony with nature, and a boundless strive for progress, up to extreme exploitation od human capacity. The industrial artists serve a musical interpretation of the conflict which is a central part of the film. was recognized as a work of art ahead of its time. Live performance of Cent Ans De Solitude vs. Flint Glass will be a blend of their original music concepts and a different approach to material. Brutal striking of metal against metal will reflect a civilizational nightmare. We can predict the use of found objects, stone, metal, wires, springs – combined and counterpointed by catchy  electronic lines. Nature vs. Man. We should be prepared for audiovisual streaming of XX – century opposition. (WS)

In the early 80s Drew McDowall came from his homeland Scotland to London and quickly sank in a movement which was later described in a famous book  England Hidden Reverse. Previously active in postpunk underground, Drew was continuously present on the scene, since the cultural revolution initiated by Throbbing Gristle, further developed by Psychic TV and Current 93. His surname can surely be associated with Rose McDowall – an expressive vocalist of ultra sweet pop duo Strawberry Switchblade. His ex-wife’s voice is well known from unforgettable songs of Death In June, Current 93 or Sorrow. In the 80s and 90s Drew McDowall collaborated closely with Coil. He was present while creating, recording the legendary tracks and he participated in the non-musical passions of the departed musicians. He co-produced the classic albums of Coil, as well as their epic collaborations, with which Peter Sleazy Christopherson and John Balance added a finishing touch to their legendary venture. For nearly 20 years Drew McDowall has been in New York, where he continues work among sound artists of new experimental scene, post – post – post industrial etc. His solo albums Collapse and Unnatural Chanel were released by NY based label Dais Records.

Empusae is a synonym of intensity, which cannot be closed in rational frames of mechano-ethnic rhythm noise. Empusae jest an individual creation of Nicolas Van Meirhaeghe, also known as Sal –Ocin. A sound artist fascinated both by modern technology and non-European esoteric traditions – in Empusae he included rhythm and noise, as well as echoes of different magic rituals. Rhythmic sequence of noise and beat serve as a building block for the ritual. The sounds are supposed to become a tool for initiation, entrancing to move away from matter, towards transcendence. Empusae is a rhythmic a sonic impulse, a stimulus to go beyond the ratio. Empusae’s music can be a rhytmic discharge, both danceable and ambient drone. Its sound leads through suburbian solid waste landfill towards spaces of wild nature, unrestrained by civilisation.

As the name suggests, Ghosts Of Breslau evokes mystery and atmosphere of the city in music, as well as spirits of the lost or fallen inhabitants. Early productions of the connected with Wroclaw Patryk Balawender’s electronic – ambient project founded in 2001 were a sort of a lost chronicle, existing only in memory, ghostly metropolis. The soundscapes were supposed to conjure up the spirit of complicated and often tragic stories. In such a way the album trilogy was made: Peste, And Should The Spring Come… and Sacred Place. Later on Ghost Of Breslau drew his attention towards drone, low tones, intricately  constructed music. We may expect such a form of concert in Ghost Of Breslau’s home city Wroclaw.

Grunt is noise. Radical sound generated with the use of sensors, a physical show of nihilism and negativism. All the music is created live on stage during spectacular performance. Fluently operating radical electronics Grunt from Finland started functioning in 1993. Mikko Aspa has travelled almost everywhere around the world with his horror show. Masked musicians use their own bodies as sources of noise. They turn their dynamic shows into w dark, squalid rites. Special microphones are used as a tool of phonic attack. Grunt’ actions go under the slogan: no limits, no brakes.  Mikko Aspa is an active scenester among power electronics, noise, industrial. A distributor, a publisher of Special Interests zine and a propagator of extreme electronism. His continuous activity resulted in editorial documentation of a good deal of volumes, demonstrating what was mentioned above.

A rhythmic machine, ein zwei – Hypnoskull  – the unbridled product of Patrick Stevens from Belgium. His method of expression is rhythmic industrial. Compulsory, regular plod, crushed by anarchic breaks. Harsh sounds, beat and its anti-regularity ideally reflect the artist’s character. The essence of Hypnoskull can be summarised in famous words electronic music means war to us. The creation of Hypnoskull is however weeded out of any ideological ballast, which was stressed by the artist himself in the memorable manifesto The Power of Noise in 1997. Hypnoskull is one of the cornerstones of Ant-Zen label, meritorious for this type of music. It is a flagship act of festivals, such as Electroanschlag, Machinenfest or late-lamented Schlagstrom. Hypnoskull is a sane cynicism plus a doze of black irony; it embraces techno, hardcore, breaking tempo, serial beat and another break.  It introduces total rhythm just to break it the next moment, shock with an absurd sample and again attack mercilessly with a storm of synthetic beat.

