Xtremely Interesting
TobiasThe Hague's musical tradition is long and paved with great names. Once a year, the city even presents a wonderful line-up of popular artists in its Zuiderpark entirely for free. Apart from that, it has become a bit quiet in s'Gravenhage (as locals also call their town). With the resurrection of the renowned "Paard van Troje"-club (its name means "Trojan Horse"), things had already taken a turn for the better and now, with the "State-X New Forms" Festival, you may even feel like this is experimental music's axis.
If you look at it with a sober mind, there's "just" two days of brilliant acts. Even without famous names such as Pere Ubu (one of the most "avantgarde" rock projects of all time) or T.Raumschmiere (a Berlin-based artist who has managed to move away from genuine electro-clash to colourful and diverse rhthmical mindpictures), the program would easily satisfy the connoisseur's appetite: We've reported about Andrew Pekkler's curious excursions into the wonderous territory of Morton Feldman's String Quartets and the "State-X" sees him collaborating with Jan Jelinek, one of the Pioneers of a harmonic and magically quiet music made up of fragmented samples. Then there's one of WARP records' latest discoveries, Mira Calix (see picture), which is - you will have guessed - a pseudonym and covers up Chantal Passamonte's floating and drifting soundscapes full of multiple emotions at once. Meanwhile, if you would like to know what techno sounds like when filtered through a mad painter's brain, you might want to check out Christian Vogel.
Apart from that, there's also the "Prak-Podium", a tiny spot (1.5 m2 to be exact) where artists will go on and off like bees in a hive and play the wackiest program ever. Dare to be surprised about every other second. We'd also like to recommend the Festival's opening act - Sonic Wargames. Really, this is a sort of game that is played by four competitors on stage and involves some bizarre consoles, deep and disturbing sounds as well as a referee.
With all of this coming up on December 16th and 17th, you might as well take your Christmals holiday a few days earlier than planned. After all: The Hague's musical tradition is about to take a new turn and you wouldn't want to miss out on that.
Homepage: State-X New Forms Festival
Homepage: Sonic Wargames
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