SUPERSONIC FESTIVAL REVEAL TEN MORE ARTISTS TO THE 15 YEAR ANNIVERSARY LINE-UP

SUPERSONIC FESTIVAL REVEAL TEN MORE ARTISTS TO THE 15 YEAR ANNIVERSARY LINE-UP

INCLUDING ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF, MONO, YOB, PIGS x 7, BIG JOANIE, DÄLEK, AJA AND MORE

TAKING PLACE FROM 19TH TO 21ST JULY,  BIRMINGHAM UK

 TICKETS ON SALE NOW

Supersonic Festival reveal ten more artists added to the special 15th year anniversary line up. The latest additions include; Anna Von Hausswolff, Mono, Yob, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, Faten Kanaan, Dälek, CZN, Big Joanie, Prison Religion and AJA. 

Already announced are headliners Neurosis supported by Godflesh who are opening the festivities with a very special concert at Town Hall Birmingham (some limited tickets still available). Elsewhere across the weekend, and over at the main festival site in the cultural hub of Digbeth are; The Bug Feat. Moor Mother, The Body, Hen Ogledd and Jerusalem In My Heart.  

About the new additions…  

Anna von Hausswolff returns to the Supersonic stage once more after stunning the crowd in Birmingham’s Town Hall in 2017. Since then, Anna has gone on to release her fourth album Dead Magic met with much critical acclaim. Her music defies categorisation, it is not about gothic rock, pop, drone, dark music or metal, this is music of the spirit and the blood; the feast and the ritual; the baptism and the epitaph; life and its absence in all its poetics; a communion in which one dies and returns to life many times.  

Also returning to the festival are Big Joanie who have described themselves as being “Similar to The Ronettes filtered through ’80s DIY, and Riot Grrrl, with a sprinkling of dashikis“, New Jersey hip hop act Dälek who have a penchant for monolithic sound arrangements as well as dream-like haze of sheer volume, they combine both the powers of sound and words with a singular and undisputable style, and Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, the Newcastle-based maximalists whose riffs, raw power and rancour have blazed a trail across the darker quarters of the underground in the last five years.

About Pigs x7 Supersonic add “we just couldn’t celebrate our 15th edition without these fellas helping to bring the party vibes and comedy banter.”

 Other exciting additions to the line up include… AJA who deploys rhythmic noise, bomb heavy drum machine, convolving vocal utterance and a dedicated hell-scape of field recordings, abrupt sound design and blistering drone. The unhinged nature of her recorded work is complimented in what are quickly becoming legendary live performances wherein the AJA experience is fully realised. It is in within the context of transgressive art, sexual identity/ politics and grass roots teaching that AJA’s work is elevated into a vital neo-punk. 

CZN stands for Copper, Zinc and Nickel, the raw materials used by percussionist and sculptor Joao Pais Filipe to make gongs and bells in his Portuguese studio. CZN is also the alchemical sound of Joao in collaboration with percussionist Valentina Magaletti (Tomaga, Vanishing Twin, uuuu). The duo create rich tapestries of hypnotic rhythms, evolving the sound of drums and percussion into vivid textures: visceral timbres and telescoping rhythms that surround and beguile, and which hint at the meditative states of spiritual jazz as much as the cerebral counterpoint of Minimalist Composition. 

Faten Kanaan is a NY based artist. Her performances slowly builds songs by live-looping them, without the use of sequencers or arpeggiators. Cyclical patterns are central to her compositions, with the exploration of harmony and counterpoint as narrative tools. Sound & silence are used as intuitive gestures to tell a wordless story. Inspired by cinematic forms: from sweeping landscapes and quiet character studies, to the patterned tension of horror film soundtracks; she focuses on bringing a visceral touch to electronic music. In symbiosis with technology is an appreciation for the vulnerability of human limitations and subtle nuances. 

MONO who, across 10 albums in 20 years have convincingly reflected the quietest and most chaotic parts of life through their music. Their ever-expanding instrumental palette – which began in earnest in 1999 with the traditional guitar-bass-drums rock band setup and has evolved to include as many as 30 orchestral instruments. 

PRISON RELIGION is the collaborative project of Richmond-based audio/visual artists Poozy and False Prpht. They draw on slivered, staticky forms of electronic music – industrial, noise, techno, and the sort of glass-shattering bass-heavy stuff that people have come to call deconstructed club music. But they also draw on legacies of metal and hardcore, throwing their bodies around at shows, punching low ceiling and screaming over PAs pushed to their upper limits. They also tread the line of the more outré realms of contemporary rap. 

And finally for now, the epic, crushing, and heavy beyond words trio YOB who by nowhas achieved legendary status due to their unmatched aesthetic and incredible body of work.YOB has succeeded in developing modern sounding doom metal that hearkened back to the classics.  

During Supersonic Festival, patrons are encouraged to explore the various Home Of Metal exhibitions curated and produced by Capsule – the good people behind Supersonic Festival. This will include Black Sabbath 50 Years at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, as well as related exhibitions at The New Art Gallery Walsall, MAC (Midlands Art Centre) Eastside Projects, and Centrala. This huge season of exhibitions and events throughout 2019 pays homage to Black Sabbath – the forefathers of metal, and should at last confirm Birmingham’s place on the music map. 

Limited capacity weekend tickets are now on sale here: http://www.supersonicfestival.com