XXI WROCŁAW INDUSTRIAL FESTIVAL

Chris Sigdell is an experimental electronic musician. He developed a soft spot for early industrial textures and pioneering ambient soundscapes while cutting his teeth in cult industrial band NID (1995-2005). He builds an interesting body of work that moves in various directions at the same time. From dealings with ambient and isolationism on one hand and experimental music, ranging from the soft micro-sound end to the more engaging noise end, in a clever combination of ideas…Since going solo in 2005 he has performed over 300 concerts in Europe, North Amerca and Japan. He has appeared at various renown festivals and played with artists like Boren Und Der Club Of Gore, Dave Philips, Frontline Assembly, Jozef Van Wissem, Puce Mary, Rinus Van Alebeek, Robert Rich, Thomas Köner, Zbigniew Karkowski.b°tong releases can be found on various experimental labels such as: Oxidation (USA), Drone Records (D), Zoharum (PL), Reverse Alignment (S) and Silken Tofu (B). Chris also composed and plays the music for contemporary circus performance piece „Vertikal” by Finn Jagd Andersen, directed by Delia Dahinden and can (very) briefly be seen in the Swiss television series „Der Bestatter” – in the episode „Spiel mit dem Feuer” he plays guitar in a band that plays one of his own old songs. Live, b°tong uses found electrical gadgets and metal objects together with various effect-pedals.

Dule Tree started in 2014 as a 3-piece band, released 2 albums, and then transformed into power duo containing Paweł Rucki on drums & electronics and Szymon Browarczyk on Vocals & bass. Their harshing sound of wall crush weak ones and makes you feel disquiet. Their live shows looks more like performances due to schizophrenic and neurotic frontman interacting with audience and his partner.

Solo project of Kuba Włodarski who explores the sonic atmospheres of electro-industrial. A self-released, well received demo CD came to light in 2004 and was followed by live gigs – received with equal enthusiasm, where the live energy was amplified by a suggestive video. The perceptible fascination with the sounds of the Canadian school intersecting with dance vibes in no way overshadowed the extremely favorable impression that was caused by listening to Egoist’s demo. Apart from the attractive compositions, the debut of Egoist clearly showed Włodarski’s considerable production skills. The multi-layered music included dynamics, pulse and electroid beat evokes rather dark aura of a decline.In 2021 the full length debut release: “Breaking Moment” confirmed the quality of Egoist music. The material was released on a CD at the Slovak Aliens Production label, and was followed by Egoist’s remix album “Phantoms”.2021/2022 saw Egoist comeback to live performing, with several – well received gigs in Poland. On stage, Kuba is supported by Wojtek Król, known from variety of musical bands/projects: (Controlled Collapse, Clicks, Hedone).

Gary Mundy of Ramleh/Kleistwahr/Broken Flag and Eraldo Bernocchi of Sigillum S. Combining two guitars, subtle electronics and what sounds like a voice from another dimension, rhythmic loops or serene pools of liquid sound are generated that add up to an album of immense beauty and scope. Sometimes more intense and at others almost elegiac, this work is in keeping with Gary’s more recent solo work yet benefits also from Bernocchi’s own clear signature stamped throughout.

Born in 1980 as a trio, and currently a duo formed by Arturo Lanz (founding member) and Saverio Evangelista (member since 1991), Esplendor Geométrico is an influential and international cult band and also a rare case in the Spanish music scene, as they have developed their own independent path aside from tags, fashion or trends, in spite of being often classified as Their career during this four decades hasn’t had interruptions. They haven’t stopped composing, releasing albums or playing live (with more intensity since the nineties), and they have continued for the simple pleasure of making music.

E.G. soon achieved a personal and distinct style that can be appreciated from their 80´s albums , when they used analog synthesizers and primitive electronic percussion, to the present time with new digital tools. Despite the great changes in the electronic sound with the evolution of technology, they are easily recognizable. Their influence has marked many later artists, usually classified in the so-called  or as well as artists from current and certain types of experimental noise music.

FRETT is a  project by Maciek FRETT of Job Karma and 7JK, curator and director of Wrocław Industrial Festival, Wrocław Underwater, and Energy of the Sound, as well as organiser of concerts under the Industrial Art brand, active on the independent music scene in Wrocław, Poland since the mid-1990s. On the album “The World as a Hologram”  (Ant -Zen, Gusstaff Rec 2020) full-blooded old school industrial collides head-on with IDM/techno, creating a raw palette of analog sounds based on industrial and tribal dance rhythms, punctuated with soulless vocals with elements of noise and ambient. Retrofuturist synth melodies and sculpted electronic rhythms are the signals of doom and destruction.  Additional vocals by Anna Frett.

Berlin based band Gewalt condenses in most radical tongues the impossibility and inescapebility of human existance. This is the nucleus of Helen Henflings, Patrick Wagners and Jasmin Rilkes art. The facade are machinebeats, clinking guitars, the din, the beauty of sonic pressure and the absence of any light. That pretty much smells like industrial and noise. But behind this facade there are countless questions such as: „can we dance misery?” or „Can we feel and hear every word of Gewalt at the same time?”. In deed Gewalt seem to be more interested in artists such as Daft Punk, Einstürzende Neubauten, Klaus Kinski or Pharell Williams than into more obvious alikes such as Ministry or Big Black. More and more people talk about their shows of resurrection experiences. We would not go this far, but it is defintly exciting and maybe the most intense thing you can find in current culture.

