- From its flagship event in Kraków to spin-off editions in Adelaide, London and New York, Unsound Festival has become known for bringing adventurous music and visual arts programming to unconventional spaces. Following 2015 and 2016 events at Toronto's Hearn Generating Station—a decommissioned power plant on the outskirts of the city's downtown area—the organizers decided to relocate this year's edition to the more intimate St. Lawrence Centre, a move that could have been perceived as downsizing.
St. Lawrence Centre is better known for hosting classical concerts, but that didn't stop fans of various avant-garde acts from packing into the 868-capacity Bluma Appel Theatre on Friday. The night, dubbed Halloween Hangover, was the second of two Unsound events, following a session with Jlin and others the week before. (That one was called Halloween High.)
One of Unsound's key missions is to introduce audiences to artists that they might have previously been unfamiliar with. Perhaps the best example of this was cult Polish band Księżyc, whose spell-binding performance was part live theatre and part Slavic folk storytelling. Flanked by a male trio, who switched between accordion, clarinet, keyboard, violin and computer noodling, vocalists Agata Harzwere and Katarzyna Smoluk-Moczydłowska were a commanding presence, chanting, shrieking and playing with various props, including a large white balloon and water-filled chalices. Low-creeping fog and a single swinging lightbulb added to the gothic ambiance.
At the top of the bill were Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein of Texan synth group S U R V I V E. They performed their soundtrack to the massively popular sci-fi series Stranger Things, which recently premiered its second season on Netflix. Despite a dizzying light show that recalled the emergency backup system of a crashed spaceship, their set relied too heavily on atmospherics without any emotional heft. The quieter, celestial passages fared better than the crashing industrial assaults, but there wasn't enough textural variety to sustain the whole thing.
After a brief intermission, during which The Caretaker's 2016 album Everywhere At The End Of Time was piped through the PA system, Wolfgang Voigt took the stage and wasted no time filling the room with droning ambient techno. Earlier this year, the Kompakt cofounder released the excellent Narkopop, his first LP under the Gas moniker in 17 years. Backdropped by video projections showing kaleidoscopic, National Geographic-style imagery of sun-dappled treetops, icy branches and multi-coloured flora, his set was a masterclass in tension building, the rumbling kick drums reverberating deep into the venue's rafters. The only time he left his podium was to take a well-deserved bow at the end of his meandering—yet never tedious—90-minute trip. In past interviews, Voigt has said that the inspiration for the project came from his experiences taking LSD in a forest near Cologne. Like the team behind Unsound, he understands that getting lost is half the fun.
Photo credit /
Phoebe Sequino