The event highlights musical pioneers, some established and others up-and-coming, revealing their influence on a younger generation of artists. It also presents "Music for Solaris", a piece that marks the 50th anniversary of Stanisław Lem's novel
In 2010, Kraków's Unsound Festival crossed the Atlantic for the first time, collaborating with New York institutions, promoters and venues to create an event that shows the many faces of creative music, from modern club sounds to post-classical and experimental.
The festival triggered a wave of interest from the public and press, excited not only by legendary names in electronic music making their first appearances in the city, but also an array of underexposed East European artists who took the stage beside their more recognised contemporaries.
Unique cross-border collaborations will be on show, many taking place for the first time during a lead-up to the main festival called Unsound Festival New York LABS, where artists will be encouraged to experiment with their sound.
Smaller experimental shows will be contrasted with a huge festival opening night curated with Sacrum Profanum, Unsound's sister festival from Kraków, including the New York debut of one of Europe's great chamber orchestras, Sinfonietta Cracovia, performing works the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki (Serenade for String Orchrestra, Sinfonietta for Strings and Chaconne in memoria del Giovanni Paolo II) and Steve Reich (Duet for Two Violins and String Ensemble and Triple Quartet), who will be the honorary guest of the concert. The event at the Alice Lincoln Center's Tully Hall will foreshadow the next edition of Sacrum Profanum festival which willl take place in Kraków (September 11-18, 2011). This year's Sacrum Profanum is dedicated to American minimalism, shining light on the work of the great New York composer.
However, the main highlight of the night will be the performance of the commissioned work Music for Solaris, which marks the 50th anniversary of the novel Solaris by Stanisław Lem. The project bearing the title "We Don't Need Other Worlds. We Need Mirrors - Music for Solaris" has been composed by Ben Frost and Daniel Bjarnason, with film manipulations by Brian Eno and Nick Robertson, and will be presented by Unsound Festival with Sacrum Profanum, Krakowskie Biuro Festiwalowe and with support from the City of Kraków and Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
Music for Solaris for 29 string instruments, two percussion instrumens, a prepared piano, guitars and electronics was composed by Frost and Bjarnason in collaboration with Sinfonietta Cracovia. The composers have been inspired by the 1972 film version of the novel directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. The scenes from the film play also part in the visual projections which have been prepared by Brian Eno and Nick Robertson. The project received support from the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as one of the main features in the programme of Polish Presidency in the European Union, which starts on July 1, 2011. Music for Solaris will be released by Bedroom Community.
On the following day, another Polish highlight, a performance of a piece by the late Henryk Mikołaj Górecki will be presented during a concert at Judson Chruch.
For the detailed programme of the Festival go here
Source: www.polishculture-nyc.org, www.unsound.pl