'Intermission' is the first album ever released by Unsound, comprised of 15 commissioned tracks responding to the pandemic year through sound and music. Meditative, often powerful, affected by periods of anxiety and optimism, this multi-layered album is intended to be more than a compilation.

Featuring work by artists connected to Unsound Festival over the years, 'Intermission' includes music and field recordings by some of today’s most exciting electronic and experimental musicians, with a focus on both well known and emerging names.

Although it can be experienced on its own, the album intersects with a book of essays, poetry and fiction to create a unique interdisciplinary work joining different opinions, narratives, art forms and genres. Together, the audio and texts comprise a kind of urgent atlas, one mapping innumerable paths through the strange new world in which we find ourselves.

Mastered and cut by Stefan Betke at scape mastering. 

Released on 5th March, 2021.

www.unsound.pl
www.unsoundfestival.bandcamp.com

V/A - Intermission (UNS001)

MONDOJ20/UNS004

https://unsoundfestival.bandcamp.com/
https://mondoj.bandcamp.com/

Sofie Birch & Antonina Nowacka - Languoria

Piotr Kurek’s new album “Smartwoods” is a sprawling root system of tiny melodic phrases that loop and curl around subtly evolving instrumental thickets. The Warsaw-based producer and composer takes his cues from early music, baroque music and experimental jazz, entangling his influences with filigree traces of contemporary computer music and fueling it with sonic vapors from the near future.

Made up of seven distinct segments, the album blurs its acoustic and electronic elements into an illusory hedge of abstract sound. Harp, saxophone, clarinet, double bass, voices and guitar twist into computerized processes and synthesizer chirps, creating an uncanny dreamworld where the real isn’t always what it seems. Each player is entwined with the other to create a living, breathing whole.

Like Kurek’s painterly 2021 album “World Speaks”, “Smartwoods” is also inspired by visual art - particularly the whimsical work of Algerian-French graphic designer Jean Sariano. The album cover features artwork by Polish painter Tomasz Kowalski, whose shapeshifting creatures and miniature stories aptly reflect the music’s wild fantasy. The first manifestation of “Smartwoods” – a live show at Unsound in Kraków in 2022 – featured animations by Italian artist Francesco Marrello, who put together a visual treatment for the single “Harps”.

Music composed, arranged and produced by Piotr Kurek

Anna Pašic - harp
Tomasz Duda - clarinets, saxophone, flute
Wojtek Traczyk - double bass, electric bass
Piotr Kurek - keyboards, MIDI wind controller, electric guitar 

Recorded in June and November 2022 by Piotr Kurek, Piotr Zabrodzki (Studio Pasterka) and Tomasz Duda
Mixed by Piotr Kurek
Mastered and cut by Stefan Betke at Scape Mastering
Painting by Tomasz Kowalski
Lay-out by Aleksandra Grunholz
Commissioned and curated by Unsound
UNS005

Piotr Kurek - Smartwoods

Unsound Podcasts

Unsound Talks

This is the first in a talks series originally broadcast on dublab radio featuring conversations between contributors to the Unsound 'Intermission' book and album, created as part of the 2020 festival.
Here, Chris Watson and Jana Winderen – two of the world's best known field recordists – engage with writer, artist and curator Kristen Gallerneaux. 

The 'Intermission' album features tracks by Chris and Jana, whilst the book opens with an essay by Kristen. More info on the Unsound Bandcamp page and website:

https://unsoundfestival.bandcamp.com/
https://unsound.pl

Unsound Talk 08: Chris Watson, Jana Winderen, Kristen Gallerneaux

This second in a series originally broadcast on dublab radio featuring conversations between contributors to the Unsound 'Intermission' book and album, created as part of the 2020 festival.
Musicians Ben Frost and Tim Hecker speak with writer Andy Battaglia. The recording was made earlier this year.
The 'Intermission' album features tracks from Ben and Tim, while the book includes an essay by Andy. They discuss Ben and Tim's contributions to the album, impacts of Covid-19, performing, scoring for film and TV and more.
The following tracks also feature on the podcast:

Ben Frost, Trevor Tweeten & Richard Mosse - Fire Front near Humaitá 
Tim Hecker, Agata Harz & Katarzyna Smoluk - Demeter & Johannes' Song of Pandemia
Weavings - mixed by Nicolás Jaar, featuring Aho Ssan, Angel Bat Dawid, Dirar Kalash, Ellen Fullman, Księżyc, Laraaji, Nicolás Jaar, Paweł Szamburski, Resina, Rolando Hernandez and Wukir Suryadi 

More info on the Unsound Bandcamp page and website:

unsoundfestival.bandcamp.com/
unsound.pl

dublab.com

Unsound Talk 09: Andy Battaglia, Tim Hecker, Ben Frost

The latest Unsound Podcast is a mix made by LCY, released on the day they play at the Unsound 2021 opening party in 89 tonight. LCY's mix references UK club music's past, yet also drives forward into the future, in the way that it fluidly weaves together experimentation and their percussive sound. They say of their mix: 'This mix was a bit of a focus on breaks. I’ve found that when I’m anticipating something all I want to listen to is drums rhythms and textures and not much melody at all ~ the hour acts as a warm up to my set for unsound tonight infused with uk club sounds and should make you feel ready to go and dance'.

TRACKLISTING:
Milan - LCY
cclluubb -  Nikki Nair
Rollin Back - Malugi
untitled  - LCY
spellcasters - Endless Mow
Langet - GЯEG
Slippery Tuff - Notte Infinita
Run - Two Shell
BMW Track - Overmono
Gramalkin  - IMOGEN 
3KK-CB Sat - Stenny  
Bakey  - Scope Out 
SQUIRT IN MY MOUTH (STEREO F*CK     MIX) - Daddy Hyphen  
Turismo - Jossy Mitsu
Helter Skelter - Tessela
Street Rave- mác_      
Daughters - Diessa
Ridge Racer Revolution - Pessimist
4PLAY - INVT   
Retrovision - B2
Out There (Original Mix) - Dead Mans Chest; Josimar
No Sé Tú  - Louis Me
The Power - LMajor
Globex Corp DJ Tools B2 - Dev/Null, Dwarde & Tim Reaper 
Globex Corp DJ Tools A1 - Dev/Null, Dwarde & Tim Reaper 
f.p.o.p. - klute
Bantu Nilote - Collo
drums - goose
Kemistry (Doc Scott Remix) - Goldie

Unsound Podcast 74: LCY

Last year, TSVI and object blue released Hyperaesthesia’ on Nervous Horizon, described by the pair as “body music”, meshing together object blue’s widescreen, experimental club tones and TSVI’s borderless percussive styles. We loved the EP so couldn’t resist inviting them to play an extended b2b set at Unsound this year, and now we can’t resist releasing the recording as part of our podcast series.
TSVI and object blue played to a packed room from 1am onward, moving at a frantic, skittering pace through a diverse range of tracks and genres, with percussive elements threaded throughout. “One of the best sets we've played, solo or together,” says object blue. “There was so much mutual love between us and the dancers, it felt intimate despite the massive crowd.”
Arriving just in time for the festive season, turn up the volume and enjoy...

Unsound Podcast 77: TSVI b2b object blue

My River

Sudany

Behind The Hill

Morning Room I

Lilieae

Sudany is the first single of Sofie Birch and Antonina Nowacka's collaborative album Languoria. The full album releases 7 November.

Languoria is a collaboration between Denmark’s Sofie Birch and Poland’s Antonina Nowacka. While Birch describes herself as an ambient musician, Nowacka’’s primary instrument is her own voice; they share in common a facility for creating complex, layered work.