Inade’s artistic work enompasses broadband space – from gloomy post industrial to multidimensional dark ambient. Otherwordly music of Inade is beauty, majesty, luridness and mystery. One of its aims is to create a multilevel sound roam into the depth of the subconsciousness. Inade – Knut Enderlein and Rene Lehmann managed a skill of making music which is appropriate for temples and for planetariums. Their sound has incredible power, it reaches the unconsciousness, it is able to induce hypnotic states. A great number of Inade’s work has close connection with the cosmos – it successfully sends the listener towards celestial sphere. Astral excursions evoked by sound lead into unexplored, dark worlds. We see/hear spacial landscapes, we witness birth of new planets and also catastrophies foretelling the apocalypse. Inade’s albums are precise, spatial extraterrestial mysterias. Each of them is a solid, perfectly constructed audiovisual project. All the products are released by Loki Foundation – band members’ own company, dealing with production, distribution and promotion of experimental music. Composed in Leipzig located legendary laboratory Deep Audio – Inade’s sound has a potential, which can be called superrational.

Jaakko Vanhala comes from  Oulu in Finland. The definig characteristic of his music, released since 2011, is an extreme degree of metal elements exploitation. The music is based on skillfully composed and preserved  unprocessed, acoustic sound of sheet metal. The original sound comes from raw, unfiltered, shredded and razor-sharp clash of metal. Not without importance is also the acoustics of the room where the sound is recorded. The distinctive feature is lack of elaborate production and sophisticated studio processing. All the electronic accounterment (tape delay, analog echoes, filters etc.), usually applied in such cases, even enhances the experience of roughness. The effect is striking – violent, sharp, relatively un/pleasant to hear.

Job Karma treats industrial as a starting point for artistic freedom, exploration and unlimited experiments. As a codeword which involves industrial noise, elaborate, multilayer ambient as well as dance beat. The principle behind the music of Job Karma was always: no limits. A distinctive, immediately recognizable aspect of Job Karma’s music is the sound created from age-old low and high frequency generators and oscillators, sine waves. Unique sounds of devices, which were not originally designed to be musical instruments, links with modulated by timbres of old analog synthesizers. The pieces are constructed on loops, timbre spots, blends and sequences. The integral element of Job Karma’s tracks are samples discovered in the archives and those recorded by the sound artists themselves, on different continents. Mostly in North Africa and Asia Minor. In trance forms, rituals of vision and sound, Job Karma’s music work joins urban primitivism and reflects cyivilisation overload. The project debuted in 1997 as a duo formed by Maciej Frett and Aurelisz Pisarzewski, with permanent collaboration of a visual artist Arkadiusz Baginski, enriching their concerts with video projections of his auteur films. Musical activity comes along with popularisation activity. The members of Job Karma are also the curators of the festival we are attending now

Kafel’s origins reach the grey 80s. PRL (People’s Republic of Poland). Their performance in the room of Riviera Remont in Warsaw during VII Out Of Control Festival in 1986, gave the project a place in history. A largely unknown duo from Szczecin (Darek Krzywanski, Andrzej Panfil) demonstrated a coherent program, comprising grey noise of magnetic tapes plus coarse electronics. Hundred-percent by home-made means, with only one possible method DIY / do-it-yourself, young musicians produced interesting music. Their method was based on simple beats and monotonous backing. The sound made by Kafel brilliantly reflects the place and atmosphere of the times when it was made. The band disappeared in the early 90s. Recently, Requiem Records reinstated their old material as a part of serii reminiscences series of Polish experimental music. A short history of Kafel group evidences how times of scarcity managed to deliver timeless values.

An audio-visual project from Poznan, oscillating around the edge of free improvisation, noise and industrial music. In Kakofonikt’s world the sound becomes the crossing point of experience, an interface of the mind and stream of thoughts. Their public shows have a form of performances, involving different types of media. The instrumentarium includes i.a. metal waste, broken electronic devices, toy- and specially contructed instruments, everyday objects, acoustic waves oscillators. The pieces are composed with the use of field recordings and concrete sounds. The declared aim of Kakofonikt is the calibration of the listener’s perception into an altered state of consciousness level  and creating an audio-sonic environment for sensual and mental experiences.