IUGULA-THOR is an Italian experimental power electronics project formed in 1992 by Andrea Chiaravalli with the assistance of Paolo Bandera and Eraldo Bernocchi (Sigillum S, etc.).Many of the early recordings were heavily influenced by thrash and speed metal, while, since 1994 the project has primarily been just Andrea with Paolo Bandera, verging more closely on noise-oriented territories.The project has always been shrouded in mystery and curiosity, mainly due to the use of esoteric references to Process Church of the Final Judgment (a religious group active in the 60s and 70s founded by Mary Anne and Robert DeGrimston), to Norse mythology and to Aleister Crowley, the founder of modern occultism and considered by some to be the source of inspiration for Satanism from which, however, Iugula-Thor has always distanced himself.The themes are dealt with on a background of preternatural and avant-garde electronic music, with a distinctly and individually Iugula-Thor style, currently able to merge the different chapters of the long and mysterious history of the project in a super complex context that tends to close the circle recovering esoteric sounds typical of the origins with an extremely aggressive approach (especially in live performances).

JFK is the solo-project of Anthony Di Franco, a British electronic/rock/noise musician and producer. He is a member of the UK underground noise band RAMLEH and is a former member of UK noise rock legends SKULLFLOWER. He has been active since 1987 and his solo projects include JFK, AX and Ethnic Acid.Anthony originally conceived the JFK project whilst still a schoolboy in England and began releasing cassettes on labels such as Broken Flag and his own JFK imprint. If anything bridges the gap between power electronics and the sound of the mightiest Tresor releases from their own height it’s JFK.

Kleistwahr is the solo project of Gary Mundy from Ramleh. It originally existed in the 1980s as an electronic project and was revived in 2009 as an outlet for Gary’s solo electronic/noise/organ/guitar compositions. The latest Kleistwahr album “In the Guts of a Year” was released on Fourth Dimension Records in 2022 to widespread acclaim.

Occasional ensemble from Wrocław founded in autumn 2021 by vocalist Tomek Osiński and producer Łukasz Bejnar (Uchylak). The duo’s proposal is a fusion of heavy sludge aesthetics with electro and hard tekno danceability. Specific ballads of scrap collectors with turpistic poetry. Soundtrack for a nonexistent post-apo movie.At the beginning of this year band released their debut s/t album on CD in Ubocze label.

The solo project of Simone Salvatori from the popular band SPIRITUAL FRONT. Despite the first associations, due to the visual aspects of the project and the name, with the also Italian ATRAX MORGUE, the music on Black Scenario Vol. 1 is far from power electronics/harsh sound. It’s hypnotic dark ambient whose vibe steers clear of stuffiness, excessive heaviness, turpitude, and decay. MORGUE ENSEMBLE’s performance in Wrocław will also be the project’s first.

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.

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.

Schröttersburg is a band from Płock associated mainly with the post punk genre. The group has so far released the albums “Krew”, “Ciało”, “Melancholia”, “Melancholia. Dekonstrukcje” and “Dalet”. After recording the last album, during the lockdown, the band focused on rehearsals, experimenting with new instrumentation, as well as other types of music. In three months, during long improvisations, another material was created, “Om Shanti Om”. A material where the beginning and the end apply; where spirituality mixes with the ritual of the city, industrial noises with oriental melodies, psychedelic mantras with tribal rhythms. At the concert in Wrocław, Schröttersburg will present just these sounds from the hidden constellation. The album “Om Shanti Om” was released in April 2022 through several labels (Zoharum, DIY Koło, NIC, Bat Cave Productions, Estaboy Rec.).

Since 1985, Eraldo Bernocchi, P.NG5361.B and Luca Di Giorgio (as well as a long list of friends and collaborators) have been working as SIGILLUM S an Italian post – industrial audio project of many different natures, where concepts have led the effort and employed sound as a tool for the exploration of the forbidden areas of the subconscious: the result has been a endless paradigm of alien electronic mutations, merging concrete noise research with acoustic transmigration, while visuals and many other forms of media have been also adopted, in order to achieve maximum interaction intensity.

Active since 1985, Sigillum S cannot be easily labelled, despite the fact that it is associated chiefly with the industrial aesthetics. The founders of the group, Paolo Bandera and Luca di Giorgio, set a very specific task for themselves right in the beginning – to use sound as a tool for exploration of hidden and denied spheres of the human subconscious. And so, with each subsequent release they have been broadening the range of means, genres and instruments without becoming attached to any specific sound but instead seeking new ones. The project’s compositions are endless electronic sound mutations in which pure noise coming from the avant-garde musique concrète background merges with acoustic transmigrations. The collection of instruments used by the musicians is impressive – from electronic samplers, all the way through ethnic instruments or guitar to short wave generators. Each subsequent record of the project takes the listener on farther musical journeys, where diverse aesthetics, such as noise, dub, ambient or ritualistic music, are used as means of expression of equal importance.