Birch and Nowacka were first brought together by Unsound to perform at Ephemera Festival in Warsaw as part of a durational overnight performance. Entirely improvised, the music already felt coherent, with Nowacka’s voice weaving effortlessly through Birch’s ambient soundscapes and field recordings, indicating an immediate, deep connection, a meeting of kindred spirits. The artists were reunited at Unsound Kraków to perform a morning show at a 19th-century synagogue. Here, the music took clearer shape, and the audience glimpsed the birth of works that would eventually take the form of individual tracks on Languoria.

This past winter, the two artists met in Copenhagen to record the album, completing 11 compositions that feel sacred, almost devotional in character. Fusing the melodicism and gentleness of Birch’s sound practice and the abstract, spiritual vocalisations of Nowacka, the album alludes to the wonders of the natural world while also turning its gaze inwards. “When working together, every small decision was very important, and that’s why such simple compositions can hold so much complexity and depth,” Sofie Birch says of their time in Copenhagen together. Contemplative, meditative and awe-inspiring in equal measure, Languoria is a breathtaking collaborative debut. Together, these artists have uncovered a new dimension of their respective practices, creating music that is difficult to categorise, otherworldly, yet strangely comforting. 

All music composed and performed by Sofie Birch and Antonina Nowacka.

Curated by Unsound
Mastered and cut by Stefan Betke at Scape Mastering
Cover artwork by Lera Dubitskaya
Photography by Filip Preis
Layout & design by Paulina Ufnal & Janek Ufnal

Released by Mondoj and Unsound.
Buy it from Mondoj: mondoj.bandcamp.com/album/languoria
Buy it from Unsound: https://unsoundfestival.bandcamp.com/album/languoria

Languoria

Pre-order

Sofie Birch & Antonina Nowacka - Sudany

Over the next weeks and months, we're going to release a series of podcasts recorded live at Unsound 2022. First up is DJ Travella's from Tanzania, who played a frenetic set to a packed room at 3am which you can now relive - just pump up the volume!

Associated with Nyege Nyege, DJ Travella's freewheeling sound has risen up out of the Singeli scene, yet is influenced by global genres like Atlanta trap, rave and dembow. It's like hearing gabber, carnival dance and '90s jeep beat tracks playing on top of each other – and who wouldn't want that?

Unsound Podcast 83: DJ Travella

With his lengthy, freewheeling sets, spanning everything from dancehall to new wave and IDM, Tom Boogizm is gaining recognition as Manchester's best DJ, playing sets that are eclectic not as a flex but as a necessity. He appeared at the Unsound 2022 opening party at 89, the former strip club beneath Hotel Forum, and delivered one of the festival's highlights - which you can now experience as an Unsound podcast.

Heading up the Shotta Tapes label, Boogizm has also developed a reputation for his unclassifiable productions under the Rat Heart moniker, where he's able to lurch into polar zones just as easily as he does in his DJ sets, flickering from deranged lo-fi disco into melancholy blues without missing a beat. It's Northern British eccentricity at its most blunted.

Unsound Podcast 84: Tom Boogizm

This very special pre-holiday treat is another Unsound podcast recorded at the 2022 festival in Kraków. Around 4am, a few hours after premiering his new live A/V show, Kode9 was back on stage in the second room to go b2b with Tim Reaper. These two heavyweights of the UK club scene circled between old- and new-school jungle, high-tempo footwork – sometimes raw, sometimes soulful – hardcore and beyond.
So turn up the volume, and let this euphoric mix navigate you towards the New Year in fine form!

Unsound Podcast 85: Tim Reaper b2b Kode9

shjva is a Ukrainian DJ and producer based in Warsaw, where she is also the creator of the Penumbrum label and party series. She also recently dropped an EP with the beloved Brutaż label.
This podcast is a recording of her set from the sweaty Unsound 2022 opening party in 89, beneath Hotel Forum, with shjva combining trance and house, cosmic psychedelia and dub, ambient and downtempo atmospheres.

