Back by popular demand and after a successful 10 years of existence, Supersonic Festival return and are taking the event back to its core values by curating an intimate two day event. On 30th and 31st May, Capsule present ‘Supersonic Festival Ltd Edt’ and shall return to the Custard Factory where it all began…
Since the inception of Supersonic Festival in 2003, Capsule have firmly established the event as a unique, regional, inner-city festival, with an undeniably vibrant atmosphere, always presenting a variety of performers – the inaugural event featured the bewildering blend of Coil, DJ Food, LCD soundsystem, The Bug and more – and where the film programme, workshops and art exhibitions are as paramount to the event’s atmosphere as the music. Year in, year out, Capsule unite discerning music fans, embracing eclectic tastes and have over the years adapted a creative space for music lovers, musicians, artists, filmmakers, record stalls and local businesses to thrive.
As this is a limited event, there are only 400 tickets available and they will be going on sale on Friday morning at 10am, so grab them while you can via the website: www.supersonicfestival.com – here you can also find out more insight into the line up, film programme, workshops and cake (well it is in-keeping with tradition after all!)
Supersonic Festival Ltd Edt have already confirmed the billing for the event, which will take place at a new space within the Custard Factory and are delighted to welcome back Swans. Michael Gira, Norman Westberg, Christoph Hahn, Phil Puleo, Thor Harris and Christopher Pravdica are no strangers to Supersonic Festival, and Capsule are thrilled to play host to their infamous, dominant and strikingly powerful live show.
Baltimore duo Matmos shall bring their dizzyingly diverse assemblage to Supersonic Festival Ltd Edt in support of their 2013 album. Their music comprises stomping techno, eerie synth jams, musique concrete, Latin rhythms, and Ethiopian music, at once at home in the academy, the art gallery, the nightclub and the noise warehouse, a perfect fit for the festival then.
Liverpool based ensemble, Ex Easter Island Head, will present their expanded Large Electric Ensemble which includes twelve prepared electric guitars and drums to create a maximalist wash of amplified strings and droning overtones. The ensemble adopt a new vocabulary of playing based around various guitar preparations, from billowing harp-like arpeggios to ‘bowing’ the strings with allen keys to produce luminous upper register drones. Microtonal intervals create shimmering tones akin to the struck metallophones of Balinese gamelan, whilst the thrum of electrified strings creates a dense undertow of singing harmonies. Scored in custom notation the piece places free flowing passages alongside conductor cues, allowing the players to collectively create a distinctive sonic landscape. What Supersonic event would be complete without something special such as this?
Supersonic Festival Ltd Edt are pleased to welcome back, the infamous blistering noise of Wolf Eyes. From touring with Sonic Youth and Andrew W.K., Wolf Eyes have crossed borders into popularity which few other such confrontational units of their ilk have been able to and kept straight and narrow on their blazing path, and are on top form. The overwhelming force of Wolf Eyes must be seen to to be believed.
Following their appearance at the Capsule led Bring To Light event of 2013, Sleaford Mods will bring their aggressive verbal onslaught to the Custard Factory, to spout about all that is contrived and connected to the day-to-day hammer of low paid employment and domestic situations arising from that trap.
Also returning to the festival, having performed at Supersonic in 2011, is Agathe Max. With an elegant command of melody and a strident use of rhythm, Max creates dynamic, fast-flowing loop pieces that encompass noise, post-classicism and krautrock with nods to the High Lonesome Raga as filtered through Henry Flynt.
Supersonic Festival Ltd Edt will warmly welcome a rising talent to this rich mix in the form of Basic House, who’s textural and rhythmic explorations are fast growing in acclaim, described as “somewhere between Kassem Mosse, The New Blockaders and Zoviet*France.”.
Finally, provocative Norwegian singer, composer, lyricist and writer Jenny Hval shall perform at Supersonic Festival Ltd Edt. Multidisciplinary and transgressive are words often employed to describe her art, but Jenny Hval’s polyphonic artistry is in fact seamlessly interwoven between musical, literary, visual and performative modes of expression. Despite her young age, she has already infused, carved and modulated an artistic voice that is altogether present, accessible and obscurely complex at the same time. We cannot wait!
Let’s not forget the other elements which always make Supersonic so special, the workshops and participatory events – this year, Capsule have selected If Wet to feature. If Wet is a monthly event of sonic exploration, usually held in a rural Worcestershire village hall; chaired by musical instrument designers MortonUnderwood. Part show and tell, part test bed, part salon. A place for artists to showcase their latest sonic works and research. A place to revel and discuss. After a successful inaugural season MortonUnderwood have decided to extend the reach of If Wet beyond the village hall and it is with great pleasure that they will transport their distinctive event to Supersonic Festival Ltd Edt.