For Eraldo Bernocchi – Simm is his most personal project. With albums only occurring every decade on no set schedule, this versatile Italian musician saves the stories of his own victories, failures, and close encounters for the stylish and bass line driven beats of Simm. The London-based Italian has produced music in collaboration with Harold Budd, Bill Laswell, Mick Harris, Robin Guthrie and many others. For  new album “Too Late To Dream”, Bernocchi has reached out into an entirely different direction and recruited vocalists Phelimuncasi, from the African label Nyege Nyege Tapes, and London-based MC Flowdan to add a new dimension to the storytelling of Simm. “Simm is just a spectator, a witness of disasters. We’re done, end of story. We fucked up big time. The planet is dying, we condemned ourselves to a slow and painful death. We live in a society where the screens replaced our brain and disinformation rules. It’s a dystopic reality that Ballard and Cronenberg perfectly described years ago. They forecasted the future; they wrote our epitaph and we thought we were reading a novel or watching a movie. Too late, too late to dream. It’s over.”

Spiritual Front is a neofolk band from Rome, Italy. Its members describe their music as “nihilist suicide pop”, although elements of neoclassical and rock music are prevelant, along with a recurring experimental feel. The band began in 1999 as a project fronted by Simone Salvatori (a.k.a. “Hellvis”), a guitarist and singer from Italy, and has since worked extensively with other projects in the same genre of neofolk, along with releasing their own music to the public. Spiritual Front’s so-called “Mafia-Folk” has been in release since 1999, in which time Simone Salvatori, the lyricist and conceptualist behind SF, has been known to create a unique feel within their traditionally folk style.Their most noticeable recurring output is Simone’s charismatic playing of the acoustic guitar, along with martial drum beats characteristic of the neofolk genre. Slow and often melancholic vocals (leaning towards dark folk) are often contrasted with cabaret-like, somewhat comedic “swing-singing” and are reminicent of swing revival sound (particularly noticeable in their album Nihilist Cocktails For Calypso Inferno), showing the absolute dichotomy of Salvatori’s compositions. Emotional piano chords are also frequently featured, with occasional violin playing and solos. The use of field recording is also apparent in many of Spiritual Front’s albums, often attributing an ambient feel to their work.

Paolo L. Bandera (a.k.a. NG5361) has been propagating unconventional sounds and deviated cultural streams for decades with SIGILLUM S, together with Eraldo Bernocchi and other various acolytes. On top of this, he has been generating noise textures in solo configuration as SSHE RETINA STIMULANTS, devastating post-industrial sounds with a hyper – intellectual twist, in an apocalyptic context with morbidly visionary features.SSHE RETINA STIMULANTS is a space where the most antagonist and abrasive currents get crazy, while pursuing a limitless synergy between underground acoustics and nightmarish visuals: under this moniker tens of works have been released through the years since the early ’90s, in parallel with live performances in a lot of countries.Most recently, Paolo has started releasing some works under his own name, in order to differentiate more conceptually severe and abstract electronic productions from the SRS harsh volume. Paolo has also written for various magazines (on music and other topics), as well as having curated the two Italian editions of the Industrial Culture Handbook and having collaborated to RUMORI SACRI, a reference book on the Italian post-industrial music underground.

Bored of their previous bands and expecially all those long discussions, Tim Kniep (ex Blendwerk) and Philipp Münch (ex Ars Moriendi) founded Synapscape back in 1994.Instead of talking too much they decided to just do things. This works flawlessly until today. A year after their ignition they were signed by the legendary Ant-Zen label where they are releasing their music until today.Synapscapes music can be described as a mix between Power Noise, Breakbeats, IDM, but also Dark Ambient and EBM elements can occur in their sound.Synapscape are sounding like nothing else and Tim Knieps harsh vocals add more to their unique twist. They played much more than 100 shows in Germany, all over Europe, also USA and Russia. Their shows are focused on their music, so poser friends should look somewhere else.During the 2 Covid years, no shows were possible but Synapscape still kept on working. In about a month their 13th album will be released and a couple of weeks before they did a digital EP which is even more experimental soundwise.

ZŁE OKO / (the EVIL EYE) is the one-woman project of Olga23 from Warsaw (PL), industrial/punk graphic artist, author of collages and former bassist of DNO (a downtempo punk), who currently lives in Oslo. This is digital agony and apocalypse, drone downtempo, the cawing of crows, and the howling, whining sirens. In 2018 ZLE OkO made her debut with “Cicuta”, where echoes of early 90s industrial are mixed with conceptual, feminist anarcho-punk from Crass Records, and a uniquely Polish element – especially in the lyrics, filled with mediaeval pagan motifs and the stench of witches burned at the stake. The sound layer is dominated by ghoulish samples from YouTube and authoritarian broadcasting stations, such as the Polish state TV. This is Złe Oko’s response to the darkness of the Polish Middle Ages – which seem to have made a contemporary comeback. In her new productions, Olga23 veers towards shamanic, dark trap at the same time exploring the depths of dubbed bass of sampled didgeridoo.