Unsound Podcast 86: shjva

Unsound 2022 brought together LCY and Lee Gamble to play a blistering b2b set exploring percussive techno, jungle, and beyond. Fortunately, we hit the record button, resulting in Unsound Podcast 87!
Lee Gamble creates genre-agnostic music, incorporating dub, garage, and jungle, bleeding into grindcore metal and machine-strength techno. LCY was born and bred in Bristol, soaking up the city's rich soundsystem culture, which still plays a crucial part in their music. Each artist is a fan of the other's work, feeding into this set's fantastic energy. Enjoy!

Unsound Podcast 87: LCY b2b Lee Gamble

Due to an artist cancellation, Italian-Ivorian producer and DJ and Nervous Horizon associate Ehua was added at the very last minute to the Unsound 2022 lineup – but she did not disappoint! Ehua played in the early hours of the morning at an Unsound club night, and now you can relive her set, an emotionally-charged dark slow-fast jam with blissful melodic bursts.

Unsound Podcast 91: Ehua

Our latest podcast comes from Warsaw producer Krenz, who tore up the second room at Unsound 2022. For this mix - based entirely on his own music – he's joined forces with turntablist DJ Zeten.
Krenz combines a deconstructed take on British bass music and US hip-hop with productions that blend rave, dubstep, jungle  and Memphis rap – as can be heard on his recent LP 'BOŻE DAJ MI BREAK'.

Tracklist:
Krenz - Tede - Wyścig Szczurów , Blend
Krenz - INTRO (Dj Zeten Blend)
Krenz - ROLLER O CO CI CHODZI (Dj Zeten Blend) 
Krenz - OSTERODE
Krenz - TANDEM BOX feat. Dj Zeten
Krenz - CORNER STORE FRISTAJL (Dj Zeten Blend) 
Krenz - PHASE 1 feat. FEASTONMYSINS
Krenz - STOPAROBA
Krenz - DÖNER feat. DJ ZAMOCNO
Krenz - KOSI REMIX feat. Kosi (Dj Zeten Chopped and Screwed) 
Krenz - ZNÓW ZMĘCZONY? feat. Borys Laxity
Krenz - BOŻE DAJ MI BREAK feat. scolop333ndra Instrumental feat. Dj Zeten
Krenz - RADEK (Dj Zeten Blend) 
Krenz - ROLLER WIADOMO O CO CHODZI
Krenz - ARIAP (Dj Zeten Blend) 
Krenz - RADZIU
Krenz - UTRZYMAJ ODSTĘP feat. Dj Zeten
Krenz - ZOACZ TEN POSTĘP feat. scolop333ndra
Krenz - KIJEK feat. Hades (Dj Zeten Chopped and Screwed)

Unsound Podcast 92: Krenz

Smartwoods

Maybe Life

Klamm

Walk

Unsound Podcast 94 features DJ and producer Toumba, recorded at this year's Ephemera Festival in Warsaw.

Born and raised in Jordan, Toumba fashions melts Middle Eastern elements with dubstep basslines and clattering breaks. Last year he experienced a flurry of interest when Hessle Audio label released his Petals EP. At Unsound Kraków 2023, Toumba will debut his live show.

Unsound Podcast 94: Toumba

Unsound Podcast 95 brings Wrocław's Kitty Sarcasm going back-to-back with Kraków's Semprey, recorded live at this year's Ephemera Festival.

The 2 Polish dj's combine sounds from around the world, moving fluidly accross genres, keeping it eclectic and fun at all times.
The duo will return at Unsound 2023 in Krakow.

Unsound Podcast 95: Kitty Sarcasm b2b Semprey

For our 96th podcast, Brussels-based Moroccan DJ OJOO challenges listeners with her wide-eyed amalgamation of dusty dub and noise-inflected dancehall mutations – a mix that is disorienting, yet also entrancing and danceable. OJOO will perform at Unsound 2023 in Kraków this October, as part of our opening party at 89, beneath Hotel Forum.

OJOO is an artist of the SHAPE+ platform for innovative music and interdisciplinary art, co-funded by the European Union.