Again Capsule shall be working very closely with Eastside Projects and wholeheartedly encourage attendees to investigate the Bill Drummond Exhibition which will take place across that weekend. Legendary musician and artist Bill Drummond will begin a twelve year ‘World Tour’ under Spaghetti Junction marking this momentous event with an exhibition at Eastside Projects. The exhibition focuses on ‘The 25 Paintings’, a series of artworks that signpost actions Drummond will perform across Birmingham during his three month stay in the city including, but by no means limited to, giving away bunches of daffodils, discovering Dead Oak Rings, building rafts, hiding in cafes, making beds, sweeping the streets clean and brewing tea. Also on show will be The SIXTY Posters, The 25 Sixty Second Films, an evolving selection of photographs, a globe of the world and a large map of the city.
Supersonic Festival Ltd Edt will launch Capsule’s inaugural ‘Labs’ (artist development and commissioning scheme) devised to create more opportunities for commissioning experimental, cross-disciplinary art. More information about this will be coming soon.
Finally, i’ll leave you with a quote which provides a succinct summary which those who have attended the Capsule run event in the past will testify to, and those who have yet to come along, can understand why this year, you really must consider it…
“Contrast, without which we cannot perceive the world, is a phenomenon that defies homogenisation, where pleasure is relief from pain, and pain can be a prime for pleasure; where art is opposed to commerce, and the mundane is pushed back, often all too temporarily, by creativity. Capsule, the curators of the annual Supersonic Festival clearly understand this: from the coarse granularity of its urban, industrial environment so strongly set apart from the fallow fields of most other festivals, to the finer details of its handpicked programme of new music, installations, workshops, walks and talks, all deftly juxtaposed across a long weekend, the festival never fails to nurture new connections and rupture old ones” - Musique Machine on Supersonic Festival
SUMMARY OF BANDS PERFORMING (in alphabetical order):
Agathe Max
Agathe Max is a French musician based in Lyon. She mostly performs as a solo violin act, enhanced with various loops, distortions and other effects. She has been very much on tour in the last few years sharing gigs with important international acts such as Carla Bozulich, Jonathan Kane, Rhys Chattam, David Daniell and Melt Banana. Her music is either composed or improvised, depending of the shape of the project. In addition to her musical career, Agathe Max is also a visual artist, a jeweller and an activist in the musical and artistic community in Lyon.
http://www.myspace.com/
agathemax
Basic House
BASIC HOUSE is the work of the UK’s Stephen Bishop, the man behind the ever more impressive label that is Opal Tapes. Our ears place Basic House in similar territory to Helm and Sewer Election, but always with the feel of a nagging, repetitive beat in the back of his head that’s fighting to materialise. Others have drawn comparisons to a woozy Andy Stott and Aaron Dilloway, with maybe a pinch of John Wiese in there too. But the sound is definitely Bishop’s, the feeling of a rich and aurally satisfying tapestry that only the more superior end of electronic composition can furnish. Basic House is increasingly in demand all of a sudden, with releases this year on Luke Younger’s Alter and on Digitalis and increasing demand for his excellent live shows across Europe. And with his set-up also becoming gradually more modular, we’re expecting even greater things.
Fact said recently of his Oats album: “Juxtaposing arresting material that doesn’t seem like it could be made to work, Bishop bends and edits parts together with care that belies their aggression. The results feel very much alive; primal, but with the beginnings of emotional understanding. It’s a brilliant experience.” Others draw comparisons from Basic Channel to Vatican Shadow and Fennesz, and you could argue his sonic aesthetics are what really set Basic House apart, his precise attention to sound design taking his compositions through to another level. As Brainwashed put it, his records work “so wonderfully precisely because of Bishop’s unwavering commitment to his broken, crackling aesthetic of cryptic dispatches. Stephen certainly recorded some great individual pieces, but Basic House’s brilliance lies far more in how it sounds than in the actual beats and notes being played.”
http://opaltapes.bandcamp.com/
album/basic-house-im-not-a-
heaven-man
Ex Easter Island Head
“Large Electric Ensemble is Ex-Easter Island Head’s first piece for massed prepared guitars and drums.
Utilising third bridge preparations (inserting metal rods beneath the guitar strings) and a range of alternate tunings across the ensemble, the piece combines propulsive, rhythmic minimalism with chorusing attacks of massed harmonics.
Across four movements, the ensemble adopt a new vocabulary of playing based around various guitar preparations, from billowing harp-like arpeggios to ‘bowing’ the strings with allen keys to produce luminous upper register drones. Microtonal intervals create shimmering tones akin to the struck metallophones of Balinese gamelan, whilst the thrum of electrified
strings creates a dense undertow of singing harmonies. Scored in custom notation the piece places free flowing passages alongside conductor cues, allowing the players to collectively create a distinctive sonic landscape.
