Since 2006 The Great Escape has been firmly established internationally as the leading event for showcasing new music. Taking place in Brighton over 3 days with over 300 bands playing in 30 venues, this festival is a key date on the international music calendar. In addition to this year's formal repertoire, impromptu street gigs are geared to spring up all over town. The Alternative Escape presents numerous club nights, label parties, industry showcases, unique collaborations and outdoor gigs.
The 2011 edition of The Great Escape features three Polish bands: Bueno Bros, Très B and Rebeka as part of the Don't Panic We're From Poland showcase put together by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute. All three bands are relatively young, experimental bands that bring together the sounds of rock, electro, pop and experimental genres.
Bueno Bros is a band of two brothers who have worked as radio DJs for years and have produced their own music and are currently recording their debut album (out later this year). They have performed concerts across Spain, Poland and the UK, emerging internationally as alternative, electronica DJs and producers. Their sound is based on minimalistic melodies, the most recent example a recent remix of five songs on Hey's new album Re-Murped!. The Bros joined Hey on their recent tour, remixing the band's music in real time.
Rebeka is a project that enjoyed substantial attention even before their first album release. Called "homegrown disco, Chinese techno played on a keyboard you got for Christmas", the music by these two charismatic musicians of the young generation escapes the framework of the previous musical categories, with vocals by Rebeka and production by Bartosz Szczęsny.
Très.B is an international formation fronted by Polish singer Misia Furtak, joined by Danish/English drummer Thomas Pettit and Dutch/American guitarist Anthony Chorale. The band's name refers to b class music - raw and unpolished. After forming in Denmark, the band made a name for themselves in the Netherlands, first self-releasing their EP Neon Chameleon (2006), then a full-length album Scylla and Charybdis (2007). Dutch music Magazine OOR recently wrote that "melancholic pop has rarely sounded nicer." Their latest album The Other Hand is considered by many critics as one of the best Polish releases of the year.
The Don't Panic We're From Poland - an Adam Mickiewicz Institute showcase - also presents a screening of Leszek Gnoiński and Wojciech Słota's 2009 rock documentary Beats of Freedom. The film tells the story of rock music during the Communist era in the People's Republic of Poland as seen through the eyes of Chris Salewicz, a British journalist of Polish roots. It's a film about the sound that gave people a dose of freedom, about one of few aspects of everyday life that gave a bit of elbow room in an otherwise constrained society.
According to director Wojciech Słota the film aims to "show how the vital twists and turns of the contemporary history of Poland left an impression on both the music and its message. It all becomes quite clear when these two worlds - of politics and of rock music - are 'layered' onto each other".
For more information and a detailed programme, see: escapegreat.com
Source: www.escapegreat.com