Unsound Podcast 96: OJOO

The latest Unsound Podcast is by Egyptian-Palestinian DJ and producer Oldyungmayn. The mix is “distilled from personal experiences,” he explains. “Its breakbeats defy expectation, delivering a relentless and harsh energy for a saturated auditory experience.” Prepare for a noisy, sometimes dark, sometimes euphoric ride through heavy club music.

Oldyungmayn is part of the SHAPE+ platform for innovative music and interdisciplinary art, co-funded by the European Union.

Unsound Podcast 97: Oldyungmayn

The first Unsound Podcast recorded live at the 2023 Kraków festival is from Rama, a Berlin-based Egyptian DJ who’s notorious for her technical and ornate patchworks of mutant club music and rap. She also curates the Irsh imprint and event series alongside ZULI, using it to shine a spotlight on artists from the Levant.
Rama’s set closed out one of Unsound’s club nights with drama, inventiveness and adventure, tracking through UK bass music styles, Brazilian funk, dubstep and drill, and gesturing towards the future.

Unsound Podcast 98: Rama

The Unsound Podcast series returns with a thrilling recording from the 2023 festival in Kraków, this time presenting a back-to-back set featuring two titans of the club scene. 
Polish techno experimentalist VTSS and the UK's 160 alchemist Sherelle are both friends of Unsound, appearing in different settings and back-to-backs throughout the years. Join us to relive the moment they converged in the festival's main room, delivering a set that spans a wide spectrum of high-intensity dance music.

Unsound Podcast 99: VTSS b2b Sherelle

You only need to have a quick nose around phil in a maze’s impressive raft of self-released singles to understand the depth of his production skills. Alternately harnessing the raw power of tech-inflected dnb and the impressionistic sophistication of dub, his set at the Unsound Closing Party at 89 was a game of tempo division and multiplication, featuring stuttering drum patterns and sludgy dancehall.

Relive the set via Unsound Podcast 100. Thanks to all the amazing artists who’ve contributed mixes over the years to get us to this point!

Unsound Podcast 100: phil in a maze

Paris-born OKO DJ doesn't care about genre divisions, going from ambient to gabber to metal in the first 15 minutes of her set - which had Room 2 jumping in the early hours on the morning at Unsound 2023.

You can now experience the full ride as Unsound Podcast 101. Enjoy!

We could only ecord the mix in mono, but OKO DJ and us still felt this mix was so special that it's more about the energy than the perfect sound quality here.

Unsound Podcast 101: OKO DJ

Caracas producer DJ Babatr is considered the Godfather of Raptor House, a vibrant movement of club music that started in the Venezuelan capital in the late '90s. On his first-ever European tour, he dropped in on Unsound 2023 to play on the main stage on a club night, setting the room ablaze with his propulsive set. We hit the record button, and this Unsound podcast confirms it: DJ Babatr still sits atop the Raptor House throne!

Unsound Podcast 102: DJ Babatr

Back in 2016, Skee Mask and Zenker Brothers spontaneously attempted to play together at an afterparty in Prague, but after ten minutes the electricity failed. Two years later they finally had the opportunity to play a joint extended set for the first time - at Unsound Kraków 2018. The three DJs closed Saturday night in Hotel Forum with an expansive set building on adventurous forms of techno, jungle and broken beat, combining the collective interests of Ilian Tape. The set kicked off at 4am in the Ball Room.

Unsound Podcast 39: Skee Mask b2b Zenker Brothers

The Unsound Podcast series kicks off 2019 with a brand new mix by @forestswords, exploring percussive dancefloor sounds, often connected to his original, mysterious sound. Weaving through various moods and rhythms, the mix also includes a couple of new Forest Swords tracks - heard here for the first time.

Recorded at Pirate Studios, Liverpool.

