On December 13-14, the city of Gdańsk will again be the East European hub of psychedelic sounds, celebrating guitar distortions, noise drones and other mysterious sounds created under the influence of cosmic energy: ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the ninth SpaceFest!, organized by the Nasiono Association.
Taking place at Klub B90, fans of psychedelic rock, space-rock, shoegaze, Krautrock, noise and dreampop will have their musical palates satisfied with a mouth-watering, transcontinental selection of music from the heavier side of rock, new psychedelia, space-rock and shoegaze, as well as electronic and experimental music.
A key festival highlight is PURE PHASE ENSEMBLE 9 – an international formation created specially for SpaceFest! Throughout the week before the festival, a group of musicians meet to jam, composing and playing material that will later be presented live at SpaceFest. PPE 9 will be curated by ADAM FRANKLIN, a legendary musician who is best known as frontman of Creation Records’ pioneers SWERVEDRIVER. The brass section will be headed by WOJCIECH JACHNA (INNERCITY ENSEMBLE, CONTEMPORARY NOISE SEXTET).
Past incarnations of Pure Phase Ensemble were curated by Mark Gardener (Ride), Anton Newcombe (The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Laetitia Sadier (Stereolab), Ray Dickaty (Spiritualized), Steve Hewitt (Placebo), Jaime Harding (Marion), Chris Olley (Six By Seven), William Carruthers (Spacemen 3, Spiritualized, Spectrum, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Dead Skeletons) and Hugo Race (The Bad Seeds, The True Spirit).
After their awe-inspiring 2015 set, THE TELESCOPES return to celebrate the 30th birthday of their seminal ‘Taste’ LP. Founded in 1987 by Stephen Lawrie, the group have been mining a unique anti-myopian seam of highly influential experimental, drone, noise, dream & psych. They have also just released their new album ‘Exploding Head Syndrome’.
One of the brightest stars this year are THE COSMIC DEAD – a psychonautal cosmodelic quartet from Glasgow. Expect religious devotion to synthesised dreamworlds, subsonic grooves, guitaristic splendour and the vast, hypnotic sounds of Hawkwind and Popol Vuh eternally jamming in the Möbius strip of time and space.
German-Australian buzzband HEADS. will take SpaceFest-goers on a dark trip to another dimension. They will also be treated to the delicate, oscillating sounds of French shoegaze-dreampop band MARBLE ARCHand repetition-laden reverberations of Santiago, Chile-based psychedelic collective CHICOS DE NAZCA. Kyiv-based psychedelic rock band STRAYTONES weave in their garage-rock stylings, with heavy influences of surf rock, 60’s garage rockers and hippies, as well as modern neo-psychedelic vibes.
Nasiono Records also presents its best with KSAS (Karol Schwarz All Stars). This burst of clean, spontaneous energy is played live, based on improvisation. In 20 years, the band has changed line-ups and incarnations but feed on a constant wall of delays. 6 years after the release of their previous album ‘Hi, Mom!’, they return with their new ‘Hi D(e)ad!’ LP.
Gdańsk’s KWIATY will offer blends indie-rock, psychedeliia, shoegaze and Twin Peaks soundscapes. Polish super-trio DYNASONIC produces bass-heavy dubs with vintage sounds of classical instruments and field recordings, their hypnotising experimental electronica bringing associations with stormy waves. French-Polish trio THE BLIND SUNSdelight, drawing a sonic narrative from the likes of Mazzy Star, JAMC and The Primitives. Polish band TITANIC SEA MOON also appear after winning the SpaceFest! competition for interesting psychedelic acts.
MAREK “ROGULUS” ROGULSKI’S formation – Rogulus X Szwelas und Gos + Czerkas + Ika – will also appear, presenting a combination of performance art and improvised music and using unorthodox ways of playing instruments, focused on the sonoristic aspects of music.
As every year, each festival day culminates with DJ sets. This year, the mind-blowing afterparty will feature DOUG SHIPTON of London’s Finders Keepers Records. The aim is to reach the stars, enter a different orbit and levitate to the sounds emitted by artists from around the globe.
Organized by the Nasiono Association , this event is co-funded by the City of Gdańsk in partnership with Łaźnia Centre for Contemporary Art, B90 and Metropolitan Card to Culture . Media patrons include Shameless Promotion PR, Under The Radar, It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine, Last Day Deaf, Radio Gdańsk S.A., Trojmiasto.pl, Gazeta Wyborcza, Co Jest Grane24, Hałasy i Melodie and GoOut.pl.
Tickets cost between PLN 35-85 (discount for students and CARD TO CULTURE holders) and may be purchased at http://spacefest.pl/bilety or via GoOut, Soundrive Tickets and KupBilecik.pl.
CONCERT LINE-UP
**13 December 2019 | doors: 7 p.m.
Kwiaty (PL)
Dynasonic (PL)
Chicos de Nazca (CL)
Marble Arch (FR)
TheCosmic Dead (UK)
Marek Rogulski – STEERAGE Ika (PL)
KSAS (PL)
DJ Doug Shipton / Finders Keepers (UK)
**14 December 2019 | doors: 7 p.m.
Straytones (UA)
Pure Phase Ensemble ft. Adam Franklin (Swervedriver) (UK/PL)
The Blind Suns (FR/PL)
The Telescopes (UK)
Titanic Sea Moon (PL)
HEADS. (AT/D)
DJ Doug Shipton / Finders Keepers (UK)
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