XII Wrocław Industrial Festival

The music made by Anemone Tube — existing since 1996 and led by Stefan Hanser — can best be described as a unique and skillful mix of dark ambient, noise, power electronics, industrial, and sound art. Anemone Tube offers an intense, even psychogenic sound experience — a comprehensive and well thought-out wholeness that goes far beyond the boundaries of all of the above aesthetics. Compositions of the project skillfully combine characteristics of academic experimentation with the aesthetics of underground music — the sounds of industrial territory. This is noise at its best, retaining its destructive and pure nature, but at the same time complemented by something subtle and very personal. Anemone Tube is a collage of lush industrial soundscapes, a massive wall of sound inlaid with original field recordings from different environments — courtesy of the artist who records numerous samples during their voyages around the world. Finally, the music of Anemone Tube can be described as a thick atmospheric background filled with conflicting emotions. This is not in any way a monotonous brand of music — its line is based primarily on constant changes in tone and mood, with a distinct dynamic and dramatic culminations. Tracks of the project are often conceptually linked together — the artist often examines the empirical world and confronts it with Buddhist psychology and nihilist philosophy, the origins of which can be found in movies and books of such artists as Michael Haneke, Hayao Miyazaki, HP Lovecraft, Yukio Mishima and J. G. Ballard.

Existing since 1998, C. H. District is a project of Mirosław Matyasik that combines industrial sounds with contemporary productions based in intelligent electronics. Even the most picky and extravagant connoisseurs of the musical experimentation get swayed by the District’s strong, dynamic beats, recurring melodic lines and broken rhythms. Be warned though! By no means can C. H. District be associated with monotonous and simplistic versions of techno—in their compositions the familiar design elements of dance music are radically deconstructed, classic bit structures are transformed into an unconventional rhythmic concoction packed with glitches, and heavy bass lines are marked by radical tonal experiments . It is a deep, multi-layered music based on ambient landscapes and complemented with a whole range of often unexpected glitches, noise, feedback and rhythmic clicks. One can hear all kinds of influence and all kinds of elements of electronic and technoid industrial music. Although inspirations with the various fresh sounds of the past is clearly visible, the tracks still show genuine character as well as the musicians’ bravado in experimenting with rhythm—typically associated with the masters of IDM. Music of C. H. District is filled to the brim with originality, creativity, clearness and attention to every detail—every sound has its own clearly defined place. A must-hear for fans of such bands as Autechre, Aphex Twin and Black Lung or such producers as Warp, Hymen, Ant-Zen or Metropolis. From 2012 the band can boast with a new member: Adam Białoń, known from bands such as Garaż w Leeds, Nowy Horyzont and Dusseldorf.

Founded in 1987 by Stephen Meixner and Jonathan Grieve, the Contrastate formation boasts with one of the richest experience pool among the groups of early industrial movement. Initially embedded firmly in the tradition of industrial music, the band experimented with the limits of sound, volume, and frequency. The purpose? Physical confrontation with the possibilities of sound. Contrastate did not cease to evolve, however, and slowly moved away from extremes and towards the more balanced, subtle compositions. Their current style is situated somewhere in the realm of the avant-garde variety of dark, ritual ambient music combined with elements of experimental noise. Their diverse musical heritage exhibits unique electronic manipulations combined with theatrical monologues—all embedded in heavy, surreal industrial background. The sheer complexity and genuine nature of their sounds is worth applause and admiration. Their tracks are filled with recurrent themes that perpetually—and radically—change their sound, the frequency can jump from the lowest scale to the highest tones, and the trance rhythm is interwoven with multi-level ambient backgrounds. Contrastate is indeed a prime example of experimentation in music—its artists constantly feel the need to try out different ideas, different ways of recording and different ways to use instruments.

Existing from over 30 years and co-starred by twins: Klive and Nigel Homberstone, the band In The Nursery has never shied away from experimentation and looking for an alternative path towards progress. Although the early steps of the formation were definitely industrial in style, with every consecutive album the group has gradually left the industrial behind, and created their own recognizable form in return. Homberstone’s initial fascination with post-punk Joy Division was replaced by infatuation with neoclassical style, which soon became the very marrow of In The Nursery. The team left the grinding sounds of industrial in order to pursue more sophisticated and subtle means of expression. From that point on, the project has primarily associated itself with classical instruments assisted by computer sequencers. It is through that combination the band manages to evoke thrill, excitement and also unique atmosphere. Compositions of In The Nursery, are achieved by the latest technology combined with the classical style and orchestral drum-work. They possess a unique charm and power—which is precisely why the team has been recognized by the producers and their songs regularly appear in the soundtracks of many well-known films (eg. Gran Torino, Beowulf, Aviator, Interview with the Vampire, and many, many others). The group is also famous due to their original self-composed soundtracks for many silent films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Man With a Movie Camera and The Passion of Joan of Arc.