Tracklist:
01. Forest Swords - Crow
02. Lakker - Tuk Tuk
03. Rosalía - Malamente (Forest Swords Remix)
04. Ben Vince - Assimilation
05. Shackleton - Death Is Not Final
06. Deena Abdelwahed - 5/5
07. Dollkraut - Lezdom
08. Efdemin - Acid Bells (DJ Koze Edit)
09. Tzusing - Post Soviet Models
10. Oliver Coates - Perfect Love
11. Gabe Gurnsey - Sweet Heat
12. Kangding Ray - Pruitt Igoe (Rise)
13. Djrum - Broken Glass Arch
14. Hodge & Randomer - Slipping
15. Space Drum Meditation - Atencao
16. Yasmine Hamdan - Cafe (Acid Arab Remix)
17. Cocteau Twins - Blue Bell Knoll
18. Superficie - Dengue Drums
19. Okzharp & Manthe Ribane - Dun
20. Clap! Clap! - Ode to the Pleiades (Photay Remix)
21. Fjaak - Pray For Berlin
22. Forest Swords - Crow (Sebastien Forrester Reshape)

Unsound Podcast 44: Forest Swords

British producers and DJs MM (@djdoublem94) and Suda (@sudanim) joined forces at Unsound 2018 to present a brand new collaborative show in a vast, abandoned industrial kitchen in Hotel Forum. Working with music, fog and light, the artists created an immersive experience, combining the sleek futuristic textures and heavy drums of hybrid club music. This exclusive podcast is the first recorded sound of Async Figure available online and a taste of what's to come. Look forward to their China Tour (14 June - Oil, Shenzen; 15 June - All, Shanghai; 22 June - Loopy, Hangzhou) and forthcoming releases.

Unsound Podcast 51: Async Figure (MM & Suda)

Seattle-based CCL (@ccl-tuf) is a DJ, promoter and curator. They’re a founding member of TUF, a local collective focused on community-building and creating visibility for underrepresented artists in dance music. Known for bold musical choices, CCL blends a caleidoscope of rhythms, usually playing a mixture of deep, immersive breaks, electro, techno and bass music. Ahead of their Unsound Kraków 2019, CCL has prepared an exciting mix full of deep sounds, bookended by experimental Polish music from past and present. Enjoy!

Unsound Podcast 56: CCL

Cultural commentator and stylist Ayishat Akanbi presented a key talk at Unsound Krakow 2019, including ten practical steps to help navigate the linguistic landmine of social media. As Ayishat explained: “The digital discourse that shapes our cultural landscape is a hotbed of conflict, shaming, one-upmanship, and misunderstanding. It’s hard to be an avid online user, without becoming disillusioned by the eagerness to see the worst in people. But I do believe we can use the Internet to further our understanding, and create multiple avenues for empathy if we are disciplined in our use."

Unsound Talk 05: How To Respond Instead of React in the Digital Age

Melbourne-based DJ Plead is one of the newest members of Nervous Horizon, the label co-founded by TSVI - an Italian artist living in UK. Both artists explore rhythmic traditions from around the world, with a special focus on Lebanese wedding and pop music (Plead) and Sufi practices (TSVI). They played b2b for the first time at Unsound 2019 in Kraków, exploring the breadth of percussive music in front of a tightly packed Kitchen at Hotel Forum. Here's a recording of that set, filled to the brim with some of the freshest tunes in club music right now.

Unsound Podcast 58: TSVI b2b DJ Plead

Bambounou is one of the stalwarts of the French scene, but not everyone knows that the Paris-based DJ and producer actually has Polish roots and is a resident of Tama club in Poznań. Following his great drum experiments on DISK and Whities, he came to Kraków for his first ever b2b with Lutto Lento. The bold Polish producer and DJ plays truly eclectic sets and is known for his idiosyncratic productions, breaking the barriers between disparate genres. This mix - recorded at the Unsound 2019 opening party - is almost 200 minutes long, giving both artists enough time to explore all the sounds they're passionate about, from different types of club music to French and Polish rap. @bambounou @luttolento

Unsound Podcast 62: Bambounou b2b Lutto Lento

A couple years ago Dengue Dengue Dengue (@dengue) were approached by Mikołaj Kierski (@basy-tropikalne) to explore pandilla music through their hallmark groovy, electronic psychedelia. Amazonians consider this genre to be the queen of folk music, believed to be rooted in indigenous practices despite the influence of mestizo in its sound. The Peruvian duo explored these influences in a brand new show at Unsound 2018 which you can hear above, blending electronic instrumentation with music recorded in the selva. More of those explorations can be also heard on Dengue Dengue Dengue's new EP—Humos vol. 3—to be released on May 29th to celebrate their 10th anniversary.

