Unsound 2014: The Dream

The theme for Unsound 2014 is The Dream. But what does it mean to be Living The Dream?

The Dream is a symptom of a world where self-expression and experience are increasingly mediated and commodified. The Dream plays out on laptops used for work and leisure, in networked coffee shops, airports, international “artistic enclaves” and nightclubs. Anxiety is its underside: those Living The Dream often do so in precarious financial situations, while in the background, ecological and economic systems lurch towards collapse.

Music is one of the ultimate harbingers of an emergent Dreamstate. Its cultural capital expands even as its labor is gradually emptied of monetary value. Impacted by the new music-industry infrastructure, media companies and brands, a kind of global “underground” forms, where the insatiable drive to be fresh produces, paradoxically, more of the same. Nowhere is this more evident than the modern festival, where line-ups seem to become more homogenized, whether at mega-raves or smaller specialised events.

“The Dream is an act of auto-criticism and self-reflection aimed to trigger discussion,” says Mat Schulz, Unsound artistic director. “It isn’t meant to be negative, but inquisitive. Historically, The Dream stems from alternative and even oppositional artistic movements and social systems. Our question is, what remains of that subversive drive? In asking this, we realise we also open the position of our own festival to scrutiny, no doubt revealing contradictions.”

Through a series of actions, films and most importantly talks, Unsound 2014 will explore these ideas, as well as consider their original source - counter-culture movements beginning with Dadaism, leading through the Beats, situationist movements, punk and onward. The Dream will also present pivotal musicians and artists whose success — or lack thereof — doesn’t affect their refusal to compromise.

BASIC SCHEDULE & TICKET LINKS FOR UNSOUND 2014

12.10.2014

19:30 / Tempel Synagogue
HIBERNATING RATTLESNAKES
The Necks & Radian, Hildur Guðnadóttir and Skúli Sverrisson, Chris Abrahams
40 PLN - Tickets

22:00 / TBA
OPENING PARTY
Ninos du Brasil + more
FREE

13.10.2014

19:30 / Manggha Centre of Japanese Art and Technology
SOFT MACHINE
Neotantrik & Suzanne Ciani, Lorenzo Senni, NMO, Remont Pomp & Mikołaj Trzaska Ircha Clarinet Quartet
30 PLN - Tickets

14.10.2014

19:00 / Tempel Synagogue
MESHES OF VOICE
Jenny Hval & Susanna
30 PLN - Tickets

21:00 / Manggha Centre of Japanese Art and Technology
THE MARK INSIDE
Lichens, Stian Westerhus, Alameda 4
30 PLN - Tickets

15.10.2014

19:30 / Manggha Centre of Japanese Art and Technology
THE THIRD MIND
Kapital & Richard Pinhas, Zs & Gyða Valtýsdóttir, Ren Schofield with Kenneth Kapstad & Tomas Järmyr, Piotr Kurek
30 PLN - Tickets

16.10.2014

19:30 / Kijów Centrum
PLACE OF DEAD ROADS
Deathprod, Snowtown: Live
50 PLN - Tickets

21:30 / Hotel Forum
NOVA EXPRESS
Vessel, Carter Tutti Void, Ben Frost, Rrose, Perc, Sophie, Felicita, Zamilska, Heroiny, Robert Piernikowski, Lautbild, Karen Gwyer
40 PLN - Tickets

17.10.2014

18:45 / St. Katherine's Church
THE OPTION OF SILENCE
Księżyc
40 PLN - Tickets

20:30 / Engineering Museum
HYBRIDS AND MUTANTS
Atom™ & Robin Fox present: Double Vision, Nurse With Wound
50 PLN - Tickets

21:23 / Hotel Forum
THE TICKET THAT EXPLODED PART 1
Robert Hood, DJ Funk b2b Bok Bok, Dopplereffekt, DJ Stingray, DJ Spinn & Taso, DJ Earl & DJ Taye, Total Freedom, Russell Haswell, Bronze Teeth, Powell, Traxx, 67,5 Minut Projekt, Lena Willikens, EVOL, Amnesia Scanner, M.E.S.H., Lotic, Kablam, We Will Fail
40 PLN - Tickets

18.10.2014

15:00 / ICE Kraków
EVERYTHING PERMITTED
Cyclobe, TCF
40 PLN - Tickets

19:00 / Laznia Nowa Theatre
DESOLATION ANGELS
Swans, Pharmakon, Stine Janvin Motland
60 PLN - Tickets

22:00 / Hotel Forum
THE TICKET THAT EXPLODED PART 2
The Bug, Jam City, Evian Christ, Ripatti, Mumdance feat. Novelist, Mumdance b2b Pinch b2b Logos, Young Echo takeover, Blondes, Joey Anderson, Kassem Mosse, Lee Gamble, Stanislav Tolkachev, Kucharczyk, Mirt & Ter
40 PLN - Tickets

19.10.2014

19:30 / ICE Kraków
THE 8th DAY OF THE WEEK
Grouper with Paul Clipson, Craig Leon with Sinfonietta Cracovia
50 PLN - Tickets

22:00 / TBA
CLOSING PARTY
Bjørn Torske, EiT (Call Super b2b Objekt), Transilvanian Galaxi, Willie Burns + more
FREE