A recording of the piece was released as the group’s fourth record in January 2014, receiving critical acclaim from the likes of The Wire, Fluid Radio and The New York Times; the latter drawing favorable comparisons with the work of Glenn Branca and summing up the record’s maximalist attack as “all the strings being heard at once.”
http://www.exeasterislandhead.
com/
Jenny Hval
Multidisciplinary and transgressive are words often employed to describe her art, but Jenny Hval’s polyphonic artistry is in fact seamlessly interwoven between musical, literary, visual and performative modes of expression. Despite her young age, she has already infused, carved and modulated an artistic voice that is altogether present, accessible and obscurely complex at the same time.
http://jennyhval.com
Matmos
Matmos are known for making toe-tapping rhythmic pop out of odd and unusual sound sources. They have always worn genre loosely, but it’s safe to say that this is the first electronic album to start with tap dancing and end with doom metal, and the only album on which members of Nautical Almanac and the Arditti String Quartet rub shoulders. Comprising stomping techno, eerie synth jams, musique concrete, Latin rhythms, and Ethiopian music, at once at home in the academy, the art gallery, the nightclub and the noise warehouse, the dizzyingly diverse assemblage which is “The Marriage of True Minds” is driven by a tightly unified conceptual agenda: telepathy.
http://www.thrilljockey.com/
thrill/Matmos/#.Uvpq0F6Oi9Y
Sleaford Mods
Sleaford Mods don’t sound like anything else. Sleaford Mods are the realest band out there right now. Sleaford Mods ARE right now. And if you think “Mod” is just about dressing up like “page 7 Weller” and boring on about Small Faces all day and night on yer reissue 60s Vespa, then don’t bother mate. If you don’t “get” Sleaford Mods you are one of them, “the enemy”. Seriously the best music/act to come out of this spoilt, over-saturated musical farmyard we call the UK since the Pistols. Yep, that’s right. “Sleaford Mods rule” Kim Gordon
www.sleafordmods.bandcamp.com
Swans
Swans are Michael Gira, Norman Westberg, Christoph Hahn, Phil Puleo, Thor Harris and Christopher Pravdica and these are their first US dates since last July.
Swans infamous and powerful live show was described by the New York Times as “an act of generosity”, by Time Magazine as ” a force that jolts you into focus ” while Spin.com asked “Are Swans the best live band in the world right now?” and it was on this recent 2012/2013 tour, Gira explains, that “a good portion of the material for this album was developed live”.
younggodrecords.com
www.facebook.com/SwansOfficial
Wolf Eyes
The infamous blistering noise of Wolf Eyes propelled them from being a dank Ann Arbour, Michigan basement sensation to the finest ranks of Sub Pop without ever losing a shred of credibility. From touring with Sonic Youth and Andrew W.K., Wolf Eyes have crossed borders into popularity which few other such confrontational units of their ilk have been able to and kept straight and narrow on their blazing path. Originally started as the solo project of former Nautical Almanac member Nate Young, he was soon joined by Aaron Dilloway in 1998, John Olson in 2000 then Mike Connenlly and now Crazy Jim. They has released over 150 recordings in their relatively short lifespan, on labels such as Bulb Records, Troubleman Unlimited, Fusetron, and Sub Pop, as well as on Olson’s American Tapes label, Dilloway’s Hanson Records, Mike Connelly’s Gods of Tundra label and Nate Young’s AA Records. The overwhelming force of Wolf Eyes must be seen to to be believed.
http://www.wolfeyes.net/
SUMMARY OF EXTRA CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES:
Bill Drummond exhibition at Eastside Projects
Bill Drummond: The 25 Paintings
Legendary musician and artist Bill Drummond will begin a twelve year ‘World Tour’ under Spaghetti Junction marking this momentous event with an exhibition at Eastside Projects.
The exhibition focuses on ‘The 25 Paintings’, a series of artworks that signpost actions Drummond will perform across Birmingham during his three month stay in the city including, but by no means limited to, giving away bunches of daffodils, discovering Dead Oak Rings, building rafts, hiding in cafes, making beds, sweeping the streets clean and brewing tea. Also on show will be The SIXTY Posters, The 25 Sixty Second Films, an evolving selection of photographs, a globe of the world and a large map of the city.
www.eastsideprojects.org
If Wet
If Wet is a monthly event of sonic exploration, usually held in a rural Worcestershire village hall; chaired by musical instrument designers MortonUnderwood. Part show and tell, part test bed, part salon. A place for artists to showcase their latest sonic works and research. A place to revel and discuss. After a successful inaugural season MortonUnderwood have decided to extend the reach of If Wet beyond the village hall and it is with great pleasure that they will transport their distinctive event to Supersonic Ltd Edt.
http://www.ifwet.org.uk/