VI WROCŁAW INDUSTRIAL FESTIVAL

Wroclaw Industrial Festival took place for the sixth time. I was lucky to participate in it for the 5th time and I may justly say that both the form and the attendance had changed – for better. The fact is the edition 2007 was special as far as the line-up was concerned and I'm sure the participation of so many hight class artists was a factor that attracted so vast an audience to come to Wroclaw (even from far anyway).

The Gothic Hall had changed its appearance too – as a rule it's a frugal place, but for the time of the Festival it was decorated in an original way (were the lamps in the form of jellyfish to make us think we are deep under water?:).

The Festival itself, as I have already mentioned, is evolving, still it's basic assumptions remain the same and these are: the presentation of avant-garde art achievements (meaning not only music, but also other forms of art like video, performance, or other fine arts). The Festival usually presents quite a rich list of accompanying events such as workshops, multimedia presentations, lectures, or exhibitions which go with what the Fest is all about: highlighting all the advantages and disadvantages of technically advanced world.

The Festival started on 5th November, however, I'll start reporting the concerts that took place on Friday 9.11.

http://www.industrialart.eu/festival/
http://www.myspace.com/wroclawindustrialfestival


The series of shows was opened by the hosts of the Festival - Job Karma - that is Maciej Frett and Aureliusz Pisarzewski who stand for the audiovisual project that explores the relations man-machine and man-sacrum having ambient – trance background. The visuals are created by Arkadiusz Bagiński. The concerts of Job Karma traditionally present original and highly noisy sounds characteristic for their distorted and drilling quality combined with the main changeable rhythm.

The whole is very compact with the visualizations that make one think of embryos, the year 1984, dwarfish people, and, at times, William Blake's output. Their music is like a breath of the machines, the combination of hypnotic melodies and piercing accents that either speed up or slow down unexpectedly. Altogether it sounds very well, true, however, I have to ask one serious question that I heard repeatedly during and after the show: why is Job Karma playing the same concert over and over again?

http://www.jobkarma.pl
http://www.myspace.com/jobkarma
Nemezis - Łukasz Pawlak, Konrad Kucz and Marcin Bociński - the next who appeared on the stage, are the classics of electronic music. In 2007 they released an album "Inbetween" where electronics, ambient, and new sounds coalesce. At WIF 2007 they presented visualizations being compilation of old film scenes and similar music reminding of 'Caribbean hotel', the 60s, Harlem club, blue beach, trance, hypnotic, highly appealing passages warmed rich in samples. The musicians seem to be captured by unique female beauties – their show was a bit like an accolade of demonic womanhood and its irresistible charm. Very stylish.

http://www.nemezis.org.pl
http://www.myspace.com/nemezispl
Insekt, that is duo Eric van Wonterghea and Mario Vaerijck, played brilliant concert. They simply smashed me off my feet by presenting outstanding sound, strobe lights, fantastic speed and extraordinary combination of melodies. The visual aspect was rather frugal, but the concert itself was a real first-class event – the vocalist was blinding the audience by the lamp, sang by megaphone, played drums, so all in all the action was highly diversified and the whole was like a strong, merciless blast coming from the stage. Additional advantage was great distorted vocal and rhythmical, noisy pieces. It's not even that the festival got a moment of boiling during that gig - it was a real sonic, industrial centrifuge.

http://www.insekt-online.com
http://www.myspace.com/insekt
Bad Sector and his moderate show taking place in the flood of red and green lights scoped attention not only for the sake of extraordinary sounds, but also for the way the artist produced his music: Massimo Magrini was like a conductor managing his equipment while the orchestra was obediently following directions, sitting silently in theremin. Electronics plus interruptions, all transformed and shaped in an elaborate whole enriched by visualizations (plans of rackets, cosmic center maps?). The concert was like a poem about science or cosmos: very captivating.

http://www.bad-sector.com
http://www.myspace.com/badsectorbadsector
The Friday concerts finished with the show of Sonar. There were no surprises: strobe, Dirk's wild antics, strong beat, the melody produces as a result of so-called artists' battle, abundance of trance passages and dynamic sounds stood for controlled noise made by wonderful duet. I must admit it speeded my heartbeat quite successfully.

http://www.dirkivens.com
http://www.myspace.com/sonarbelgium
After the concerts finished DJ Wiktor Skok played his DJ-set.


SATURDAY

Saturday was the day of the greatest conquest of Festival Gates – I admit I've never seen such crowds at Industrial Fest in Wroclaw. No surprise – the line-up for the day was rich in great artists. the growing tendency is quite positive and added to the atmosphere of the Festival.
As the first Post ScripVm appeared on the stage serving the feats consisting of beautiful lights and smoke as well as visualizations reflecting colors on the faces of the musicians like parts of stained glass. Extraordinary sounds and rhythm plus hypnotic, trance melodies stood for extremely striking concert.
Post ScripVm was formed in 1999 r in New York; their music is best described as dark ambient, death industrial, experimental. Their recent album „Raspad” was released by Tesco Organization.

