The V:NM Festival was launched in 1999 and has grown into one of Europe’s biggest events dedicated to experimental electronic music. Verein fuer neue Musik emphasises exchange between different musical environments, and instigates contacts between artists from various countries. Each edition invites musicians from a specific region, and the programme of this year’s V:NM Festival is supported by the Polish Institute in Vienna, which has helped organise performances by 9 Polish musicians and an installation created by Anna Zaradny at the Bad Radkersburg.
Gerard Lebik and Kostas Georgakopulos perform together with Michael Pinter, Seppo Gründler and Josef Klammer. Lebik is a radical jazz artist, playing tenor saxophone and contralto clarinet. In Graz, he plays reeds and mixes electronics. He has cooperated with Mikrokolektyw, Robert B. Lisek and others. Georgakopulos is a musician, curator and director of Wrocław Avant Art festival. At the V:NM Georgakopulos performs using his voice and the virutal synthsizer Korg DS-10.
Cezary Duchnowski, Zbigniew Kozyra and Anna Zaradny are scheduled to perform with Annette Giesriegl, Manfredem Stern and Austrian violinist Mia Zabelka, who is a frequent guest of Polish concert halls and has recorded with the Monotype label in Poland. Duchnowski is a composer from Wrocław, a significant presence in contemporary music with strong interests in improvisation. Kozyra is one of Poland’s rising bass players.
Anna Zaradny composes, improvises and creates audiovisual installations. She is scheduled fof a festival appearance with the renowned Austrian musician Burkhard Stangel, along with the concert that includes Duchnowski and Kozyra. She recorded a disc with Stangel for the Polish label Bocian in 2012. In Graz, Zaradny also presents a highlight event of the festival, an installation entitled Octopus, directed by her together with Michał Kopaniszyn from a music piece of the same title. The concept of the installation juxtaposes two seemingly different forms, experimental sound and the popular esthetics of a music video. Their piece can be viewed on the website of Warsaw’s Museum of Contemporary Art.
The V:NM Festival also features Piotr Damasiewicz, Paweł Romańczuk, Bartłomiej Kuźniak and Wacław Zimpel.
The festival is crowned with a final concert with all of the participating artists, a band called by the organisers The Big Wroclaw & V:NM Orchestra.
For a the full programme of the festival and more event details, see the V:NM Festival website.
Filip Lech,
Translated by Paulina Schlosser, 05.04.2013