Archives KRAAK FESTIVAL 2009

WAVVES (us) + KURT VILE (us) + KOHN (be) + HEADWAR (fr) + HENRY FLYNT (us) + GEOFF LEIGH (uk) + EL-G (fr) + ALAN SILVA & BURTON GREENE (us) + VALERIO COSI (it) + KEN BUTLER (us) + ICE BIRD SPIRAL (uk) + VOMIR (fr) + FABULOUS DIAMONDS (au)

Wavves (usa)
Wavves is the new band from Californian scenester Nathan Williams. His übermelodic mix combines the sound of The Wipers, The Beach Boys and Times New Viking. This has led lead to underground purists posting stuff like "hype bands suck." on their blogs. Other more reliable connoisseurs such as the people at Woodsist, De Stijl and even Fat Possum saw the real talent of the band. Wavves is becoming the best observed revelation since Animal Collective. Sing-alongs for lo-fi freaks and surf dudes.

Kurt Vile (usa)
Since the resurrection of lo-fi drumcomputer punk, some one man bands popped up that stood out against all the rest. Blank Dogs and Kurt Vile are the most eminent of the bunch. Vile's "Constant Hitmaker" (Gulcher Records) is filled with classic American roadpop. Roof down, stereo full blast and mid nineties melancholy.

Köhn (b)
With "We need more space in the cosmos" Jürgen De Blonde made the Köhn comeback everyone was waiting for. He has rediscovered his old synthesizer fetish with his usual tongue-in-cheek style. It led to a hymn on his early heroes like Jean-Michel Jarre and Klaus Schulze. Also live will be our favourite rabbit back more than ever. More cosmic than ever before.

Ice Bird Spiral (usa)
Kek and Cloudboy are two phenomenons hailing from Yeovil, an ennobled yokel town in the south of England. We got to know these guys passion for drones, science-fiction, folk art and bizarredelia through one of the best European blogspots (kidshirt.blogspot.com), and also from their band Ice Bird Spiral in which they combine all these elements to create a solid drugs pancake for children. Expect collage art, bricolage, visual entertainment and psychedelic goat masks in paper-mâché.

Vomir (fr)
Yes indeed, we recently discovered there's a genre abbreviation for noisers these days. One speaks of "the HNW scene" (the Harsh Noise Wall scene). The France based Vomir is one of the main representatives. Romain Perrot drills noise tumours like bayonets through your guts and makes all the noise phoneys go crying to their mamas. This is a word of warning: come prepared.

Henry Flynt (us)
Henry Flynt is one of the master minds of the 20th century. As a philosopher he thought out the basics for what he baptized "cognitive nihilism". He has published in subjects such as metaphysics, economy, sociology and culture philosophy. As a composer and violin player he began his career in the midst of people like Tony Conrad and LaMonte Young. His work is often linked to fluxus, dada and conceptual art, but his music varies from proto-drone work outs to country, boogie and hillbilly folk. An enigmatic figure who until this day lives for art's sake.

Geoff Leigh (uk)
Geoff Leigh is a veteran in the prog, RIO and jazz world. He was one of the key figures of the Canterbury scene and played in legendary bands as Henry Cow, Slapp Happy, Aksak Maboul and Univers Zéro. Leigh is a virtuoso sax, clarinet and reversed flute player, and still practices in the art of experimentation. Leigh still digs into his musical possibilities, while most of his pals from those days are enjoying an easy retirement.

él-g (fr)
Laurent Gérard injected the experimental back into French pop music. With a passion for vocal games, overdubbing, orchestration and a twisted sense of humour he made the best pop record of 2008. In Paris he found his soul mates in Ghédalia Tazartès and Jo Tanz with whom he turned the last edition of Pauze festival upside down. At this year?s KRAAK festival the balladeer will be performing his solo stuff for the first time outside of his native country.

Valerio Cosi (it)
In our quest for young talent, we came across Italian Valerio Cosi. Only 23 this dude has reached a remarkable standard in saxophone play. Inspired by jazz legends such as Albert Ayler and Pharaoh Sanders, and fascinated by psychedelic ragas and electronics, he sent a couple of amazing releases into the world. Releases which showcase his large musical ability as he traverses between modern psych pop and free jazz.

Ken Butler (us)
Things went wrong when a violin was first put into the hands of Ken Butler when he was a kid. Some years later he went studying art in France and he later graduated as a visual artist in Portland. His interest in music culminated in a totally bizarre passion for instrument building. Butler makes string creatures that are attractive both visually and sound wise. John Zorn discovered the man over ten years ago and released "Voices of Anxious Objects". On the festival stage he will present some of these timeless monsters to the audience.

Headwar (fr)

Fabulous Diamonds (aus)

+ film screenings

I Need That Record (2008, Brendan Collor)
In the US alone, 3000 indie record shops have closed their doors. ?I Need That Record? is a personal, and sometimes funny, documentary that attempts to identify the root cause of the failure of the music industry as we once knew it. Stars like Thurston Moore, Glenn Branca, Naom Chomsky were interviewed, but plenty of (un)usual music fans get their say....

Observatoire des Musiques Électroniques: David Toop (2008, Dominique Lohlé en Guy Marc Hinant)

Fuck You (2009, Dominique Lohlé en Guy Marc Hinant)

At Recyclart & Faro