http://www.postscriptvm.com
http://www.myspace.com/postscriptvm
Apoptose provided quite a crowd on the stage – who appeared on the scene apart from the artists were Fanfarenzug Leipzig playing drum, which addiction surely strengthened the whole show – not only musically, but also visually. The whole was like a lyrical song: one leading motive and changeable background and the sound of drum basing on one scheme. The special guest during the concert was Gary Carey the vocalist of Joy of Live.

http://www.apoptose.net
http://www.myspace.com/apoptose
Klangstabil, was the concert I had been waiting for the most. It was totaly minimalistic in its form which gave the better background for the music – full of emotional expression. By all means the music is very appealing and moving: the pieces like „you may start”, „vertraut” or „push yourself” made the space just the stage full, attracting the hypnotized listeners. Fantastic music being a blend of electronics and some stronger beats forms a highly emphatic creation that scopes attention with tis first notes. Overdriven and powerful, I'd even say 'cult' songs, struck me with its exceptional strength and made me stand like petrified. Can't complain though: as I said I'd been waiting for their concert for long and they did not disappoint me: their concert was a bit like a manifesto, confession, message and it proved Klangstabil are specialists of getting to the listeners hearts and minds. Their pass is loud, strong vocal, brilliantly constructed melodies and sounds that stay in your thoughts for long. Bravo!

http://www.klangstabil.com
http://www.myspace.com/klangstabil
Since that concert the crowd by the stage started thickening as it was time for Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio to start their show. What was prevailing in their concert was overwhelming darkness, eye-capturing visual background, sonic variety basing on instrumental richness (drum, key, bells?) combined with rhythmical, stable main line and a rather croaky singing being kinda melorecitation exploring Christian mythology, casting spells or a childlike word game that altogether made me think of a short trance through the bible or Ashbee's Index Librorum Prohibitorum. The concert's light setting was quite capturing as it made of use of dim lights which additionally boosted the atmosphere of concentration and hypnotic trance.

Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio was formed in May 1993 on initiative of Tomas Pettersson. The project explores various areas of life reflecting them by means of violin, drum and acoustic guitar sounds. Their music is often marked as Apocaliptic Pop, though as it often happens – it's not completely so.

http://www.ordo-rosarius-equilibrio.net/
http://www.myspace.com/ordorosariusequilibrio
Merzbow, the solo project of Masami Akito being a voice of surrealism in the world of noise music, was the last to play. definitely it was noise that took control over the show – quite successfully I must say. But how to describe that what was flooding us from the stage, one unstoppable stream being precise, determined blast, attack on senses, uproar of notes, wild distortion, noise, symphony of cogwheel, scream and squeak... as a sonic atom bomb explosion? I don't know, I'm not going to take a risk and specify... it's not the music that can be tamed by words; even the artist himself did not allow words into his means of expression.
At the dance floor – total war. But what else could you expect if the sounds were stimulation the labyrinth to the quick emigration and the whole world around changed into unstable planet lit by madly changing strobe light? The stratified noise blended with regular background and multiplied, lasting infinitely, agrowing hum stood for exceptional dose of noise – survival will be taken as a merit.

http://www.merzbow.net
The after parties were led by DJane lil and blacha if synta[xe]rror – it was great.


SUNDAY

On Sunday we experienced the gentling of the atmosphere and bigger spacial freedom, if I can call it that way – some people gave up after Saturday battle – don't know how many warriors were carried away from the dance floor the previous night...
The band opening Sundays concerts was Volcano the Bear presenting abundance of reverberations, instrument sounds intertwined together: flutes, drums, electronics, keys, loud voices a bit like bards singing, bagpipes, irregularity, sudden outbursts of scream, hypnotic sonic nuances that were imitating jungle at times or I should say: playing children? Well... for me it was a show presenting instrumental richness and sonic games – can't deny it sounded intriguing.

http://www.brainwashed.com/vtb
http://www.myspace.com/volcanothebear
Sigillum S, presented unusual sounds, geometric visualizations, repetitive rhythm, hypnotic and trance melodies which were very expressive and moving.
Trio: Eraldo Bernocchi, Paolo Bandera and Luca Di Giorgio explore noise/dub/ ambient/ritual. Their recent album "23/20" was co-produced by Bill Laswell. Their concert at WIF was the first after almost 10 years of complete silence.

http://www.sigillum-s.com
http://www.myspace.com/sigillums
The final of the Festival was reserved for Tuxedomoon, who gave very elegant, classical and rather gentle concert: guitar, keys, clarinet, trumpet, violin plus visualizations were the prevailing means used during the show. The band was formed in 1977 by Blaine L.Reininger and Steven Brown. In 1978 Peter Principle joined the band and in 1983 - Luc Van Lieshout. their music is described as explosive mixture of post-punk, experimental music, jazz, funk and new wave. In 2004 the artists came back with an album „Cabin In the Sky”, and in 2007 they released "Vapour Trials". the concert in Wroclaw was a part of European tour summarizing the 30 years of the band's career.

http://www.tuxedomoon.com
http://www.myspace.com/tuxedomoon
So the Festival came to an end: it was one of the best editions so far, I hope that growing tendency will be kept...