Tracklist:
Dengue Dengue Dengue - Cobre
Dengue Dengue Dengue - Lokumba
Dengue Dengue Dengue - Banana
Dengue Dengue Dengue - Pacos
Dengue Dengue Dengue - Alpha & Omega
Dengue Dengue Dengue - Rayos Cumbicos
Ground - Tumulus (Dengue Dengue Dengue Remix)
Dengue Dengue Dengue - Barrabass
Dengue Dengue Dengue - Flootz
Dengue Dengue Dengue - Semillero (Nicola Cruz remix)
Dengue Dengue Dengue - Pua feat Penya
Los Hijos de Lamas - El baile del Conejo (Dengue Dengue Dengue Edit)
Dengue Dengue Dengue - La rama de Tamarindo
Dengue Dengue Dengue - Yodeller
Alma negra - Malaya (Dengue Dengue Dengue Edit)
Los Defensores - Pandilla 3
Los Defensores - Pandilla (Dengue Dengue Dengue Edit)

Unsound Podcast 65: Dengue Dengue Dengue

Our counterculture is deeply rooted in the status quo it proclaims to oppose. Concerns around inclusion, economics and “cancel culture” occupy our attention and fuel the compromises we make. Meanwhile, institutions co-opt once progressive concepts and our scenes may be dominated by brands, opaque funding models and celebrity culture. Through being open about the systems we are complicit in, this discussion explores what our communities stand to lose and how much more we have to gain. Moderated by Tayyab Amin, with Frankie Hutchinson of Discwoman, Mat Dryhurst, Teto Preto's Laura Diaz and DeForrest Brown Jr.

A transcript is available at @truants:
https://truantsblog.com/2020/unsound-2019-complicity-accountability-agency-counterculture/

Unsound Talk 06: Complicity and Accountability: Our Agency in Counterculture

In this talk recorded at Unsound 2019, New York writer and musician DeForrest Brown Jr. discusses the state of Black representation across the music industry, covering a general history of Black music (with a focus on techno) as it relates to the general development of on-the-ground music cultures. A book related to this talk will be published by DeForrest Brown Jr. with Primary Information later in 2020.

Here's a tracklist for the music running beneath the talk:
Urban Tribe - Social Theorist
Underground Resistance - Acid Africa (Roots Electric Mix)
Galaxy 2 Galaxy - The Theory (Mind Mix)
Underground Resistance - The Illuminator
Juan Atkins - Techno City
The Martian - Wardance
Drexciya - Aquatacizem
The Deacon - Multi-Dimensional Drama
Underground Resistance - Hunting the Program Director
Dark Energy - Black Strategy
Mad Mike - Hi-Tech Dreams

Unsound Talk 07: Assembling a Black Counter Culture

'Weavings (Part 1)' is part of the Unsound 'Intermission' compilation:

www.unsoundfestival.bandcamp.com

The track features Aho Ssan, Angel Bat Dawid, Dirar Kalash, Ellen Fullman, Księżyc, Laraaji, Nicolás Jaar, Pawel Szamburski, Resina, Rolando Hernandez and Wukir Suryadi. 
Created as part of the Unsound 2020 online program, 'Weavings' is a durational improvisation structured in the manner of a long fabric of sound. Conceived and curated with Nicolás Jaar, the performance hosted a number of artists and instrumentalists from around the world who linked up via Zoom, with a plugin used to facilitate real-time high-resolution audio collaboration. ‘Weavings (Part 1)’ is the first section of the piece.

