Since the clock ticked to mark the 10th birthday of the Heineken Open'er Festival in 2011, the organisers have been promising a change in the event's formula. Contemporary art makes a bold entrance onto the grounds of the Gdynia-Kosakowo airport as Paweł Althamer, the Nowolipie group, and the new Museum of Contemporary Art - with its persisting lack of permanent headquarters in Warsaw - showcase their own projects.
This year, there is a new and rich offer for theatre lovers as well. Festivalgoers can view the newest Nowy Teatr production directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski, Warsaw Cabaret, which is staged daily over the course of the festival. Nancy.Wywiad / Nancy. The Interview by Claude Bardouil is another play from the Warsaw-based company, featured on the programme alongside Courtney Love from the duo of Monika Strzępka and Paweł Demirski - a production of Teatr Polski in Wrocław, and an adaptation of Dorota Masłowska's Paw Królowej from Stary Teatr in Kraków.
The Fashion Stage is back on, presenting such labels as Anna Poniewierska, Ima Mad, Jakub Pieczarkowski, Jarosław Ewert, Kamil Sobczyk, Mart, Neogotik, Klu. by Edyta Jermacz, and the designers from Viamoda Industrial.
But the Open'er's highlight is unalterably the shows brought on by world stars of pop and alternative music. Big names are repeated more and more frequently compared to previous years. It's great that the National are back, but only the organisers may know what the reappearances of Skunk Anansie, Editors and Crystal Fighters are for. The return of Polish performers is understandable - Polish musicians with fantastic concert skills are numbered. As with every year, tens of thousands of fans from across Poland will see the "big" local bands such as Hey and smaller ones that have not even enjoyed their recording debuts.
Foreign Draws
The "magnets" from overseas stand out among the Open'er performers. They will enjoy the biggest stages and the best concert slots. Who will it be, besides Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Nasem, Kings of Leon, Queens of the Stone Age and Animal Collective (and holders of the most popular 4-day pass can also revel in Rihanna's concert, a day after the festival)?
First and foremost, there's Blur, the most famous British band of the 1990s, which has never perfomed in Poland before. Last year, Damon Albarn's band had the honour of playing the closing ceremony of the London Olympics, at a concert named simply and truly Best of British. The group, a legend of Britpop, reactivated in 2009 and every so often it sends out signals that it may be releasing a new record. For the time being, their "latest" album is Think Tank, from 2003. The musicians plan to spend time off the road this summer recording a new one. No pressure, they say.
Devendra Banhart made himself heard this year with a fantastic record. Mala proved that the artist is still full of ideas. He sings in English, Spanish and even in German, but primarily he's got what songwriting really needs - decent melodies. The 8th record from Banhart is more toned down than the previous one, and at the same time it's more simple, more singable. Although the artist's folk ballads tell stories (often with tongue in cheek) of the great miseries of love, you can hear that the songwriter is happy. And he is happiest when, together with his Serbian girlfriend, Ana Kras, he sings in an ex-lovers' duo - she wants him back, and he gives her a list of areas in which she couldn't count on him.
The National, the New-York based band, released their newest album, Trouble Will Find Me, in late spring. Their previous one, High Violet, already made the leap from alternative scene to the first league of festival bands. Two pairs of brothers and the melancholic vocalist Matt Beringer have a talent for songwriting and an inclination to experiment and evolve. In all of this, they remain a "chamber" band, one that creates an intimate atmosphere with the public in clubs, and maintains close contact with the audience. On the one hand, they don't turn away from their underground roots, and on the other, they are growingly frequent guests in unknown territories. And guitarist Bryce Dessner is preparing a piece inspired by the music of Witold Lutosławski, with a premiere scheduled for the 1st of December in Warsaw. Earlier, he'd written for the Kronos Quartet.