The Ambient is a genre of many faces—sometimes it constitutes merely a pleasant background music, the other time it can become heavy, dark and full of anxiety. Komora A—with its members: Jakub Mikołajczyk , Karol Koszniec and Dominik Kowalczyk—is much closer to the latter than the former. The band's music is full of barely masked anxiety, deep drones, subtle rhythmic fragments, dignified analog sounds and modular synthesizers, industrial themes and multi-level sound structures—and that's just a few of the elements used by the group to achieve its own unique sound. The music is improvised, full of trance and contemplation, filled with dark spots and seasoned with radical frequencies. Moments of silence border with dark, quirky electronics, just as meditation borders strong emanations of sound. Komora A radically experiments with music and the sound in general, making it interesting and surprising, creating with ingenuity and innovation.

Tomasz Mirt—from whose name the name of the project derives—tends to involve himself with a very broad and diverse spectrum of musical fields—ranging from minimal and ambient, through psychedelia and post-rock, to industrial and lo-fi. Some critics try to encompass his work with a rather general label—industrial—but the artist himself prefers to describe his sounds as neopsychodelia. Mirt creates music using a variety of analog modules and musical instruments such as electric guitars, keyboards and trumpets. Solo recordings of Mirt—who happens to play in other formations such as One Inch of Shadow or Gallowbrothers Brasil and The Band on a daily basis—are sometimes even more quiet than the field recorded samples that he often utilizes in his works. Some tracks can be characterized as monotonously repetitive, but they can also surprise with their hidden rapacity. The musician states that randomness of the sound is of highest importance to him, which by itself is an idea stemming straight from the acoustic world as well as the old electronic. In both music subgenres, small differences are the result of chaotic change, not a complicated digital algorithms. It’s no wonder why his ambient collages are full of unexpected acoustic events and moments. It's the type of music that’s best experienced while being focused, a powerful, musical synesthesia. Mirt is a virtuoso of the art of putting together field recordings and synth-sounds into one evocative and coherent whole.

Nothing But Noise is a new musical experiment led by three musicians - Daniel Bressanutti of Front 242, Dirk Bergen—co-founder and former member of the very same formation—and Erwin Jadot. If one expects the continuation of the project design chosen by Front 242, one may be very surprised—Nothing But Noise is rather anti-Front 242 and is mainly focused on ambient and improvisation, while the native formation of Bergen and Bressanutti was associated with communicative rhythmicity and energy. Inspired by the personas and music projects such as Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Kraftwerk, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and numerous groups playing krautrock, the artists decided to add a new chapter to that style, basing on the achievements of the groups and people listed above. The result is progressive electronic genre fueled by the synthesizers utilized in the electronic music from the 70s. Ghost of Jean Michel Jarre, Holger Czukay of Can as well as numerous artists of space rock can still be sensed in the tracks. Nothing But Noise is a tribute to the old analog electronics while utilizing them in a specific way—while many artists use it to invoke the aesthetics of a bygone era, members of the formation emphasize the potential and possibilities of using it in the future.

Spherical Disrupted is a musical project led by Mirko Hentrich—a member of Experimentum Crucis and co-founder and owner of the label Audiophob. Musically speaking, Disrupted is a unique minimalist electronics that could be situated somewhere on the border between noise and ambient. Often filled with specific, strange atmosphere it is a surprising mixture of clearly structured sound elements with unbridled, chaotic noise. Spherical Disrupted attacks the listener with a whole lot of heavy beats, distorted sounds and dash of subtle synthetic melodies. It's not common to hear such a skillful combination of dark ambient IDM; sometimes sounding more industrial, sometimes bordering on techno, and presented in a cold, surgical and mechanical manner. Tracks portray an elaborate combinations of raw, ominous tones, multi-level soundscapes with slowly and meticulously built backgrounds composed of machine noises, pulsating electronics and warm synths—and such kind of mixtures seems to be the specialty of Spherical Disrupted, giving it the specific nature (and structure) of a disturbing dream. Sharp bits are mixed with dense atmosphere, the music’s simple, minimalist rhythms develop into the sounds resembling the old electronics, and screechy, noisy sequences are interwoven with subtle melodies. This project takes the dark structures located somewhere between ambient and noise, electronics and field recordings—and exposes them. It is the meeting place of darkness and rhythm.

The word “underviewer” was supposed to evoke the ideas such as curiosity, something hidden, underground, or looking under something. It also happens that the very name started to evoke the thoughts of electronic music when Jean-Luc De Meyer and Patrick Codenysa formed their own music group. Both artists became famous later as the members of the legendary EBM - Front 242, however, before they managed to join this famous formation—between 1978 and 1981—they performed together under the name of Underviewer, creating music on the first analog synthesizers. The result of these tests were shy, experimental electronic tracks clearly inspired by pop, but based more on sound associations and noise rather than the catchy melodies. Reactivated after many years, the Underviewer takes listeners on a journey back in time, to the period in which there were no prefabricated sounds yet and hyperkinetic rhythms were still to be invented. The musicians decided to resurrect their first project in search of what they felt in the past, creating their early electronics sounds on old synthesizers. Underviewer offers a kind of music from a different time—its sounds are naive, pure and simple, but at the same time filled to the brim with originality and uniqueness which cannot be faked. It is also overflowing with the emotions of curiosity that accompany the inventors, explorers and pioneers of the aesthetics.