The New Neighborhoods Festival is a platform for the exchange of music in the form of a one-day festival held in two countries (Poland and Iceland), enriched with masterclasses for artists. This year’s festival features Baasch, Hatti Vatti and The Stubs from Poland, and Beatmakin Troopa, Úlfur Úlfur, and Tonik Ensemble from Iceland. The concerts will be accompanied by art from Stanisław Zaleski and Guðmann Þór Bjargmundsson. The event will be held on 20th August 2016 in Reykjavik during the local Night of Culture (Mennigarnótt) at cult venue KEX Hostel. It will travel to Warsaw on 10th September 2016 and take place again on Plac Defilad.
Baasch
Bartek Schmidt is a young, highly regarded producer, singer, composer, and lyricist. His music oscillates between ambitious electronic, alternative pop, and film music. He gained international recognition as a composer for his work on the soundtrack for the acclaimed and award-winning film Floating Skyscrapers by Tomasz Wasilewskiego (Sensefloor, 2013). Baasch collaborates with many artists and bands from the Polish alternative and electronic scenes, including Rysy, Bokka, Rubber Dots, Novika, and many others.
Hatti Vatti
Piotr Kaliński – a Polish musician who performs electronic music under the pseudonym Hatti Vatti.
The Stubs
The Stubs formed in December 2010 in Warsaw. Tomek Szkiela has been the guitarist and vocalist from the beginning, with Łukasz Dadas on bass, and Radek Sternicki on drums. Though the musicians come from the punk and hardcore scene, from the start they have played dirty, sloppy rock ‘n’ roll, which they call ‘low budget’.
Úlfur Úlfur
This rap duo from Iceland features Arnar Freyr and Helgi Sæmundur. They released their debut album, Föstudagurinn langi, in 2011. At the end of 2015 they released their follow-up album, Tvær Plánetur, for which they received Album of the Year 2016 from Islandic listeners. In the summer of 2016 they recorded a music video with the crew of the cult magazine Vice, which will be released soon. At last year’s Iceland Airwaves Festival, they caused a furore not only with the audience in attendance, but internationally with their strong beats and catchy style of rapping.
Beatmakin Troopa
A solo project from Iceland’s Pan Thorarensen. His music offers an unusual combination of lazily flowing, relaxed electronica with energetic jazz. Thorarensen’s roots are in classical postmodern music and pop. He worked as a composer and electronic musician in Rotterdam, Netherlands. He has released a number of instrumental albums and toured throughout Europe and America, including performances at Tallin Music Week and Extreme Chill Berlin. He has collaborated with artists such as Óskar Thorarensen, aka Jafet Melge, and Þorkell Atlason.
Visual Arts at the festival:
Guðmann Þór Bjargmundsson
Photographer and filmmaker who has worked both in Icelandic and international productions.
Stanisław Zaleski
Zaleski is part of the group YesEyeDo and has collaborated with Grzegorz Jarzyna, Keith Warner, and Amon Minamoto. He has designed video projections for the Metropolitan Opera New York, the Royal Danish Opera, and the Opera Narodowa in Warsaw. Zaleski has designed a visual show that will accompany Icelandic artists at the festival.
Culture.pl is a co-organiser of the event. For more information, head to the festival's official webpage: www.newneighborhoodsfestival.com
trans: AGA, 04.08.2016