Short performances of MAAAA are a form of annex for the surrounding reality . The sounds emited byz Maaaa consist of communication offcuts, reverberation of conflicts, affray etc. They are a literal reflection of confounded current scene. Functioning for over a decade, individual project of Sergei Hanolaien has evolved from short, rapid noise attacks to more complex forms. Currently, Maaaa is multilevel blocks of concentrated information plus noise.Based on damaged tape loops, enhanced sounds of physical objects and field recordings, contemporary concrete music.

Legendary creation of Steven Stapleton is a living example of absolute freedom in art.  The  imperative is hundred-percent anarchy that spews value. Nurse With Wound is exceptionally fruitful show of anti-schematism, breaking all kinds of limitations or formulas. Abstract, anti-structural music, yet so very different from dozens contemporary „novelty” seekers! Steven Stapleton is one of mages of English esoteric scene which had culmination in the 80s. Since then, whatever has been released under the name Nurse With Wound is an implementation of surrealism and dadaism postulates. NWW is a sort of audial version of surrealist cadavre exquis game. It is exactly what Lautréamont described as a chance meeting on a dissecting table of a sewing machine and an umbrella. Whatever you say about NWW’s music, you are never able to unequivocally pigeonhole what Steven Stapleton is doing. Quite often, violation of schemes provokes NWW to make something like an anti-hit.  It is not so difficult to find suche moments on NWW’s albums. Nobody can deny that NWW is the classic of anti-music or anti-art. In this case, it means the art of the highest quality.

The Rongwrong group was established in 1990 by Maciej Piaseczyński, Marcin Kamieniak and Piotr Gałczyński. In the mid-90s, they made several albums, including – “Epiphany” and “The Story Of Alfons Czahor”. These projects were released by the legendary Obuh Records and today they can be classified as a classic of Polish post-industrial and dark ambient. After a long break, Maciek Piaseczyński reactivated his activity on his own and re-started his adventure with searching for sounds. The material entitled “Krwy” was created. This project is electro-acoustic sound impressions narrating to the authentic events of the past. The material was released by Requiem Records. Currently, the group consisting of Maciej and François continues the path, transforming sounds into dense multi-phonic collages (pojawy) immersed in complex electronic structures. The concert in Wrocław will feature an audiovisual spectacle where the long-told “story of Alfons Czahor” will be intertwined with the mystery of metaphysical transformation, works of alchemical practices… This time, dark sound sequences will reveal a long-written but never-told story. The while concert will be enriched by the visualisations and video instalations created by Łukasz Pawlak.

In the early 90s. Sielwolf offered real industrialcore. A band from Frankfurt left a perfect, continental response to Ministry or Godflesh. In addition to the mentioned inspirations, they affixed mandatory doze of dirt, post avant-garde attitude, staight from kraut tradition. Sielwolf sampled Test Dept and Slayer. Somewhere between those poles one can find the concept of the band from Frankfurt encapsulated. Their masterful album was Metastasen, linking harshness of the borrowed riffs with sophistication. Waste machine – Sielwolf masterly crossed the experiment and simple plod; nightstorm (Nachtstrom) with yawp, meat with liquid crystal. Sielwolf’s artwork often referred to the cinema, you can feel here Videodrome by David Cronenberg, as well as lonely huntings of Dirty Harry. Drone-like, dub ill-dustrial of the next album V was produced by Mick Harris of Scorn (former drummer of Napalm Death). In the middle 90s Sielwolf remained quiet for years. After a long period of absence they returned as Sielwolf &  Nam-Khar. This transformation brought looped spatial ritual music. The new music did not lose its industriality – intensity and power.

