On the last weekend of June, Lublin will once again fill to the brim with phenomenal music thanks to East of Culture – Different Sounds. This year’s edition takes place between 24-27 June. It’s the 14th edition of Different Sounds and the 8th edition held as part of East of Culture, a project carried out by the National Centre of Culture from the funds of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in cooperation with the local governments of Lublin, Białystok and Rzeszów.
The idea behind Different Sounds is to invite artists for whom music is a constant inspiration and challenge. The festival’s stages allow various styles and genres to fuse, inviting both the artists and the audience on an extraordinary journey that only prolongs everyone’s lists of favourite artists.
Among the performers of this year’s edition, we will meet the iconic representatives of the electronic music scene: the legendary German giant that has been setting the direction for the genre for the past 30 years – Mouse on Mars (25 June).
This year’s music programme will abound in new groups from the local alternative scene. We will hear songs from the latest solo album by Hubert Dobaczewski – Spięty (26 June), the frontman of Lao Che. We will also bear witness to the effects of the extraordinary cooperation between the duo Włodi and 1988 (25 June) and check out what happens when a living legend of Polish rap and one of the founders of Molesta joins forces with the excellent producer and one half of the duo Syny. An original story about the world seen through the eyes of today’s 25-year-olds will be told by WaluśKraksaKryzys (26June), a musician from Skała near Cracow, emerging as one of the most exciting figures of the Polish music scene.
Every year, an essential part of the festival’s programme is presenting a selected record label. This year, the spotlight goes to the Polish label Instant Classic (24 June), well-known to all music lovers looking for fresh and exciting sounds. We will have a panel with its founders, present an exhibition of album covers and posters. Of course, there will be concerts of artists associated with it, including Dynasonic (24 June), an instrumental trio playing “dubwave”, a name that reveals a lot about their style.
There is a good reason why the festival’s name includes the idea of “East of Culture”, as it brings to Lublin extraordinary performers from the Eastern Partnership countries. This year’s line-up will therefore include MaDMApper (25 June), a visual and sound artist from Minsk, Pokaz Trio (27 June) – a Ukrainian instrumental trio who very deliberately combine tunes rooted in Slavic folk with contemporary music and Sherpa The Tiger (26 June) –a quartet from Lviv combining ambient, jazz, funk and retro-style electronic music. At this year’s Different Sounds, we will also hear shishi (27 June), a surf-rock female trio from Vilnius with their original “zero waste thrash music” featuringstrong feminist and ecological themes.
The festival’s programme is also full of non-music events, such as film screenings (including the Polish premiere of “Truth to Power” directed by Garin Hovannisian, a documentary about the life and activism of Serj Tankian, the vocalist and co-founder of the group System of a Down), exhibitions of posters and photography and an original series of music education workshops – Little Different Sounds. The festival’s attendees can also look forward to new books. This year, the catalogue of Wschodni Express expands to includeseven new Polish translations of books by Eastern European writers: Andrij Lubka “Twoje spojrzenie, Cio-Cio-San”, Kateryna Babkina “Nikt tak nie tańczył, jak mój dziadek”, Zoltán Mihály Nagy “Szatański Pomiot”, Wasyl Słapczuk “Ten sam kurz drogi”, Juris Kronbergs “Wilk Jedno Oko”, Uładzimir Arłou “Porucznik Piatrowicz i chorąży Duch” and Marius Burokas “Tu mieszkał Jonasz”.
East of Culture – Different Sounds always strives to feature unique record labels working with extraordinary artists. This year, we have chosen Instant Classic, a label familiar to all music fans looking for original sounds. The label was set up in 2001 by two enthusiasts of ambitious music and vinyl records and gained fans in record time. Their roster includes bands significant for the Polish alternative music scene, including Alameda 5, Innercity Ensemble, The Stubs, ARRM, BNNT, Lotto, THAW or Dynasonic.
The label’s feature at the festival will include panels, visual presentations and concerts of associated artists.
The programme includes:
Dynasonic – an instrumental trio consisting of musicians from such bands as Kristen, Kobieta z Wydm or Enemigos del Silencio. They describe their music as “dubwave”, and both components of the name are perfect fits. The group’s way of presenting their material is also unique – their songs do not have standard titles, their album covers look almost the same, except for the colours. On the stage, they include nothing except for three white spotlights. What matters for them is music and a deeper connection with it, surrendering to its trance rhythm and the emotions it evokes in the listeners.
More announcements of artists to perform in Lublin at the end of June are coming soon.
East of Culture – Different Sounds Art’n’Music Festival is organised by:
Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, National Centre for Culture, the City of Lublin, Workshops of Culture in Lublin and Kultura Dostępna.
The Mayor of Lublin Krzysztof Żuk has taken Honorary Patronage.
The festival East of Culture – Different Sounds is part of the Keychange network and guarantees a 50:50 gender balance in the festival’s programme until 2022.
More information: differentsounds.eu and https://www.nck.pl/eng/activities/the-rise-of-eastern-culture