On the last day of the festival, the largest Open'er stage will host Johnny Greenwood, Radiohead's guitarist, who also performs contemporary classical music. In 2012, the AUKSO orchestra played his compositions inspired by the work of Krzysztof Penderecki, alternating between Greenwood's piece and the famed composer's avant-garde works from the 1960s that inspired the rock star. This time Greenwood is performing himself, and he is to play the 1987 piece by Steve Reich, Electric Counterpoint. He will make music on the guitar and also play 14 guitar tracks from a laptop, like he did at the Sacrum Profanum festival in Kraków in 2011. An even more curious performance is to be given by Reich himself, as he leads the Ensemble Modern to perform his Music for 18 Musicians
The Polish Representation
The array of Polish musicians at the Open'er, again, can make your head spin. Hey, in an expanded, six-person team, is a class in itself. An equally numerous and crazy act is Łąki Łan - the band of insects who play energetic funk music. With the spectacular show they put on, Łąki Łan offer a ride as wild as the one last year's festivalgoers got from Janelle Monae. On top of that comes Transmisja, a legend of the 1990s, Poland's true precursors of blending rock, reggae, soul and hip-hop. The vocalist Gorg will also make a guest appearance with the Vavamuffin with the iconic Pablopavo, hailed the first bard of an old and new Warsaw.
The heavier sounds will be brought on by Semantik Punk, a group which has emerged from Moja Adrenalina. They have released their first album, which was produced in California by Ross Robinson under the title abcdefghijklmnoprstuvwxyz.
Among the younger performers worth hearing, there is Skubas - a vocalist associated with delicate electronic music, who has surprised everyone with his last year's release of a carefully thought-out solo record. He blended acoustic sound with more boldly arranged pieces and also proved a very decent writer of lyrics.
The young duo from Gorzów, UL/KR, is a guest in Gdynia for the second year in a row, and there are good reasons for their return. Following their fantastic debut last year, Maurycy Kiebzak-Górski and Błażej Król have already conjured up a second album, Ament. Perhaps their new thing is not as dense and gripping as the UL/KR but it's more catchy, and, at times, light. Maybe they are trying to escape the "accusations" of creating magical music. Well, they fail - they are different from the others, and they are important.
The Gorzów background is also present in an avant-garde pop female trio, Drekoty, led by percussionist and pianist Ola Rzepka from Katowice. Drekoty's debut, last year's Persentyna, was a shock - it's very rarely that we come across such a hit in Poland, and a hit that is so distinct, and so original in comparision to all of our alternative productions. It's definitely a band that can be listened in a much wider context than our Polish one.
Open'er will also feature a teenage specialist in acoustic ballads, Fismoll, a somewhat older Peter J. Birch (who is evocative of American folk), the excellent Poznań duo Rebeka, and a comic trio from Silesia, the hipiersoniK who draw heavily on science-fiction for inspiration. There will also be trendy pop Domowe Melodie (which translates as House Melodies), the garage-rock trio of Fisz and Emade, Kim Nowak, a jazzy-and-snazzy Mikromusic from Wrocław and the more electronic Oszibarack.
The electro-pop starts Novika and Fox are presenting material from their latest, still-warm record. A 22-year old Pianohooligan will perform Penderecki, combining him with his own compositions, and Vienio, one of the most known Polish rappers, will perform the material from his Profil pokoleń Vol. 1 (A Profile of the Generations), which includes his own takes on hits of Polish rock from the 1980s and 1990s.
Teielte, from the central city of Płock, is known for his mixes of hip-hop and electronic music, and if his gig is worth seeing, then so is Kixnare from Częstochowa. The new bargain of the U Know Me Records label, the XXANAXX duo, is also coming along to Gdynia.
Bobby the Unicorn makes fruitful allusions to music of the 1960s and 70s, but his inspiration is focused more on the international scene rather than the Polish one. The Magnificent Muttley trio do this in a similiar but a more rough and Hendrix-like (or rather Cream-like) way. An equally melodic but more noisy set of songs will be by the the experienced Plum tercet. And the gig by the showy, dark electro-pop duo Fuka Lata, with the magnetic Lee Margot on vocals, is definitely not to be missed. An intriguing performance is also promised by the rebellious Warsaw-based sister band, Ballady i Romanse, who collaborate with Igor Boxx from the mythical Skalpel duo.
Ras Luty assures a more tuned-down show, with a reggae vocalist and old-school Jamaican and contemporary R 'n B sound. The Catz'n Dogs house music duo can advertise themselves with the dozen of sets that they already have scheduled throughout clubs in Ibiza this summer.
Among the most famous Polish artists who can also count on playing the best stages at the best times are Maria Peszek and Kaliber 44. Peszek released the loudly commented-upon record Jezus Maria Peszek in late 2012. And a very promising show is also going to be delivered by the rapper and animator L.U.C., who performs with the famous Motion Trio band.
Author: Jacek Świąder, Gazeta Wyborcza
Translated with edits by: Paulina Schlosser, 19.06.2013