Although Skin Area debuted in Cold Meat Industry, their music is far distant from the model of the best known groups under the Swedish label. The members are Martin Bladh, a versatile artist (graphic designer, performer, essayist) and Magnus Lindh, another versatile artist known from the project IRM. On their albums New Skin or Journal Noir / Lithium Pact  the duo created a rich, multilayer structure. The album recordings of Skin Area indicate unrestrained attitude towards materiality. In their music we can find many timbres from industrial range. The atmosphere is made by intricately constructed blocks: from ambient soundscapes to noise walls. There are even moments when we can hear a rhythm. The album Rothko Field  is full of guitar drone and melodeclamation, as well as grainy, almost sludge fragments, filled with sonic dirt. Here and there the music becomes delicate and completely vulnerable. Auto-redress plus self-therapy. Re-enactment of the fall and personal disintegration in Skin Area serves the cathartic aim.  The whole spectrum of measures is used to expose negativistic visions of the individual amidst the hostile reality. A ne image of the North-European spleen and nihilism.

The Young Gods have been pushing the limits of sound for more than thirty years. They began as pioneers of industrial punk who flirted with surreal cabaret, and as sonic wizards they moved on to shamanize electro/techno music, all the while forging their own unique sound. In the process they became legends of the European scene.

Rewind…

During the winter of 1984-85, Franz Treichler and Cesare Pizzi redefined the grammar of rock using rudimentary machines. They were inhabited by an uncompromising, raw and poetic vision. Joined by drummer Frank Bagnoud, they fine-tuned the formula of the Young Gods. Their first concerts were like electroshocks. They featured voice, drums and sampler… and walls of guitar sounds, but without guitars: their music was unheard of. When the first eponymous album appeared in 1987, the British press heralded the phenomenon: “The Young Gods are the New Thing, they are what happens next …” In the early 1990s, with Al Comet replacing Cesare Pizzi on samplers, the trio surfed the wave of alternative rock. The album “T.V. Sky”, with its single “Skinflowers” rotating on MTV, opened the doors of the United States. David Bowie, U2 and Nine Inch Nails began citing them as inspirations. Things accelerated at a frantic pace. So much so that it all became too much. In the early 2000s, the trio regrouped in Geneva, redefined its priorities, and moved closer to the effervescent electro / techno scene. Bernard Trontin replaced Üse Hiestand on drums.

… Fast forward!

The Young Gods celebrated their 20th anniversary in 2005 at the Montreux Jazz Festival, with the Sinfonietta orchestra of Lausanne and the singer Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr Bungle, Fantômas). They also spearheaded a myriad of multidisciplinary creations, for Swiss Expo.02, for the Geneva Science Museum, with anthropologist Jeremy Narby for “Amazonia Ambient Project”, or reinterpreting the legendary Woodstock concert of 1969… They also collaborated with alternative hip-hop group Dälek, and with the trio of improvisers Koch, Schütz & Studer. To date, The Young Gods have published more than 10 albums.

Every participant of industrial type of dance parties can recognize the hit One Eyed Man in a flash, after the first few tunes. It is not the only successful outcome of Mika Goedrijk’s project, established in 1996. This Morn Omina is another significant point in an exquisite panorama of electro industrial of Northern Europe, and its popularity goes beyond the industrial scene. This Morn Omina is one of the most recognizable products of Ant-Zen label. The term which you can permanently use to describe any part of This Morn Omina’s work is trance. TMO is tribal industrial – ethnic rhythms in strict connection with electronics. This Morn Omina links non-European rhythmic traditions with highly advanced technological base. Looped, electronically generated tempos, typical for techno, combine with ritual repetitions. All this enriched with some psy-trance kind of rhythm elements. Serial repetitive music overwhelms the senses and psyche. It has power and it draws the listener into a ritual kind of experience.

Revival band, whose sense is to give a new lease of life to the classic Throbbing Gristle. Like any band of such type, Throbbing Wafle had one goal on mind: to play covers of the original group. Since Throbbing Wafle was launched, the souce project managed to reactivate. The real TG also happened to release new material and play a few memorable concerts. Their reactivation raised a series of discussions and controversy on today’s industrial scene. Throbbing Wafle is less stimulating, it is a project of Marcel Zamenhof, known from other artistic undertakings, and Lukasz (Ash Neuro).TW focus on early work of old TG. However, with the use of modern equipment and technology they reinterpretate, in some sort of way, the original versions of Gristle. Wafle were supposed to remain a short-term initiative (the idea was to feature only four recitals). Despite rare performances, TW has developed into a project still active until today.

Entrancing pulsating music of drones and repetition. The shows of Rav Kosela’s project are accompanied with monochromatic video. Solar symbols, lunar and psychoactive effects of stroboscopic lights.  In this hypnotic music one can find power words, mantras related to ancient solar-astral cult.