Weavings (Part 1), mixed by Nicolás Jaar

This collaboration between Jlin and SOPHIE was commissioned for the Unsound 'Intermission' album, with Jlin working from Gary, Indiana and SOPHIE in London. 
The full album can be found here:

https://unsoundfestival.bandcamp.com/

Intermission' is the first album ever released by Unsound, comprised of 15 commissioned tracks responding to the pandemic year through sound and music. Meditative, often powerful, affected by periods of anxiety and optimism, this multi-layered album is intended to be more than a compilation.
Featuring work by artists connected to Unsound Festival over the years, 'Intermission' includes music and field recordings by some of today’s most exciting electronic and experimental musicians, with a focus on both well known and emerging names.
Although it can be experienced on its own, the album intersects with a book of essays, poetry and fiction to create a unique interdisciplinary work joining different opinions, narratives, art forms and genres. Together, the audio and texts comprise a kind of urgent atlas, one mapping innumerable paths through the strange new world in which we find ourselves.
The 'Intermission' album is dedicated in memory of SOPHIE.

Jlin X SOPHIE - JSLOIPNHIE

This track is included on the Unsound 'Intermission' album:

https://unsoundfestival.bandcamp.com/

This is the first part of Community of Grieving, commissioned for Unsound 2020, a shared collective listening piece by Zosia Hołubowska and Julia Giertz. Described as ‘an audio ritual to collectively submit into intermission’, the full version of Community of Grieving draws on traditions of vesper and lament and merging formats of sonic meditation, sonic narration, and audio-essay.

Zosia Hołubowska & Julia Giertz - Community Of Grieving - Part 1

'Happy, Healthy, Safe' is part of the Unsound 'Intermission' compilation:

www.unsoundfestival.bandcamp.com

Hildur Guðnadóttir and Sam Slater’s track is based around a recording of their son Kári singing to himself during the COVID-19 lockdown in Berlin in the first part of 2020. ‘He does this when he's happy, and the result is an endless, often wordless improvised melody that floats around the house,’ says Sam. When asked to compose a piece inspired by lockdown, Hildur and Sam's response was to acknowledge that most of this time was purely domestic: homeschooling, playing football outside and keeping the neighbours' kids entertained, all with the consistent backdrop of mild dystopian panic. Kári's voice was the music they most frequently heard throughout the whole period.

Slater, Gudnadottir, Grisey - Happy Healthy Safe

'Aprte' is included in the Unsound 'Intermission' compilation:

www.unsoundfestival.bandcamp.com

Polish trio Bastarda have interpreted Medieval and Renaissance music related to death rituals as well as Hasidic Nigunim songs. Their piece ‘Aperte’, which means ‘opening’ in Latin, was recorded in May 2020. The composition is based on a chant from Valentin Triller’s Silesian Songbook (1555), corresponding with springtime in the Lutheran liturgical calendar. Bastarda’s intention was to find new energy—a metaphoric light in the darkness so many of us have experienced recently.

Bastarda - Aperte

'Unlocked' opens the Unsound 'Intermission' compilation, available via Bandcamp:

www.unsoundfestival.bandcamp.com

Unlocked’ is composed from field recordings made by Chris Watson during lockdown in May 2020. Beginning with the rediscovery of the sunrise soundtrack over his suburban garden in North-East England, the piece concludes on the basalt sea cliffs which form the natural defences of the 14th century Dunstanburgh Castle on the Northumberland coast. Watson says, ‘The solo song of a blackbird in my garden focussed my attention on the wildness that exists alongside us in our uncertain lives. My eventual escape out to Dunstanburgh on the coast was a timely reminder that the songs and signals of the natural world thrive on our absence.’

Chris Watson - Unlocked

An amorphous global-minded festival and creative platform dealing with music, sound, words and related visual arts. Founded in Krakow in 2003, Unsound has taken place in 30 cities around the world.

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